Hormone study by scientist

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 16

Hormone study by scientist

Overseas research into producing increased animal growth by manipulating the hormonal system will be studied by a scientist from Invermay Agricultural Research Centre this year. Dr Jimmy Suttie will be looking at this line of research during a monthlong study tour of Britain and North America from mid-July to mid-August. He hopes the information he gathers overseas will help similar research work at Invermay. In the past, Dr Suttie’s main line of research has been into the way hormones affect deer antler development. However, on his return to Invermay in August he will concentrate his efforts on research into female deer reproduction and studies of the hormones affecting growth in -sheep, deer and cattle. Dr Suttie will be investigating a method of increasing growth which involves immunising against the hormone that inhibits growth. This is done by injecting

the animal with a hormoneprotein compound called an immunogen. Because the protein is a foreign substance, the animal’s body produces specific antibodies which attack the protein and the hormone attached to it. The antibodies are unable to differentiate between the injected hormone-protein compound and the same growth-inhibiting hormone which occurs naturally in the animal. As a result, they start neutralising the natural hormone as well as the injected compound. This technique of immunising animals against their own hormones was first developed to produce more twin births in sheep, Dr Suttie says. The immunogen for this provided the basis for the fecundity improving drugs which were released on the New Zealand market recently. During his overseas study tour, Dr Suttie will visit British and North American research groups which are either working on immunisation of animals against particular hormones or studying the way hormones affect animal growth. These groups will include three Edinburgh-based organisations, the Meat Research Institute in Bristol, the United States Meat Animal Research Centre, in Clay Centre, Nebraska, and researchers at Michigan and Oregon State Universities.