A phenotype describes the outcome of the interacting development between the genotype of an individual and its specific environment throughout life. Animal breeding currently exploits large data sets of phenotypic and pedigree information to estimate the genetic merit of animals. Here we describe rapid, low-cost phenomic tools for dairy cattle. We give particular emphasis to infrared spectroscopy of milk because the necessary spectral data are already routinely available on milk samples from individual cows and herds, and therefore the operational cost of implementing such a phenotyping strategy is minimal. The accuracy of predicting milk quality traits from mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) analysis of milk, although dependent on the trait under investigation, is particularly promising for differentiating between good and poor-quality dairy products. Many fatty acid concentrations in milk, and in particular saturated fatty acid content, can be very accurately predicted from milk MIR. These results have been confirmed in many international populations. Albeit from only two studied populations investigated in the RobustMilk project, milk MIR analysis also appears to be a reasonable predictor of cow energy balance, a measure of animal robustness; high accuracy of prediction was not expected as the gold standard method of measuring energy balance in those populations was likely to contain error. Because phenotypes predicted from milk MIR are available routinely from milk testing, longitudinal data analyses could be useful to identify animals of superior genetic merit for milk quality and robustness, as well as for monitoring changes in milk quality and robustness because of management, while simultaneously accounting for the genetic merit of the animals. These sources of information can be very valuable input parameters in decision-support tools for both milk producers and processors.

Genetic improvement is easy when selecting for one heritable and well-recorded trait at a time. Many industrialised national dairy herds have overall breeding indices that incorporate a range of traits balanced by their known or estimated economic value. Future breeding goals will contain more non-production traits and, in the context of this paper, traits associated with human health and cow robustness. The definition of Robustness and the traits used to predict it are currently fluid; however, the use of mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopic analysis of milk will help to create new phenotypes on a large scale that can be used to improve the human health characteristics of milk and the robustness of cows producing it. This paper describes the state-of-the-art in breeding strategies that include animal robustness (mainly energy status) and milk quality (as described by milk fatty acid profile), with particular emphasis on the research results generated by the FP7-funded RobustMilk project

Objectives: Health systems frequently make decisions regarding acquisition and use of new technologies. It is desirable to base these decisions on clinical evidence, but often these technologies are used for multiple indications and evidence of effectiveness for one indication does not prove effectiveness for all. Here, we describe two examples of evidence inventory reports that were performed for the purposes of identifying how much and what type of published clinical evidence was available for a given technology, and the contexts in which those technologies were studied.

Methods: The evidence inventory reports included literature searches for systematic reviews and health technology assessment (HTA) reports, and systematic searches of the primary literature intended to count and categorize published clinical studies. The reports did not include analysis of the primary literature.

Results: The inventory reports were completed in 3 to 4 days each and were approximately ten pages in length, including references. Reports included tables listing the number of reported studies by specific indication for use, and whether or not there were randomized trials. Reports also summarized findings of existing systematic reviews and HTA reports, when available. Committees used the inventory reports to decide for which indications they wanted a full HTA report.

Conclusions: Evidence inventory reports are a form of rapid HTA that can give decision makers a timely understanding of the available evidence upon which they can base a decision. They can help HTA providers focus subsequent reports on topics that will have the most influence on healthcare decision making.