Zoometric Characterization of Creole Cows from the Southern Amazon Region of Peru

Bovine breeding began in Peru more than five centuries ago; since then, adaptation has started. Nowadays, Creole cattle are part of economic activities of Peruvian farmers, as they supply food and profits, among other things, for families in Andean region. Creole cattle have many strengths such as resistance to diseases, low nutrient requirements and easy adaptation to different levels of altitude and environmental conditions. However, even with all these attributes, they are not valued within production systems. Moreover, these valuable genetic resources are disappearing gradually in Perú. For this reason, this study aims to characterize the zoometry of Creole cows from the Southern Amazonas region of Peru. Biotype classification was performed by hierarchical cluster and multivariate factors analysis. Qualitative traits were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Duncan’s test (α = 0.05) was used to compare means among groups. Associations between qualitative traits were determined with Chi-square. We distinguished three biotypes of Creole cows with characteristics for meat and milk production. This information is helpful for future conservation programs for Creole cattle.

Phylogenetic relationships of Argentinean Creole with other Latin American Creole Cattle as revealed by a medium density Single Nucleotide polymorphism microarray

The demographic history of Creole cattle in Argentina and in Latin America dates back to the time of the Spanishcolonization. This study aimed to investigate the potential use of a medium­density SNP array to describe cattlefromthe most representative andoldest herds of the Argentine Creole cattle breedregisteredat the time of theconstitution of the Argentinean Creole Cattle Breeders Association and to explore the phylogenetic relationship withCreole cattle fromother LatinAmericancountries. Toachieve this goal, genotypes from51 animals on34,008autosomal SNP were used to generate genetic distance matrices based on the proportion of shared identical­by­statealleles among individual animals and animals clustered according to their origin, analyzed by the PLINKprogram.Aneighbor­joining phylogenetic tree based on pairwise genetic distance was constructed using PHYLIP and wasprepared for visualization using FigTree. Amultidimensional scaling analysis was performed to evaluate the levelof relationship in terms of genetic distance among the different animal clusters. Genetic distances between animalsvaried from0.186 to 0.357 when considering all pairs of animals, and from0.186 to 0.338 when considering Creolepairs. The dendrogramobtained showed three major clusters. Cluster 1 included Latin American Creole cattle fromColombia, Guadalupe, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the reference groups of Holstein and Jersey cattle. Cluster 2contained exclusively Patagonian Creole cattle, while the third cluster included the remaining Argentinean Creoles.The genetic relationship patterns obtainedvia multidimensional scaling showeda close relationship among fourgroups of Creole animals fromArgentina. The closeness between clusters can be explained in part on the basis ofearly migration of animals that gave rise to founders herds at some Argentinean locations. The outcomes of thisstudycontribute toabetter understandingof the compositionof the earlyfounder herds of Creole cattle inArgentina and the relationship with other Latin America Creole cattle populations.

Fasciolosis effects on the metabolic profile in Creole cattle in México

Las enfermedades causadas por parásitos son una de las afectaciones que disminuyen las actividades productivas y reproductivas en los animales nativos y más aún en los animales destinados al consumo humano, como el ganado bovino, son rumiantes de gran importancia económica en todo el mundo, una de las enfermedades parasitarias que más afecta en las regiones subtropicales y tropicales de México es la fascioliasis, causada por Fasciola hepatica, cuya prevalencia se estima entre 23.5 a 33% en áreas muy húmedas con temperaturas que varían de 15.5 ± 1.1 a 34.1 ± 2.1 ℃., a altitudes que fluctuaron entre 300 y 2400 msnm. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar los cambios fisiopatológicos (análisis histológico y obtener el numero de duelas en parénquima hepático, perfil metabólico y enzimático y conteo diferencial de células sanguíneas) causados por F. hepatica en bovinos nativos o criollos en diferentes áreas zoogeográficas en México; se tomaron muestras de sangre y tejido hepático de 7,892 animales criollos o nativos. Resultados: la prevalencia de fascioliasis obtenida de la población de ganado nativo estudiado fue de 48.9%; en macro histopatología: se detectaron obstrucciones hepáticas, un aumento en el diámetro y engrosamiento de los conductos biliares (colangiohepatitis), una disminución en el grosor de los lóbulos hepáticos izquierdo y ventral, y en casos crónicos, se observó cirrosis hepática con hígados de hasta 30 mm de espesor; a nivel histologico: se observó pérdida de la morfología celular y presencia de huevos de F. hepatica, depositados en el parénquima hepático y en los conductos sanguíneos y biliares. Se detectó que el daño hepático era directamente proporcional al número de trematodos encontrados y que estos también causaron alteración en los componentes bioquímicos sanguíneos.