scholarly journals Estimates of genetic parameters for 320-day pelvic measurements of males and females and calving ease of 2-year-old females

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 1954-1963 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. Kriese ◽  
L. D. Van Vleck ◽  
K. E. Gregory ◽  
K. G. Boldman ◽  
L. V. Cundiff ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
E. Curry ◽  
M. A. Stoops ◽  
T. L. Roth

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in managed care generally are paired for breeding starting around the age of 5 or 6 years; however, DNA analyses of the wild population indicate that males as young as 2 or 3 may sire offspring and females as young as 4 can produce cubs. There are no reports describing longitudinal reproductive hormone parameters in juvenile polar bears. The objective of the current study was to determine if seasonal shifts in testosterone and progesterone (P4) metabolites are detectable in feces of polar bears 2-3 years old as part of a greater effort to characterise reproductive metabolites in a large cohort of juveniles throughout sexual maturation. Subjects were 2-year-old male (n=3) and female (n=3) polar bears residing at 5 zoological institutions in the USA. Individuals were monitored for 1 (1.1) or 2 (2.2) years. Fecal samples were collected noninvasively 3-4 times/week and hormone metabolites were extracted as previously described. Testosterone was evaluated as an indicator of gonadal activity in both sexes, whereas P4 was measured in samples collected from females only. Metabolites were quantified in duplicate using established enzyme immunoassay techniques. Student’s and paired t-tests were used to compare mean metabolite concentrations between seasons [breeding (BS; January-June) and nonbreeding (NBS; July-December)] by sex and within individual, respectively. All values are reported as mean concentration (ng metabolite/g dried feces±standard error of the means) and P-values less than 0.05 indicated statistical significance. Mean testosterone concentration of the 2-year-old males was 153.1±112.5. Overall, testosterone concentrations were higher in samples collected from 2-year-old males during BS versus NBS; however, when examined within individual, this held true for only 1 of 3 males. Mean testosterone of the 3-year-old male was 170.2±19.6 and values were significantly higher in BS (282.1±27.2) versus NBS (74.6±7.3). The overall mean testosterone and P4 concentrations of the 2-year-old females were 56.0±21.7 and 57.4±7.5, respectively. Two of the 3 females exhibited significantly higher testosterone concentrations during BS compared to NBS and all 3 exhibited higher P4 in the breeding versus the NBS. The 3-year-old female had significantly higher testosterone in BS (63.7±4.1) versus NBS (40.5±2.4) and showed evidence of regular ovarian cycles during BS. Despite no detectable differences in mean P4 between seasons (56.3±7.9 and 55.1±3.7), this female exhibited a distinct increase in P4 from October to November compared to the rest of NBS (85.7±8 v. 43.5±2.8), suggestive of pseudopregnancy. These results indicate that fecal reproductive hormone metabolite monitoring can be used to detect changes in metabolite excretion patterns associated with sexual maturation in polar bears and that males and females as young as 2 years old may exhibit seasonal variations in reproductive hormones. These data suggest bears in zoological institutions may be achieving sexual maturation earlier than believed previously and should be considered when managing bears in human care.


2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 302-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Vostrý ◽  
Z. Veselá ◽  
A. Svitáková ◽  
H. Vostrá Vydrová

The most appropriate model for genetic parameters estimation for calving ease and birth weight in beef cattle was selected. A total of 27 402 field records were available from the Czech Charolais breed. For estimation of genetic parameters for calving ease and body weight, three bivariate models were tested: a linear-linear animal model (L-LM) with calving ease classified into four categories (1 – easy; 2–4 – most difficult), a linear-linear animal model (SC-LM) in which calving ease scores were transformed into Snell scores (Snell 1964) and expressed as percentage of assisted calving (ranging 0–100%), and a bivariate threshold-linear animal model (T-LM) with calving ease classified into four categories (1 – easy, 2–4 – most difficult). All tested models included fixed effects for contemporary group (herd × year × season), age of dam, sex and breed of a calf. Random effects included direct and maternal genetic effects, maternal permanent environmental effect, and residual error. Direct heritability estimates for calving ease and birth weight were, with the use of L-LM, SC-LM, and T-LM, from 0.096 ± 0.013 to 0.226 ± 0.024 and from 0.210 ± 0.024 to 0.225 ± 0.026, respectively. Maternal heritability estimates for calving ease and birth weight were, with the use of L-LM, SC-LM, and T-LM, from 0.060 ± 0.031 to 0.104 ± 0.125 and from 0.074 ± 0.041 to 0.075 ± 0.040, respectively. Genetic correlations of direct calving ease with direct birth weight ranged from 0.46 ± 0.06 to 0.50 ± 0.06 for all tested models; whereas maternal genetic correlations between these two traits ranged from 0.24 ± 0.17 to 0.25 ± 0.53. Correlations between direct and maternal genetic effects within-trait were negative and substantial for all tested models (ranging from –0.574 ± 0.125 to –0.680 ± 0.141 for calving ease and from –0.553 ± 0.122 to –0.558 ± 0.118 for birth weight, respectively), illustrating the importance of including this parameter in calving ease evaluations. Results indicate that any of the tested models could be used to reliably estimate genetic parameters for calving ease for beef cattle in the Czech Republic. However, because of advantages in computation time and practical considerations, genetic analysis using SC-LM (transformed data) is recommended.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 927 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Jeyaruban ◽  
D. J. Johnston ◽  
B. Tier ◽  
H.-U. Graser

Data on Angus (ANG), Charolais (CHA), Hereford (HER), Limousin (LIM) and Simmental (SIM) cattle were used to estimate genetic parameters for calving difficulty (CD), birthweight (BWT) and gestation length (GL) using threshold-linear models and to examine the effect of inclusion of random effect of sire × herd interaction (SxH) in the models. For models without SxH, estimated heritabilities for direct genetic effect of CD were 0.24 (±0.02), 0.22 (±0.04), 0.31 (±0.02), 0.22 (±0.04) and 0.17 (±0.01) for ANG, CHA, HER, LIM and SIM, respectively, whereas maternal heritabilities ranged from 0.13 to 0.20. Estimated heritabilities for direct genetic effect of BWT were 0.38 (±0.01), 0.37 (±0.03), 0.46 (±0.01), 0.35 (±0.02) and 0.36 (±0.01) for ANG, CHR, HER, LIM and SIM, respectively, whereas maternal heritabilities ranged from 0.08 to 0.11. Estimated heritabilities for direct genetic effect of GL were 0.59 (±0.02), 0.42 (±0.04), 0.50 (±0.03), 0.45 (±0.04) and 0.42 (±0.03) for ANG, CHR, HER, LIM and SIM, respectively, whereas maternal heritabilities ranged from 0.03 to 0.09. Genetic correlations between direct genetic effects of CD with BWT were highly positive and with GL were moderately positive for all five breeds. Estimated genetic correlations between direct genetic effects and maternal genetic effects (rdm) ranged across the five breeds from –0.40 (±0.05) to –0.16 (±0.02), –0.41 (±0.03) to –0.27 (±0.08) and –0.47 (±0.10) to –0.06 (±0.12) for BWT, GL and CD, respectively. Fitting SxH interaction as additional random effect significantly increased the log-likelihood for analyses of BWT, GL and CD of all breeds, except for GL of CHA. The estimated heritabilities were less than or equal to the estimates obtained with models omitting SxH. The rdm increased (i.e. became less negative) for BWT, GL and CD of all five breeds. However, the increase for GL was not substantially high in comparison to the increase observed for BWT and CD. Genetic parameters obtained for BWT, GL and CD, by fitting SxH as an additional random effect, are more appropriate to use in the genetic evaluation of calving ease in BREEDPLAN.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
António Silvestre ◽  
Ângela Martins ◽  
Virgínia Santos ◽  
Jorge Colaço

1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. I. CUE

Estimates of genetic parameters of calving ease were obtained in Ayrshires. A restricted maximum likelihood model was used with the fixed effects of herd, month-season of calving, sex of calf and dam weight, and the random effect of sire (of calf). The heritability of the direct effect in heifers and in adult cows was approximately 2%, with a genetic correlation between the direct effect in heifers and in adult cows of close to 70%. Key words: Variance, heritability, calving ease, Ayrshire


2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Ellis ◽  
P. T. Hale ◽  
F. Carrick

The spatial and breeding dynamics of koalas in sub-tropical woodlands at Blair Athol in central Queensland were intensively monitored between 1993 and 1998. Genetic relationships among koalas at this locality were studied to determine the breeding dynamics of males, including whether ‘resident’ or ‘transient’ males dominate as sires. Males and females were radio-collared and tracked periodically throughout each year of the study. Genotypes from hypervariable microsatellite loci identified uniquely all individuals and were used to analyse parentage as well as to determine population genetic parameters when compared with other regional localities. Koalas at Blair Athol comprise a population in genetic equilibrium. Gene diversity estimates show the population to be similar to other populations found in similar habitat in the region, and estimates of genetic differentiation among four regional populations showed that gene flow conforms to a model of isolation by distance. Analysis of parentage found that both resident and transient males sired about equal numbers of offspring. Familial DNA analysis revealed multiple paternities of successive young in this population. The conclusion from this study is that ‘resident’ status among males does not confer any advantage for parentage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 240 ◽  
pp. 104183
Author(s):  
R.P. Silva ◽  
R. Espigolan ◽  
M.P. Berton ◽  
N.B. Stafuzza ◽  
F.S. Santos ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Dae Jung Kim ◽  
Jeong Il Won ◽  
Chung Il Cho

2013 ◽  
Vol 91 (8) ◽  
pp. 640-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Ledvenyiova ◽  
Dezider Pancza ◽  
Jana Matejiková ◽  
Miroslav Ferko ◽  
Iveta Bernatova ◽  
...  

Sex and aging represent important factors that determine morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in the human population. This study aimed to investigate the impact of aging on the response to ischemia–reperfusion in male and female rat hearts, and to explore a potential role of the PI3K–Akt pathway in the cardioprotective effects of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) in the myocardium of younger and older adult males and females. Langendorff-perfused nonpreconditioned and preconditioned hearts of 12- and 18-week-old male and female Wistar rats were subjected to regional ischemia and reperfusion with or without prior perfusion with the PI3K inhibitor wortmannin for the evaluation of ischemia-induced arrhythmias and the size of myocardial infarction (infarct size; IS). Aging did not modify IS in both sexes; however, it markedly increased susceptibility to arrhythmias. Although IPC effectively reduced IS in males and females of both ages, only the hearts of males and 18-week-old females benefited from its antiarrhythmic effect. In the preconditioned 12-week-old females, but not the 18-week-old females, and in males of both ages, wortmannin blunted the anti-infarct effect of IPC. In conclusion, activation of the PI3K–Akt pathway plays an important role in protection against lethal injury conferred by IPC in males irrespective of age. The IS-limiting effect of IPC appears to be PI3K–Akt-dependent only in the 12-week-old females.


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