Proteomics in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science: Neglected Scientific Opportunities with Immediate Impact

Abstract

Animal/veterinary proteomics is an evolving field which holds a great promise not only for fundamental and applied discoveries regarding biology and pathology of domestic species, but can also be implemented in comparative applications of human diseases research. Experimental proteomics in domestic animals have advantages over use of rodents, such as multiple sampling in time series and availability of biological samples in sufficient volume for multiple analyses, such that both experimental and natural disease processes can be investigated. While there are certain technical limitations in the expansion of the field, they can currently be circumvented and in the future mastered with a greater participation of proteomic experts, which will in turn drive the accessibility of species-specific reagents, data volume expansion in bioinformatic databases, and increased funding. This Viewpoint highlights some comparative proteomics studies addressing important issues and encourages readers to expand their horizons of domestic animal proteomics research. It will hopefully inspire new fruitful collaborations between veterinary and animal scientists and proteomic specialists for research in these areas that can have immediate and direct impact on health, society, and the economy.