Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies New Candidate Markers for Somatic Cells Score in a Local Dairy Sheep

In the Mediterranean basin countries, the dairy sheep production is usually based on local breeds, which are very well-adapted to their production systems and environments and can indeed guarantee income, employment, and economic viability in areas where production alternatives are scarce or non-existent. Mastitis is still one of the greatest problems affecting commercial milk production. However, genetic evaluation of mastitis is particularly difficult because of its low heritability and the categorical nature of the trait. The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions putatively associated with somatic cells count (SCC) in the local economically important Valle del Belice sheep breed using of deregressed breeding values (DEBV) as response variables. All the samples were genotyped using the Illumina OvineSNP50K BeadChip. Genome-wide association analysis was carried out based on regression of DEBV. A total of eight markers were found to be significantly associated with log-transformed SCC. Several candidate genes associated with SCC were identified related to immunity system and udder conformation. The results can help improving the competitiveness of the local Valle del Belìce breed. Further studies considering a higher sample size or independent population will be needed to confirm our results.

Impact of Non-Interest Income on Financial Performance of Joint Venture Banks in Nepal

The research was conducted to identify the non-interest income variables that will likely affect the financial performance of the joint venture banks of Nepal. The main objective of the study is to analyze the prominence of non-interest income and its effect on financial performance of joint venture banks in Nepal. This study will help the banks to identify other sources of income of the bank and try to look at its impact on the overall profitability and risk intention. To measure the financial performance, the indicator of profitability i.e. returns on assets and return on equity are taken into consideration for the study as a dependent variable and assets size, letter of credit fee, guarantee income, remittance fee, dividend income, exchange income, service charge, and renewal fee as an independent variable. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to capture the relationship. From the result analysis, it is observed that the non-interest income variables that would affect the financial performance of the joint venture banks. It is observed that not all variables have equal effect on the profitability as measure of financial performance, for joint ventures the factors like assets size, letter of credit fee, guarantee income, remittance fee, dividend income, exchange income, service charge, and renewal fee have a significant relationship with the measure of financial performance that is return on assets and return on equity. Apart from the interest income, there are lot of non-interest variables which leads to profitability so the banks looking to increase its profitability with lesser risk need to take these variables into consideration. Results indicate that banks need to keep the non-interest income variables into consideration at times for improving the financial performance of the joint venture banks.