Research into cow's DNA could improve human life expectancy

"That would provide information for a farmer to make an appropriate decision early on in the animal’s life," added Prof Coffey.

Gene editing is a long way off but could come into the equation.

“If we find telomere length is affected by a single gene, in the future we might be able to gene edit that gene so it is carried favourably by the sire.”

Although humans cannot have their telomeres altered genetically, the study of their deterioration is helping scientists prolong life.

Telomeres

Telomeres reduce every time a cell divides because the repair mechanism that puts the DNA strands back together is not 100 per cent effective so a little bit is lost each time.

“Gene editing aside you can imagine people being interested to know what the likelihood of survival is for the next 50 years," said Prof Coffecy.

"It is not infeasible that they could alter life patterns – eating and exercise behaviour – because if it looks like they do not have much longer to go based on their telomere prediction they might make sure that the few years they do have left are healthy ones.”

Professor Melissa Bateson, from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, said: “I think the animal work is really important for helping us make sense of what is going on.”

She adds that animal work is important as it can also include experiments, unlike human research into telomeres.

She said: “If you show that stress is causal in shortening telomeres in animals, it gives more credence to the idea that something similar may be going on in humans.”