Mild to moderate overweight in dogs: is there an impact on routine hematological and biochemical profiles,echocardiographic parameters and cardiac autonomic modulation?

Veterinary Research Communications - Obesity is considered the most common nutritional disease of dogs. Even though overt obesity is more likely to impair health, even moderately overweight dogs...     

Genetic evaluation of Prosopis alba (algarrobo) in Argentina for cloning elite trees

Algarrobo (Prosopis alba) is an important nitrogen-fixing tree adapted to the semiarid regions of northwestern Argentina. The tree provides fuelwood and dimensionally stable lumber for flooring and furniture; its pods that have a high sugar content are consumed by livestock and humans. P. alba has been one of the most heavily harvested species. This paper reports on the evaluation of a nine-year-old Prosopis alba progeny trial containing 57 half-sibling families of eight provenances in northwestern Argentina (of the 1,596 trees planted, 1,289 survived in 1999). Considering the multiple uses of P. alba, the selection criteria included: total biomass production (from basal diameter using regression equations), height, rate of pod production, and pod sensory characteristics. The family-narrow-sense-heritability was 0.487 for height. 0.548 for biomass production, and 0.244 for pod production. In 1998, 12 of the 1,289 trees were more than 4 m tall and had more than 1.75 kg pods per tree; and their pods had a sweet or very sweet non-astringent taste. Scions from these 12 trees were successfully grafted onto unselected P. alba rootstock. These are currently being used to produce rooted cuttings. The pod production, biomass, and height of the 12 clones ranged from 6.55 to 14.4, 1.57 to 13.5, and 1.29 to 1.70 times the respective population means. The genetic gains of 13.5%, 77%, and 147% for height, biomass, and pod production respectively are greater than genetic gains for other tree species and are probably due to the great genetic variability in the local population and the lack of any prior genetic improvement program.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Why extensive research and development did not promote use of peach palm fruit in Latin America

Agroforestry Systems - Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) was domesticated as a fruit crop by the first Amazonians in traditional Neotropical agroforestry systems, but research and development...     

Walnut demonstrates strong genetic variability for adaptive and wood quality traits in a network of juvenile field tests across Europe

Adaptive and wood quality trait data were collected and analyzed on commercially available Juglans regia and J. regia×J. nigra provenances and progenies planted across Europe in a multi-site network. A total of 19 seed sources, replicated 35 times per site, were planted at 13 sites from 5 European countries, encompassing the potential distribution area of timber production plantation sites. The following traits were evaluated: survival, height, diameter at breast height, stem form, apical dominance, vegetative budbreak, along with biotic and abiotic damage. Mean values were significantly different both among provenances/progenies and sites. Most common damage was late spring and early autumn frost. Bud break ranking was significantly correlated with provenance and progeny origin. Although J. regia is fast growing, southern European early budbreak plant material should not be planted under most middle European conditions where late spring frost can be expected, as it has a significant negative impact on architectural (and thus wood quality) traits. Hybrid J. regia×J. nigra progeny performed better than J. regia provenances/progenies for most traits measured. Differences were significantly in favor of hybrids at sites with medium to low fertility, although some locally selected seed sources tended to perform as well as hybrids on high fertility sites.     

An overview of animal science research 1945–2011 through science mapping analysis

The conceptual structure of the field of Animal Science (AS) research is examined by means of a longitudinal science mapping analysis. The whole of the AS research field is analysed, revealing its conceptual evolution. To this end, an automatic approach to detecting and visualizing hidden themes or topics and their evolution across a consecutive span of years was applied to AS publications of the JCR category ‘Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science’ during the period 1945–2011. This automatic approach was based on a coword analysis and combines performance analysis and science mapping. To observe the conceptual evolution of AS, six consecutive periods were defined: 1945–1969, 1970–1979, 1980–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2005 and 2006–2011. Research in AS was identified as having focused on ten main thematic areas: ANIMAL‐FEEDING, SMALL‐RUMINANTS, ANIMAL‐REPRODUCTION, DAIRY‐PRODUCTION, MEAT‐QUALITY, SWINE‐PRODUCTION, GENETICS‐AND‐ANIMAL‐BREEDING, POULTRY, ANIMAL‐WELFARE and GROWTH‐FACTORS‐AND‐FATTY‐ACIDS. The results show how genomic studies gain in weight and integrate with other thematic areas. The whole of AS research has become oriented towards an overall framework in which animal welfare, sustainable management and human health play a major role. All this would affect the future structure and management of livestock farming.     

Determination of nitrofuran residues in milk of dairy cows using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

An analytical method has been developed for the determination of total bound and extractable residues of the nitrofuran drugs furazolidone, nitrofurazone, furaltadone, and nitrofurantoin in milk of dairy cows. The method involves overnight acid hydrolysis and simultaneous derivatization of the released side chains with 2-nitrobenzaldehyde. During hydrolysis, the bound metabolites are hydrolyzed to the side chains. After pH adjustment and solid-phase extraction cleanup, the derivatives are detected and quantitated using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry system with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization interface. Validation of the method is accomplished by fortifying control milk with a mixture of side chains at 1, 2, and 4 ng/g. Internal standards are added at the beginning of the procedure to compensate for matrix effects and recovery losses. Method accuracies range from 83 to 104% with coefficients of variation less than 13% for all four analytes. The limits of detection are相似文献   

Changes in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks after conversion of subtropical natural forest to loblolly pine plantations

Pinus plantations have increased in Brazil, and native forest areas have been converted for timber production. The clearing and the long-term loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) land-use effects on soil carbon and nitrogen stocks were evaluated in a natural broadleaved forest and in loblolly pine sites cultivated for 29, 35, 38 and 49 years, as well the soil contribution as ecosystem carbon pool. According to the exponential-decay model fitted to changes in carbon stock, the initial soil carbon stock of 200 Mg ha^?1 to a depth of 100 cm in the natural forest decreased by 36% over 49 years of pine cultivation (around 72.4 Mg ha^?1 of C). Around two-thirds of this decrease occurred in the top 30 cm of the soil and intensively in the first 12 years of cultivation, but slowly faded as carbon stock tended to reach a new steady state after approximately 49 years of cultivation. The soil nitrogen stock in the natural forest was 14.2 Mg ha^?1 to a depth of 100 cm and decreased by 36% over the 49 years. This decrease was linear according to the fitted model, especially in the top 30 cm where nitrogen decline was 83% and was proportionally more intense than the carbon decline. Despite the soil carbon decrease, soil remained the largest carbon reservoir in the ecosystem for the growing rotation time of loblolly pine in this region.