bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The inheritance of fibre traits in a crossbred population of cashmere goats
Authors: Bishop S. C. , Russel A. J. F. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractGenetic parameters were calculated for fibre traits measured on patch samples taken at 5 months of age on a crossbred population of cashmere goats, comprising goats of Scottish feral, Icelandic, Tasmanian, New Zealand and Siberian origin. Within-strain heritabilities, fitting genetic origin as a covariable, were: live weight, 0·71 (s.e. 0·08), fibre diameter, 0·63 (0·07), diameter standard deviation 0·43 (0·08), logipatch cashmere weight), 0·60 (0·06), log(estimated annual cashmere production), 0·51 (0·07), and fibre length, 0·49 (0·15). Including between strain information increased these values to 0·74, 0·68, 0·45, 0·73, 0·67 and 0·57, respectively. Maternal effects for all fibre traits were negligible. Expressions were derived to relate cashmere weight to fibre diameter and length, using functional relationships between these traits. Logarithmic regressions showed cashmere weight to be proportional to diameter2'7, indicating that selection to reducefibre diameter will have a disproportionate effect on cashmere weight. Analyses of subsets of the data confirmed this and showed that correlated responses to selection can be accurately predicted by considering thefunctionally relatedfibre traits on the log scale.
The effects of cross, slaughter weight and halothane genotype on leanness and meat and fat quality in pig carcasses
Authors: García-Macías J. A. , Gispert M. , Oliver M. A. , Diestre A. , Alonso P. , Muñoz-Luna A. , Siggens K. , Cuthbert-Heavens D. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractCarcass and meat quality traits were studied in 94 barrows of known HAL-1843 genotype (homozygote - - and heterozygote - +) from three crosses slaughtered at 90 kg and 120 kg live weight. Crosses A and B were produced from sires of which 0·5 of the genes were from a heavy-muscled × Large White line and 0·5 from pure Pietrain (A) or Duroc (B). Sows for both A and B were from a hyperprolific Large White × Landrace line and this latter line produced the pigs for cross C (control). The carcasses from cross A which were sired from boars having 0·75 of their genotype from heavy-muscled genetic lines had higher killing-out proportion, better conformation scores, greater loin depth and loin area, less carcass length and bone content, and greater lean proportion compared with cross C. The carcasses from cross B, with roughly 0·25 of Duroc genes had a significantly higher backfat thickness than either cross A or C. However their composition was not significantly different from C, since the higher backfat was counter-balanced by their better conformation. Carcass and lean weight distribution was more favourable in crosses A and B, which had significantly higher economic yields than cross C. The halothane genotype did not have a significant effect on fatness and carcass composition, although the heterozygote showed a significantly greater muscle depth. In addition, no significant effect of the halothane gene on carcass and lean weight distribution was observed. In relation to the light group of carcasses (72·8 (s.e. 4·4) kg), the heavy group (100·1 (s.e. 2·7) kg) had greater killing-out proportion, better conformation, longer carcasses, higher fatness and greater loin depth and area. These genetic lines showed a 9·6 g/kg increase in fat and a 6·1 g/kg decrease in lean for every 10 kg of increasing slaughter weight. With the slaughter weight increase the longissimus dorsi muscle became less pale due to a higher muscle pigment concentration, and the backfat had a higher proportion of oleic and lower proportion of linoleic and palmitic fatty acids. The halothane genotype had a significant effect on meat quality. The heterozygote produced much paler, softer and more exudative meat. However, the effect of cross and carcass weight was not significant for meat quality measurements determining pale, soft and exudative meat.
The influence of short-term feeding of amino acid-deficient diets and high dietary leucine levels on the intramuscular fat content of pig muscle
Authors: Cisneros F. , Ellis M. , Baker D. H. , Easter R. A. , McKeith F. K. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractThe objective of the study was to investigate the influence of amino acid-deficient diets and high dietary leucine levels offered for intervals of either 21 or 35 days pre-slaughter on the intramuscular fat content of pig muscle. Twenty-four hybrid gilts were offered individually ad libitum one of four diets that comprised combinations of amino acid levels (supplemented or deficient: 5·6 v. 4·0 g lysine per kg) and low or high leucine levels (10·3 v. 30·3 g leucine per kg). Live weights at the start of the study were 74·5 and 87·0 kg for pigs on the 35- and 21-day feeding regimens, respectively. There were no significant effects of dietary amino acid level, leucine level, or feeding interval on food intake, daily live-weight gain or food efficiency. Pigs given the amino acid-deficient diets had lower killing-out proportions (736 v. 747 (s.e. 3·4) g/kg; P < 0·05) and longissimus dorsi muscle areas (32·6 v. 35·7 (s.e. 0·71) cm2, P < 0·01) than those given amino acid-supplemented diets. Subjective score for longissimus dorsi colour indicated that pigs on the high leucine diet had darker muscle than those on the low leucine diet. Intramuscular fat contents of the longissimus dors i muscle at the Wth/llth rib and the 3rd/4th lumbar vertebra and of the semimembranosu s muscle were increased by 19, 18 and 18 g/kg, respectively (P < 0·05), for pigs given amino acid-deficient compared with those given amino acid-supplemented diets. Dietary leucine level had no significant effect on intramuscular fat level. Pigs given the diets for 35, compared with 21, days had higher fat levels in the semimembranosu s muscle (52 v. 30 (s.e. 5·2) g/kg; P < 0·01) but not in the other two muscle locations studied. This study suggests that relatively short-term feeding of amino acid-deficient diets can produce substantial increases in intramuscular fat levels.
The need to complementin vitrogas production measurements with residue determinations fromin saccodegradabilities to improve the prediction of voluntary intake of hays
Authors: Blümmel M. , Bullerdieck P. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractThe need to complement in vitro gas production measurements with residue determination is demonstrated by the recalculation and reassessment of published data on in vitro gas production, in sacco degradabilities and voluntary dry matter intake (DMI). The in sacco degradability — gas volume ratio was determined at 24 and 48 h of incubation, termed partitioning factor (PF) and combined with rate and extent parameters of in sacco degradability and in vitro gas production to predict DMI. In vitro gas production and in sacco degradability characteristics (a + b) and c as described by the equation y = a + b(1−ect) explained 0·373 and 0·668 respectively of the variation in DMI of 19 legume and grass hays. The complementation of gas production parameters by the PF24increased the R2value to 0·744 with PF24accounting for 0·407 of the variation in DMI, the rate of gas production (c) for 0·218 and the extent of gas production (a + b) for 0·119 of the variation in DMI. As a single parameter, PF48showed the highest correlation (R2= 0·597) with DMI but the combination of PF4Swith rate and extent of in sacco or in vitro gas production measurements did not improve the correlation further, probably due to an intercorrelation between rates of fermentation and PF4S. Hays which were degraded at faster rates had higher PF values indicating proportionally higher microbial yield and lower short-chain fatty acid production per unit substrate degraded. Generally, hays with high in sacco degradabilities but proportionally low gas production i.e. hays with high PF values showed higher DMI.
Threonine requirement of growing pigs (50 to 95 kg) in relation to diet composition
Authors: Schutte J. B. , de Jong J. , Smink W. , Koch F. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractA study was conducted to evaluate increasing dietary levels of threonine on performance and carcass quality of growing gilt pigs (live-weight period of 50 to 95 kg; no. = 384) by using two different types of basal diets. One basal diet (basal A) was composed of highly digestible food ingredients and the other diet (basal B) of less well digested food ingredients. Before starting the growth trial, Heal apparent digestibility ofamino acids of both basal diets was determined in an in vivo digestibility trial with pigs. Both basal diets were composed in such a way as to obtain equal contents for net energy and Heal digestible threonine, lysine, methionine + cystine and tryptophan. The content of Heal digestible threonine in both basal diets was approximately 3·3 g/kg, corresponding with a total threonine content of 4·8 g/kg in basal diet A and 5·4 g/kg in basal diet B. To both diets three graded dose levels (0·4, 0·8 and 1·2 g/kg) of L-threonine were added, providing at the highest supplemented level 4·5 g/kg Heal digestible threonine. The requirement for Heal digestible threonine was estimated to be 4·1 g/kg regardless of diet composition. This estimated requirement was mainly based on the results for food conversion efficiency. For obtaining maximum weight gain, the requirement for Heal digestible threonine was found to be somewhat higher than for maximum efficiency of food utilization. The estimated requirement figure of 4·1 g Heal digestible threonine corresponded with approximately 5·6 g total threonine per kg in basal diet A and 6·2 g/kg in basal diet B. Carcass quality was not affected by the content of threonine in the diets.
Nutrition of draught oxen in semi-arid west Africa 3. Effect of body condition prior to work and weight losses during work on food intake and work output
Authors: Fall A. , Pearson R. A. , Fernández-Rivera S. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractEighteen oxen were allotted to three treatment groups according to their body condition: poor, medium and good. Work output, speed, live weight and body condition were measured during 7 weeks when animals worked 4 days/ week, 4 h/day, pulling loads equivalent to 12-5 kgf/100 kg live weight. The animals were given millet stover ad libitum during hours they did not work plus 10 g/kg M of a concentrate mix. Work did not influence intake of millet stover. However, food intake improved as work progressed and animals in bad condition ate more millet stover than animals in good body condition. Work performance was affected by live weight but not body condition. Live-weight losses did not have a detrimental effect on work performance. Power output improved during the course of the experiment while animals were losing weight Animals in all treatment groups lost body weight during the 7 weeks of work but weight losses were more pronounced in oxen in good than in poor body condition. At the end of the working period, animals were put on natural pastures without supplementation. It took 4 weeks for animals in poor and medium body condition and 6 weeks for animals in good body condition to reach their pre-work live weight.
Genetic correlations between linear type traits, food intake, live weight and condition score in Holstein Friesian dairy cattle
Authors: Veerkamp R. F. , Brotherstone S. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractVariance components were estimated from an animal model using a restricted maximum likelihood procedure which allowed for unequal design matrices and missing observations (VCE). Data sets containing: (i) 15 275 records of linear type classifications on heifers, (ii) 3399 live weight and condition scores measured at calving and (iii) 1157 records of yield, dry-matter intake, average live weight and condition score during the first 26 weeks of lactation; were analysed jointly.Heritability estimates for dry-matter intake, live weight and condition score in the largest data set were 0·44, 0·44 and 0·35 respectively and the genetic correlation between condition score and the yield traits ranged from −0·29 to −0·46. The genetic correlation between milk yield and average live weight was negative (−0·09) but after adjusting for the genetic variation in condition score this correlation was positive (0·29). Genetic correlations between live weight and stature, chest width, body depth and rump width were consistently high (0·52 to 0·64; 0·75 to 0·86; 0·59 to 0·81; 0·56 to 0·74, respectively). Chest width and body depth were little to moderately correlated with dry-matter intake (0·25 to 0·28 and 0·20 to 0·34 respectively), and angularity (−0·47 to −0·77) and chest width (0·32 to 0·73) appeared to be good predictors of condition score. These correlations showed that (i) the relative value of live weight compared with food intake capacity determines the optimum direction of selection for stature, chest width, body depth and angularity, and consequently the optimum size of the dairy cow, and that (ii) live weight, condition score and food intake can be predicted from the type traits with little loss in accuracy. A restricted index which maintains condition score at its current level was predicted to reduce overall (economic) genetic gain by 5%.
Use of a stochastic model of a calving distribution for beef cows for formulating optimal natural mating strategies
Authors: Pleasants A. B. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractA model of a birthdate distribution for a herd of beef cows is constructed using the probability distributions of the variables that affect reproduction in the cow — anoestrous interval, oestrous cycle length, conception to each oestrus, gestation length, period of mating and the prior calving frequency distribution. The model is general and can be reparamaterized to deal with issues such as intervention to synchronize oestrous cycles among cows in the herd by changing the form of the relevant probability distributions.The model is applied to the question of what time to begin mating in a herd of beef cows. The average calf live weight at day 200, herd conception rate and proportion of cows calving before the planned start of calving were calculated from the model output. The model parameters given by the anoestrous period, conception rate to each oestrus and the regression between prior calving date and anoestrous period, were varied in a factorial design to investigate a range of circumstances found on a farm. Prior calving distributions were generated by random sampling from eight actual calving frequency distributions.Generally starling mating earlier produced an advantage in terms of extra calf live weight and herd conception rate. However, the proportion of the herd calving earlier than expected increased with early mating. Thus, the feasibility of early mating depends on the cost to the farmer of dealing with early calving cows as well as the advantage of heavier older calves.Altering the fixed parameters in the model (variances and covariances, prior calving distributions, mating period) to accommodate the circumstances of herds run under different conditions may produce different results. Model structure allows easy alteration of these parameters and also the introduction of different probability distributions for some variables. This might be necessary to model oestrous synchronization and artificial insemination, issues not considered in this paper.
Effect of ammonia treatment or protein supplementation on rumination behaviour in sheep given barley straw
Authors: Mawuenyegah P. O. , Warly L. , Harumoto T. , Fujihara T. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractA study was conducted to compare the effects of ammoniation and protein supplementation of barley straw on rumination behaviour of sheep. Four wethers were allocated to four diets offered ad libitum in a 4 × 4 Latin-square design. The diets were, untreated barley straw + molasses meal (diet 1), untreated barley straw + soya-bean meal + molasses meal (diet 2), ammonia-treated barley straw + molasses meal (diet 3) and ammonia-treated barley straw + soya-bean meal + molasses meal (diet 4). Animals were kept in metabolism crates throughout each 16-day experimental period and allowed free access to water and a mineralized salt lick. The first 11 days of each period were for adaptation to the harnesses and diets while the last 5 days were used for rumination studies. Animals given diets 3 and 4 had slower eating rates compared with those given diets 1 and 2. Rumination index and duration of each rumination period was lower for sheep consuming diets 3 and 4 than for those on diets 1 and 2 but not significantly so (P > 0·05). Rumination time per 100 g neutral-detergent fibre (NDF) intake was significantly lower (P < 0·01) for diets containing ammoniated straw. Animals given ammoniated straw diets also regurgitated fewer boluses per unit NDF intake than did those on untreated straw diets. The results showed that increased intake and digestibility, which is usually associated with ammoniated straws, was due to sheep doing less work per unit of time to break down straw for digestion. In this way, potentially digestible tissues within a given amount of straw is more readily exposed. The foregoing suggests that ammonia treatment results in less rumination so that ruminants given ammonia-treated straw diets do less work ruminating.
The phenotypic association between the interval to post-partum ovulation and traditional measures of fertility in dairy cattle
Authors: Darwash A. O. , Lamming G. E. , Wooliams J. A. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractThe relationship between the interval to post-partum (PP) commencement of luteal activity (CLA) and traditional measures of fertility was studied in 1733 lactations of British Friesian cows. Milk progesterone (P4) concentrations were used to determine the interval to PP ovulation and to confirm pregnancy. Milk samples were taken thrice weekly from cows in 20 commercial herds and daily in the University of Nottingham research herd. Commencement of luteal activity was defined as the day of first PP occurrence ofP4levels >3 μg/l which was then maintained for at least two consecutive readings in the commercial herds and for 4 days in the university herd. Records from animals with retained placenta, uterine infection or those treated with reproductive hormone preparations for reproductive disorders were excluded for this analysis from the original database of cows during 2503 lactations. The interval to PP CLA averaged 27·0 (s.d. 12·1) days (no. = 1733), interval to first service 71·2 (s.d. 19·9) days (no. = 1646), interval to conception 87·2 (s.d. 35·0) days (no. = 1510), number of services per conception 1·50 (s.d. 0·83, no. = 1510) and conception to first service was 0·65. Linear models were then fitted to subsets of the data with complete information to assess the influences of lactation number, season and herd (at least 1243 observations in all analyses). The interval to PP CLA was favourably correlated with measures of fertility such that for every day delay in the interval to CLA there was an average delay of 0·24 and 0·41 days (P < 0·001) in the interval to first service and conception, respectively. The number of services per conception was reduced by 0·11 for each additional 21 days in the interval between PP CLA and first service (P < 0·001). Furthermore, conception rate was influenced by the interval from the onset of luteal activity to first insemination (P < 0·01) such that each additional 21 days progressively reduced the probability of failure at a given insemination number to 0·89 of its previous value. There were significant effects of parity and season (P < 0·05) on the interval to first PP service while the variation among herds in the interval to PP service and days open was significant (P < 0·01). The regressions of measures of fertility on milk yield were not significant. This extensive database on the hormone profiles of PP cows shows that the early re-establishment of PP ovarian activity is an important prerequisite for high fertility.
A measure for predicting genetic merit for milking and nursing ability in beef cattle
Authors: Yokoi N. , Moriya K. , Sasaki Y. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractTo determine a best measure for predicting genetic merit for milking and nursing ability in beef cattle, restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimates of variances and covariances for direct and maternal effect were obtained by using pre-weaning growth records of calves at various stages after parturition until weaning in Japanese Black cattle. Data used in this study were pre-weaning growth records of 1892 Japanese Black calves obtained from the Tottori National Livestock Breeding Station covering the period from 1960 to 1985. Traits analysed were adjusted monthly weights, adjusted monthly heights and cumulative daily gains (DGs) from birth to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 months of age. Estimates of variances and covariances were obtained by REML using the DFREML program of Meyer. Results indicate that: (1) the direct effects on pre-weaning growth of calves are the smallest at birth to 1 month of age and then increase; (2) the maternal effects of the dams are the largest for the first 2 months, and then decrease; (3) the contribution of these two effects on calf growth is reversed at 3 or 4 months of age; (4) the non-additive maternal effects exist but are small; and (5) the genetic correlations between direct and maternal effects are low for weight and cumulative DG, whereas those for height are relatively high. These results suggest that DGfrom birth to 2 months of age (DGO-2) is most influenced by the additive maternal effect. Thus, DGO-2 is concluded to be the best measure for predicting genetic merit for milking and nursing ability in beef cattle.
Renal and salivary clearance of purine derivatives in sheep
Authors: Surra J. C. , Guada J. A. , Balcells J. , Castrillo C. 
Published: September 2010

AbstractFour adult ewes (mean weight 42·6 kg) fitted with oesophageal fistulae were given 5 mmol/day ofallantoin or saline solutions by intrajugular continuous infusion. The experiment was a randomized cross-over design, with two consecutive 3-day infusion periods. One kg/day fresh matter of either chopped or pelleted fescue hay was distributed over 12 meals and salivary flow estimated from dilution of Co-EDTA infused into the buccal cavity. Allantoin infusion resulted in a rapid increase in its plasma concentration (84 to 128 (s.e. 1·5) μmol/l) and urinary excretion (9·6 to 13·3 (s.e. 0·18) mmol/day) without significant differences between diets. Salivary allantoin also increased (4·6 to 6·4 (s.e. 0·60) ymol/1) in response to infusion, although the concentration of total purine derivatives in saliva was only proportionately 0·08 that of plasma. Renal and salivary clearance of oxypurines, allantoin (78 (s.e. 5·0) ml/min and 13 (s.e. 0·7) ml/h), uric acid (466 (s.e. 98·0) ml/min and 45 (s.e. 9·8) ml/h) and creatinine (104 (s.e. 3·0) ml/min and 14 (s.e. 1·1) ml/h) were constant, irrespective of diet and infusion treatments. Urinary recovery of infused allantoin averaged 0·78 (s.e. 0·031) but salivary secretion, equivalent to about 0·003 of urinary losses, was not the explanation for the incomplete recovery.