Systematic environmental influences and variances due to direct and maternal effects and trends for yearling weight in cattle

N Assan; K Nyoni

doi:10.4314/ari.v6i3.55993

Genetic and environmental influences on beef cattle production in Zambia 3. Carcass characteristics of purebred and reciprocally crossbred castrated males

Animal Science ◽

10.1017/s0003356100024028 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 245-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

W. Thorpe ◽

D. K. R. Cruickshank ◽

R. Thompson

Keyword(s):

Beef Cattle ◽

Maternal Effects ◽

Environmental Influences ◽

Carcass Characteristics ◽

Economic Advantage ◽

Cattle Production ◽

Management Regimes ◽

Slaughter Age ◽

Beef Cattle Production

ABSTRACTCarcass characters for 365 male castrate cattle of the Africander, Angoni, Barotse and Boran breeds, and the reciprocal crossbreds of the latter three breeds, are reported. In each of the two year-of-birth groups, different slaughter-age/management regimes were used. For all carcass characters, except those related to size, the two sanga breeds, Africander and Barotse, were very similar, as were the two zebu breeds, Angoni and Boran. The introduced breeds, Africander and Boran, which had similar carcass weights, had heavier carcasses (+18 kg, +10%) than the indigenous Barotse and Angoni breeds.The sanga breed carcasses had less fat cover than those of the zebu breeds. Maternal effects were not important for carcass characters and the Angoni/Barotse and Angoni/Boran crosses showed no heterosis. In the Barotse/Boran crosses, slaughter and carcass weights and eyemuscle area gave between 8% and 9·5% heterosis, and the linear carcass measurements between 2% and 3%.It was concluded from the management comparisons that there was no economic advantage in delaying slaughter to the later of the two ages compared in the two year-of-birth groups.

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Genetic and environmental influences on beef cattle production in Zambia 2. Live weights for age of purebred and reciprocally crossbred progeny

Animal Science ◽

10.1017/s0003356100024016 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 235-243 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

W. Thorpe ◽

D. K. R. Cruickshank ◽

R. Thompson

Keyword(s):

Beef Cattle ◽

Maternal Effects ◽

Environmental Influences ◽

Live Weight ◽

Dry Season ◽

The Other ◽

Cattle Production ◽

Beef Cattle Production ◽

Supplementary Feed ◽

Natural Grassland

ABSTRACTLive weights from birth to 3·5 years are reported for beef cattle reared under ranching conditions in Zambia. The 809 cattle were purebred Africanders, Angonis, Barotses and Borans and the reciprocal crossbreds of the latter three breeds born in 2 years. All animals born in the 1st year and half the males born in the 2nd year grazed natural grassland. The remaining males and all females born in the 2nd year received, in addition, dry season supplementary feed from 1·5 years of age.The interaction of genotype with year-of-birth was important but not the interactions of genotype with management or sex. Purebred progeny of the introduced Africander breed were heavier than the progeny of the indigenous Angoni and Barotse breeds in both year-of-birth groups, but only heavier than progeny of the introduced Boran breed in the first group. On average, the Africander progeny had live-weight advantages of about 16% and 10%, and the Boran progeny advantages of about 12·5% and 5·5% over the purebred Angoni and Barotse progeny respectively. Heterosis estimates tended to increase with age, reaching levels of about 5 to 6% in the Barotse/Boran crosses at and after 1·5 years. Heterosis was not shown by the other crosses. The Barotse and Boran breeds had similar maternal effects which were superior to those of the Angoni breed.

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Behavioral Testing of Mice Concerning Anxiety and Depression

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000215 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 223 (3) ◽

pp. 151-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nina Schweinfurth ◽

Undine E. Lang

Keyword(s):

Environmental Influences ◽

Sickness Behavior ◽

Laboratory Research ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Housing Conditions ◽

Human Beings ◽

Behavioral Testing ◽

New Developments ◽

Animal Trials ◽

Resilience Factors

Abstract. In the development of new psychiatric drugs and the exploration of their efficacy, behavioral testing in mice has always shown to be an inevitable procedure. By studying the behavior of mice, diverse pathophysiological processes leading to depression, anxiety, and sickness behavior have been revealed. Moreover, laboratory research in animals increased at least the knowledge about the involvement of a multitude of genes in anxiety and depression. However, multiple new possibilities to study human behavior have been developed recently and improved and enable a direct acquisition of human epigenetic, imaging, and neurotransmission data on psychiatric pathologies. In human beings, the high influence of environmental and resilience factors gained scientific importance during the last years as the search for key genes in the development of affective and anxiety disorders has not been successful. However, environmental influences in human beings themselves might be better understood and controllable than in mice, where environmental influences might be as complex and subtle. The increasing possibilities in clinical research and the knowledge about the complexity of environmental influences and interferences in animal trials, which had been underestimated yet, question more and more to what extent findings from laboratory animal research translate to human conditions. However, new developments in behavioral testing of mice involve the animals’ welfare and show that housing conditions of laboratory mice can be markedly improved without affecting the standardization of results.

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