A startup hopes to use genomic and related technologies to promote livestock health, TechCrunch reports.
The company, called Rex Animal Health, has raised $270,000 in seed money from Techstars and 500 Startup and presented its approach at Disrupt SF, TechCrunch adds. The company started out as a "Zocdoc for pets," but switched gears last year to provide data analytics and genomic techniques to farms.
Its platform aims to enable farmers to keep digital health records for their livestock. The records log animals' symptoms, diagnoses, and cost of treatment. At the same time, the company offers genomic and phenotype analyses and epidemiological maps of diseases going through a certain area. TechCrunch notes that the company plans to combine all that data.
"What we have is a genotype and phenotype database that nobody has built before, and that could help solve problems around disease transmission and sustainability in the global food supply," Rex CEO Amado Guloy says.
Such data could help pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs as well as inform animal husbandry approaches, TechCrunch adds. It notes that the startup is competing with others in the space such as Metabiota and Trace Genomics.