Evaluating the impact of marketing strategies on host response

Although there are differences in how cattle are weaned and marketed in the U.S., the impact of these commonly employed strategies on host response in terms of inflammation, immu­nity and metabolism remains unclear. Recent advances in ge­nomic sequencing allows for unparalleled evaluation of how cattle marketing strategies influence host gene expression. Our objective is to evaluate the impact of marketing cattle directly to a backgrounding operation versus traditional auction market and order buyer system prior to arrival at a backgrounding op­eration on host gene expression.