Heritability of embryonic mortalities in ostrich eggs and factors affecting hatching failure of fertile eggs during artificial incubation

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Brand ◽  
S. W. P. Cloete ◽  
I. A. Malecki ◽  
C. R. Brown

The high rate of embryonic mortality during artificial incubation of ostrich eggs is a major concern in the ostrich industry. Data from 48 126 individual egg records were available to derive genetic parameters for embryonic mortalities, modelled as a trait of the individual egg. Embryonic mortality was classified according to stage of death, i.e. early embryonic mortality that occurred before 21 days of incubation (EEM), late embryonic mortality that occurred after 21 days of incubation (LEM) and overall embryonic mortalities (OEM). LEM increased significantly for eggs laid by females >10 years old. Transfer of eggs between incubators during incubation also impaired hatchability. An increase in OEM occurred for eggs freshly set (43%) as well as for eggs stored for more than 6 days (50%). Medium heritability (h2) estimates were derived for all the embryonic death traits and ranged between 0.16 ± 0.02 for LEM and 0.22 ± 0.03 for EEM. The dam permanent environmental effect was low ranging between 0.021 ± 0.005 for LEM and 0.046 ± 0.008 for EEM. Hatchability of fertile ostrich eggs may consequently be improved by removing older females from breeding flocks, setting of eggs between 2 and 6 days after collection, and by refraining to transfer of eggs between incubators during incubation. Moderate h2 estimates indicate that breeding may be used as a tool to enhance chick production in ostriches. This contention is supported by the fact that selected breeding for chick production and liveweight appeared to result in genetic changes in embryonic mortality rates.


2013 ◽  
Vol 152 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M. PARRA-BRACAMONTE ◽  
X. F. DE LA ROSA-REYNA ◽  
N. TREVIÑO-MARTÍNEZ ◽  
W. ARELLANO-VERA ◽  
V. MORENO-MEDINA

SUMMARYStudying and understanding the sources of variation in early life traits in farmed deer are fundamental for management and/or breeding purposes. Data from a captive white-tailed deer population were analysed to identify non-genetic and genetic factors affecting the birth weight (BW) of fawns. The year, type of birth and sex were included in a fixed linear model to examine their significance. All of the examined non-genetic factors had a highly significant effect on BW (P<0·001). The examined years showed variation attributed to food availability affecting the gestational conditions of does. Male fawns were 193 g heavier than female fawns at birth (P<0·001), and singleton births were associated with a higher BW (2·97±0·043 kg) compared with twin (−0·261 g) and triplet (−0·642 g) fawning (P<0·001). The best-fitting animal model was selected by comparing reduced and complete models. Based on the selected animal model, which included direct genetic and common maternal effects, genetic components and parameters were estimated. The direct heritability was found to be 0·28±0·126, and a small but important contribution of common maternal environmental effects was identified (c2=0·15±0·062). The results support the importance of certain environmental factors affecting BW and indicate the relevance of direct genetic and maternal environmental influences to sustained genetic changes in BW and positively correlated traits in farmed white-tailed deer populations.





Author(s):  
Z. Brand ◽  
S.W.P. Cloete ◽  
C.R. Brown ◽  
I.A. Malecki

he ostrich industry experiences a high rate of embryonic mortalities during artificial incubation of eggs. Embryonic deaths were studied from data recorded on 37 740 fertile eggs incubated artificially during the 1998-2005 breeding seasons. Roughly 10 000 eggs that sustained embryonic mortalities were classified according to the stage and nature of death, i.e. before 21 days of incubation, after 21 days of incubation, deaths after pipping and rotten eggs. Although infection may have played a role in ~1300 rotten eggs, no detailed knowledge of the pathogens involved was available. The remainder of deaths could not be related to pathogens and the deaths were thus generally referred to as non-infectious. The overall level of embryonic mortality in all the eggs studied was 28.5 %. Overall embryonic mortality was affected by incubator, with higher levels (57.0 %) found in eggs incubated in an African Incubator(R) and also in eggs that were transferred between incubators during incubation (38.1 %). Overall embryonic mortality also increased in eggs produced by older females. Eggs produced in the autumn had the highest level of embryonic mortality at 53.6 %, whereas eggs produced in the winter had a marginally higher level of embryonic mortalities of 29.2 % compared with eggs produced during summer (27.4 %). Eggs produced by South African (SA) Black males crossed to Zimbabwean Blue females had high levels of embryonic losses of 45.7 %. The embryonic mortality of eggs produced by SA Blacks or Zimbabwean Blue breeding birds subjected to pure breeding was similar at ~33-34 %, but embryonic mortality was improved in eggs produced by Zimbabwean Blue males crossed to SA Black females (27 %). Embryonic mortality was increased in eggs that were set directly (32.0 %) or subjected to longer than 6 days of storage (43.5 %). Embryonic mortality was affected by year. The results that were obtained will assist in determining non-infectious factors that have a negative effect on hatching success. Steps can thus be taken to eliminate such factors that may compromise hatching success.



2004 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Liptói ◽  
Á. Varga ◽  
A. Hidas ◽  
Judit Barna

Embryonic mortality is a significant problem plaguing the hatching success. Its early forms are especially hardly distinguishable from true infertility. Propidium iodide (PI) staining of the germinal disc combined with outer perivitelline layer (OPVL) sperm counting was used for the determination of 'true' fertility of duck eggs in two different experiments: fertility investigation on fresh, unincubated eggs of Hungarian ducks and on incubated eggs of a crossbred, selected as 'infertile' at the 7th day of incubation. Examination of the relationship between OPVL sperm count and fertility seems to be an adequate tool for checking the effectiveness of insemination programmes and the fertilising capacity of poultry spermatozoa. The proportion of fertile eggs was around 50% when the number of OPVL sperm was between 0.1 and 0.2 spermatozoa/mm2. Ninety-nine percent of the eggs containing ? 0.3 OPVL sperm/mm2 were fertile and all of the eggs containing < 0.05 sperm/mm2 were infertile. To assure the accuracy of fertility prediction by OPVL sperm counting, PI staining of the germinal disc was used to determine fertility in uncertain cases. Identification of very early embryonic mortality, i.e. that occurring before oviposition, is very difficult. The use of a dissecting microscope for the assessment of real fertility is suitable in most of the cases, while PI staining of the germinal discs proved to be more reliable for detecting very early embryonic death. The combination of the two methods proved to be a useful tool for detecting the 'true' fertility of duck eggs of different breeds.



2005 ◽  
Vol 56 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Liptói ◽  
A. Hidas ◽  
R. Rouvier


2019 ◽  
pp. 78-106
Author(s):  
Aruna Dayanatha ◽  
J A S K Jayakody

Information system (IS) projects have been seen to be failing at an alarmingly high rate. The prevailing explanations of IS failure have had only a limited success. Thus, the time may be right to look at the reasons for IS failure through an alternative perspective. This paper proposes that IS success should be explained in terms of managerial leadership intervention, from the sensemaking perspective. Managers are responsible for workplace outcomes; thus, it may be appropriate to explain their role in IS success as well. The sensemaking perspective can explain IS success through holistic user involvement, a concept which critiques of existing explanations have stated to be a requirement for explaining IS failure. This paper proposes a framework combining the theory of enactment and leadership enactment to theorize managerial leadership intervention for “IS success.” The proposed explanation postulates that the managerial leader’s envisioning of the future transaction set influences the liberation of the follower and cast enactment, while liberating followers and cast enactment constitute manager sensegiving. The managerial leader’s sense-giving influences follower sensemaking. Follower sensemaking, under the influence of managerial sensegiving, will lead to followers’ IS acceptance, and that constitutes IS success at the individual level. Further, collective level IS acceptance constitutes IS adaption/success, and this will influence the leader’s sensegiving, for the next round of sensemaking.



Author(s):  
Jinbao Zhang ◽  
Jaeyoung Lee

Abstract This study has two main objectives: (i) to analyse the effect of travel characteristics on the spreading of disease, and (ii) to determine the effect of COVID-19 on travel behaviour at the individual level. First, the study analyses the effect of passenger volume and the proportions of different modes of travel on the spread of COVID-19 in the early stage. The developed spatial autoregressive model shows that total passenger volume and proportions of air and railway passenger volumes are positively associated with the cumulative confirmed cases. Second, a questionnaire is analysed to determine changes in travel behaviour after COVID-19. The results indicate that the number of total trips considerably decreased. Public transport usage decreased by 20.5%, while private car usage increased by 6.4%. Then the factors affecting the changes in travel behaviour are analysed by logit models. The findings reveal significant factors, including gender, occupation and travel restriction. It is expected that the findings from this study would be helpful for management and control of traffic during a pandemic.



2017 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 184797901771262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Adnan Al-Tit

Numerous studies have been conducted to explore the individual effects of organizational culture (OC) and supply chain management (SCM) practices on organizational performance (OP) in different settings. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of OC and SCM on OP. The sample of the study consisted of 93 manufacturing firms in Jordan. Data were collected from employees and managers from different divisions using a reliable and valid measurement instrument. The findings confirm that both OC and SCM practices significantly predict OP. The current study is significant in reliably testing the relationship between SCM practices and OP; however, it is necessary to consider cultural assumptions, values and beliefs as the impact of OC on OP is greater than the impact of SCM practices. Based on the results, future studies should consider the moderating and mediating role of OC on the relationship between SCM practices and OP.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Costantino ◽  
Francesco Paneni

AbstractEmerging evidence suggests the growing importance of “nongenetic factors” in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic vascular disease. Indeed, the inherited genome determines only part of the risk profile as genomic approaches do not take into account additional layers of biological regulation by “epi”-genetic changes. Epigenetic modifications are defined as plastic chemical changes of DNA/histone complexes which critically affect gene activity without altering the DNA sequence. These modifications include DNA methylation, histone posttranslational modifications, and non-coding RNAs and have the ability to modulate gene expression at both transcriptional and posttranscriptional level. Notably, epigenetic signals are mainly induced by environmental factors (i.e., pollution, smoking, noise) and, once acquired, may be transmitted to the offspring. The inheritance of adverse epigenetic changes may lead to premature deregulation of pathways involved in vascular damage and endothelial dysfunction. Here, we describe the emerging role of epigenetic modifications as fine-tuners of gene transcription in atherosclerosis. Specifically, the following aspects are described in detail: (1) discovery and impact of the epigenome in cardiovascular disease, (2) the epigenetic landscape in atherosclerosis; (3) inheritance of epigenetic signals and premature vascular disease; (4) epigenetic control of lipid metabolism, vascular oxidative stress, inflammation, autophagy, and apoptosis; (5) epigenetic biomarkers in patients with atherosclerosis; (6) novel therapeutic strategies to modulate epigenetic marks. Understanding the individual epigenetic profile may pave the way for new approaches to determine cardiovascular risk and to develop personalized therapies to treat atherosclerosis and its complications.



Author(s):  
Dr. Pham Hung Cuong ◽  
◽  
Nguyen Van Ngan ◽  

According to Porter (1985), in the market of competition, competitive advantage lies in the center of business activities of an enterprise. For this reason, one of the most important factors for any kind of business is to build or construct a good and stable competitive advantage. The wealth of a company cannot be durable if the company does not maintain its competitive advantage. Improving the competitive advantage is one of the first and foremost concerns of every business. In the process of integration, all economies have to try their best to fully compete with each other to gain the best. Among the economy sectors, the retail enterprises are of those who have to apply marketing strategies to strengthen their competitive advantage. With good and suitable marketing strategies, businesses can increase the number of their customer, have goods and products attractive to consumers and finally gain the expected profits. In Vietnam, the market economy started at the end of 1986, much later than the world market economy, so the application of competitive advantages from the macro level to micro level (here the enterprise level) has been slow. For the sector of retailing, especially supermarket retailing, the market scale of Vietnam is much smaller than that of other markets in the region. However, there are basic factors for a fast development in Vietnam such as: big population with the kind of young population, high rate of economic growth rate and non-stop improved living standard. That is the fact that the potential for retailing development in Vietnam is not small and supermarket business in the future is big. In Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh market, there are quite a lot of supermarket chains which are in operation nowadays such as Co-op mart, Citimart, Maximart, B-smart, Shop&Go and so on? These supermarkets are trying their best to gain more customers. For this purpose, the researcher chose Citimart as a case study in this research. Citimart is one of most favorable supermarket in Ho Chi Minh. In this thesis, the researcher studies the factors affecting the competitive advantage of Citimart, and then find out the solutions for the policy makers to have good business strategies of Citimart.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document