The significance of coat type in cattle

1960 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
HG Turner ◽  
AV Schleger

A system of subjective scoring of cattle coats, ranging from very sleek to very woolly, is described. It has been applied to about 1600 animals, of which 500 were Hereford and Shorthorn cows and the rest their progeny from matings in four years to British breed and Zebu bulls. Consistency of scoring within and between observers is satisfactory. Highly significant differences between animals of the same breed persist through different seasons. The repeatability of coat score is 0.6 or more over intervals of up to 17 months. Effects of season, age, and sex are described. Heritability of coat score is estimated at 0.63. Coat scores are well correlated with body temperatures and respiration rates. Coat score and post-weaning growth rate of British breed calves are correlated to such a degree that coat score can be superior to a record of body weight as an estimate of growth capacity. The genetic correlation between coat score and growth rate is high in the British breeds. Evidence of the relation between coat score and growth rate in Zebu cross calves is inconclusive. The observed relationships are discussed with particular reference to their physiological causes. The results indicate the potential value of coat characters in selecting tropical beef cattle. The degree to which these results may be applicable to other populations in other environments is discussed. It is concluded that a sleek coat is important in favouring heat dissipation, but it may have even greater significance as an indicator of metabolic efficiency or of capacity to react favourably to stress.

1971 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Sacker ◽  
J. C. M. Trail ◽  
I. L. Fisher

SUMMARYThe female progeny of Angus, Boran and Red Poll bulls mated to Ankole, Boran and Zebu cows were compared. Heifers by Angus and Red Poll sires out of Boran and Zebu cows could be mated at an average age of 23 months with excellent calving percentages, whereas Boran-sired heifers and heifers from Ankole cows were not ready for service at this age. Lactation stress caused heifers suckling calves to lose 4% of body weight over a 7½ month suckling period, while heifers not suckling calves gained 14% in body weight. Heifers by Red Poll sires did not provide more milk for their calves, as measured by early growth rate, than heifers by Angus or Boran sires. The effect of hybrid vigour on mothering ability of F1 dams was at least as great as it was on the early growth of the F1 crossbreds themselves.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 392
Author(s):  
Lydia Katsika ◽  
Mario Huesca Flores ◽  
Yannis Kotzamanis ◽  
Alicia Estevez ◽  
Stavros Chatzifotis

This study was conducted to elucidate the interaction effects of temperature and dietary lipid levels (2 × 2 factorial experiment) on the growth performance, muscle, and liver composition in adult farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Two groups of fish (190 g; 60 fish per group) were distributed in 12 tanks in triplicates and kept at two different temperature regimes; one starting at 23 °C and then changed to 17 °C for 61 days, and the other starting at 17 °C and then changed to 23 °C for 39 days. Two commercial diets containing both ~44% crude protein but incorporating different dietary lipid levels, 16.5% (D16) and 20.0% (D20) (dry matter (DM)), were fed to the fish to apparent satiation; the type of diet fed to each fish group remained constant throughout the experiment. Final body weight, weight gain, and specific growth rate were significantly higher for the fish group held at 23 °C compared to the fish group at 17 °C (before the temperature changes), while the dietary fat content did not have any profound effect in both groups. Furthermore, the different temperature regimes did not affect muscle or liver composition, but, on the contrary, dietary lipids affected hepatosomatic, perivisceral fat, and visceral indexes. Feed conversion ratio and specific growth rate were not affected by the dietary lipid level. An interaction of temperature and dietary lipid content was observed in daily feed consumption (DFC) and final body weight (FBW).


Author(s):  
Nasser Hajipour ◽  
Jennifer Ketzis ◽  
Parviz Hassanzadeh

Abstract Background Canids and herbivores are the definitive and intermediate hosts of Linguatula sp., respectively. Methods Mesenteric lymph nodes (n=32 525) were randomly collected from 7585 buffaloes from July 2016 to July 2019 and examined macroscopically. Results Results showed that 388 (5.11%) buffaloes were infected. The intensity of infection was determined to be 3.07±0.07. Significant statistical association was identified between infection rate and age and sex. Although there were no significant differences in the infection rate over different seasons, the highest infection rate was observed in autumn. Conclusions These data highlight the importance of inspection at slaughter.


1966 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 903-910 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Mrosovsky

Cycles of food intake and body weight lasting a few weeks occurred in dormice, Glis glis, kept in the laboratory in relatively constant conditions of temperature (about 25 °C) and photoperiod (about 12 hours light–dark schedule). These fluctuations appeared to be more marked in the winter months. Periods of reduced eating were associated with low body temperatures and lethargy. The frequent disturbance and arousal of the animals was probably an important factor in these short hibernating cycles. The influence of variation of the diet on body weight of dormice is described. Animals kept on ad libitum supplies of sunflower seed became obese and remained so for many months.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianru Pan ◽  
Huocong He ◽  
Ying Su ◽  
Guangjin Zheng ◽  
Junxin Wu ◽  
...  

GST-TAT-SOD was the fusion of superoxide dismutase (SOD), cell-permeable peptide TAT, and glutathione-S-transferase (GST). It was proved to be a potential selective radioprotector in vitro in our previous work. This study evaluated the in vivo radioprotective activity of GST-TAT-SOD against whole-body irradiation. We demonstrated that intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml GST-TAT-SOD (2 kU/ml) 2 h before the 6 Gy whole-body irradiation in mice almost completely prevented the splenic damage. It could significantly enhance the splenic antioxidant activity which kept the number of splenic white pulp and consequently resisted the shrinkage of the spleen. Moreover, the thymus index, hepatic antioxidant activity, and white blood cell (WBC) count of peripheral blood in irradiated mice pretreated with GST-TAT-SOD also remarkably increased. Although the treated and untreated irradiated mice showed no significant difference in the growth rate of animal body weight at 7 days postirradiation, the highest growth rate of body weight was observed in the GST-TAT-SOD-pretreated group. Furthermore, GST-TAT-SOD pretreatment increased resistance against 8 Gy whole-body irradiation and enhanced 30 d survival. The overall effect of GST-TAT-SOD seemed to be a bit more powerful than that of amifostine. In conclusion, GST-TAT-SOD would be a safe and potentially promising radioprotector.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi-Peng Zhu ◽  
Yu-wei He ◽  
Huan Chen ◽  
Zhi-Fang Sun ◽  
Na Ding ◽  
...  

Objective. To observe the effect of preventive acupuncture and moxibustion on blood lipid of menopause rats.Methods. Seventy 10-month-old SD rats with estrous cycle disorders were divided into three control groups and four treatment groups (n=10/group) and another ten 3.5-month-old female SD rats were chosen as young control group. Preventive acupuncture and moxibustion were applied at Guanyuan (CV 4). Body weight growth rate has been recorded. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and uterusE2level were measured.Results. Compared to young control group, plasma TC and LDL increased and uterusE2reduced significantly in 12-month-old control group. Compared to 12-month-old control group, plasma TC and LDL level and body weight growth rate decreased while HDL level increased remarkably in preventive acupuncture 12-month-old group. Compared to 14-month-old control group, plasma TC level and body weight growth rate decreased remarkably in preventive moxibustion 14-month-old group.Conclusions. Preventive acupuncture and moxibustion can significantly decrease the plasma TG and LDL, increase the plasma HDL, and prevent fat accumulation. Our finding suggests that preventive acupuncture and moxibustion have beneficial effects on blood lipid. Different treatment effects were found between preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion.


Parasitology ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. D. Chapman ◽  
D. L. Fernandes ◽  
T. F. Davison

SUMMARYThe effects of Eimeria maxima or restricted pair-feeding on weight gain, plasma concentrations of protein, glucose, free fatty acids (FFA) and uric acid and liver glycogen were compared in immature fowl. Food intake/kg body weight and weight gain decreased during the acute phase of infection (days 5–7) while weight loss was prolonged for an extra day compared with pair-fed birds. During recovery, food intake/kg body weight of infected birds was greater than that of non-infected controls but there was no evidence for an increase in growth rate compared with controls when body weight was considered. Growth rate of pair-fed birds was greater than that of infected birds during recovery, indicating their better use of ingested food. Liver glycogen and plasma protein concentration were decreased during the acute phase of infection but the concentrations of plasma glucose, free fatty acid (FFA) and uric acid were not affected. In pair-fed birds liver glycogen was depleted, concentrations of plasma glucose and uric acid decreased and FFA increased, and these changes persisted for the remainder of the experiment. The findings are similar to those in birds whose food has been withheld and were probably due to the pattern of food intake imposed by the experimental protocol. It is concluded that the metabolic differences between infected and pair-fed birds are of doubtful significance.


1977 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. R. Hopkins

SUMMARYUsing pre-weaning records of 3822 calves from 11 Victorian herds, mean male and female growth rates and corresponding sex differences were calculated for each dam age and herd-year class. From these means simple regression equations relating sex differences and growth rates were calculated. There was a close similarity between equations based on dam age means and those based on herd-year means while correlations between sex differences and male growth rates were high.These results showed that sex differences and female growth rates could be predicted reliably from the level of environment as measured by male growth rate. Sex differences predicted by these regression relationships differed markedly from those predicted by the simple multiplicative and simple additive models generally used in adjusting for sex differences in selection.The results also suggested that other differences such as breed differences may be predictable in the same way and that such differences are determined primarily by the level of environment per se rather than differences in the nature of the components contributing to that level.


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