Genetic diversity and historic introgression in German Angler and Red Dual Purpose cattle and possibilities to reverse introgression

Recovering native uniqueness has major importance for breeds with historic introgression. The aim of the study was to estimate population genetic parameters for two local red cattle breeds from Northern Germany and to study possibilities to reverse introgression. Genealogical information consisted of 90,783 individuals for German Angler and 187,255 individuals for Red Dual-Purpose cattle breed, with additional information on sex, born, breed, status, and conventional breeding values. It is concluded that the native genetic contribution could be included as an additional trait in the total merit index in order to recover a part of the native genetic background. Native contributions should be estimated in the long term from marker data in order to account for Mendelian sampling. The maintenance of a sufficient genetic diversity of native alleles can be achieved by an advanced OCS with appropriate constraints.     

CD117‐ and vimentin‐positive telocytes in the bovine teat sphincter

Mastitis is a common economically relevant problem in dairy farming. As the major entry for pathogens is the papillary duct, one of the first defence mechanisms is the teat sphincter. This sphincter shows a rhythmic contractility of yet unknown origin. Searching for possible modulatory pacemaker cells, teat sphincters of eight cows were stained immunohistochemically with antibodies against CD117 and vimentin and evaluated microscopically for the presence of telocytes. CD117‐ and vimentin‐positive telocytes with telopodes were found in close contact with smooth muscle cells. Our findings present a first evidence of telocytes in the teat of bovines.     

Single step genomic evaluation for female fertility in Nordic Red dairy cattle

Joint Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Sweden) genetic evaluation of female fertility is currently based on the multiple trait multilactation animal model (BLUP). Here, single step genomic model (ssGBLUP) was applied for the Nordic Red dairy cattle fertility evaluation. The 11 traits comprised of nonreturn rate and days from first to last insemination in heifers and first three parities, and days from calving to first insemination in the first three parities. Traits had low heritabilities (0.015–0.04), but moderately high genetic correlations between the parities (0.60–0.88). Phenotypic data included 4,226,715 animals with records and pedigree 5,445,392 animals. Unknown parents were assigned into 332 phantom parent groups (PPG). In mixed model equations animals were associated with PPG effects through the pedigree or both the pedigree and genomic information. Genotype information of 46,914 SNPs was available for 33,969 animals in the pedigree. When PPG used pedigree information only, BLUP converged after 2,420 iterations whereas the ssGBLUP evaluation needed over ten thousand iterations. When the PPG effects were solved accounting both the pedigree and the genomic information, the ssGBLUP model converged after 2,406 iterations. Also, with the latter model breeding values by ssGBLUP and BLUP became more consistent and genetic trends followed each other well. Models were validated using forward prediction of the young bulls. Reliabilities and variance inflation of predicted genomic breeding values (values for parent averages in brackets) for the 11 traits ranged 0.22–0.31 (0.10–0.27) and 0.81–0.95 (0.83–1.06), respectively. The ssGBLUP model gave always higher validation reliabilities than BLUP, but largest increases were for the cow fertility traits.     

Associations of fish with various types of littoral habitats in reservoirs

Fish associations with different types of littoral habitats were studied in four canyon‐shaped reservoirs in the Czech Republic in years 2010 and 2011 by gillnets. Two to three habitats per reservoir–beaches (former meadows), stump fields (former forest) and rubble slopes–were defined and sampled along the longitudinal axis of reservoirs. Effects of reservoir, habitat and locality (position along longitudinal axis) on fish biomass, abundance and species structure were tested for juvenile and adult fish separately. Hierarchical analysis of variance revealed that habitats differed significantly in fish biomass and abundance. Redundancy analysis showed that analysed environmental variables had significant influence on fish community structure. Most variability in community structure was explained by reservoir and then by combination of habitat and slope steepness. Locality position had the smallest influence on community structure. For both adult and juvenile fish total abundance and biomass, the most inhabited habitat was beaches; rubble slopes were the least inhabited. Habitat associations differed among species. Among adults, bream Abramis brama, white bream Blicca bjoerkna and roach Rutilus rutilus were associated with beaches and stump fields, whereas perch Perca fluviatilis, ruffe Gymnocephalus cernuus, asp Aspius aspius and pike Esox lucius were associated with rubble slopes. Bream, white bream, bleak Alburnus alburnus, roach, ruffe and pikeperch Sander lucioperca were associated with beaches among juveniles, whereas the only juvenile associated with rubble slopes was perch. We showed that most common species are associated with distinct habitats and also that utilisation of various littoral habitats differs in general.     

Surgical treatment of a complicated distal tibia epiphyseal Salter–Harris type I fracture in a yearling

This article describes the management of a complicated distal epiphyseal Salter–Harris type I fracture of the left tibia in a yearling horse. Closed reduction and internal fixation was attempted in the first surgery using tension band wires. Due to fracture instability 2 weeks after surgery, a full-limb transfixation pin cast was applied to the tibia and maintained for 7 weeks to prevent further fracture displacement and to achieve axial alignment. The full-limb cast was maintained for a total of 12 weeks, including the time with the transfixation pin cast. Cast sores and tendon laxity resolved without further complications. Ten months after the first surgery, the fracture had radiographically healed, and the horse was sound at the walk and trot in a straight line.     

How does water and salt stress affect the germination and initial growth of Brazilian soya bean cultivars?

The effects of water and salt stress on rate of germination and seedling growth were investigated under laboratory conditions in 46 soya bean genotypes from Central-West region of Brazil to verify how these stresses may limit crop establishment during the initial growth stage and also to identify the most tolerant genotypes to drought and salinity. Mild water and salt stresses were imposed by seed exposure to –0.20 MPa iso-osmotic solutions with polyethylene glycol—PEG 6000 (119.57 g/L) or NaCl (2.357 g/L) for 12 days at 25°C. The germination percentage, seedling length and seedling dry matter were measured, and then, salt or drought tolerance indexes were calculated. The “NS 5909 RG,” “NS 7000 IPRO,” “NS 7338IPRO,” “FPS Solimões RR,” “NS 5151 IPRO,” “SYN 13610 IPRO,” “LG 60177 IPRO,” “NS 6909 IPRO” and “BMX Desafio RR” were identified as the most drought-tolerant genotypes, whereas under salinity conditions, the genotypes “5D 615 RR,” “BMX Desafio RR,” “5D 6215 IPRO” and “BMX Ponta IPRO” were identified as tolerant. The “BMX Desafio RR” is the genotype most adapted to both stress conditions and, therefore, should be used under conditions of water shortage and excess salt in the soil at sowing time.     

Soil CO2 emission in sugarcane management systems

Sugarcane management systems affect soil attributes such as the carbon cycle. This fact has stimulated the sugar and alcohol industry to refine the sugarcane production systems by replacing the pre-harvest burning (PB) and manual harvest with mechanized harvesting followed by residue deposition. The aim of this study was to evaluate different management systems with respect to C cycling carbon dioxide and soil parameters (chemical, physical and biological) which were determined over the season. Three sugarcane cultivation systems were evaluated at the following periods: (a) PB, (b) 5-year green harvest and (c) 10-year green harvest. The results indicated that CO₂ emission was 36% greater in the 10-year sugarcane green harvest system than in the PB system. The bulk density and macroporosity were the factors that were most affected by the different sugarcane management systems and that significantly influenced soil CO₂ emissions. The principal component analysis showed that soil CO₂ emission was 18% influenced by base saturation (V%) and 14% by pH, especially in the PB area. Additionally, 19% was affected by carbon and macroporosity in the 5- and 10-year green harvest areas, respectively. From our results, it can be concluded that the most CO₂ emissions are in the areas of sugarcane green, this is due to the higher carbon concentration when compared with the area of burning sugarcane. The parameters that most influenced the CO₂ emissions were bulk density, porosity, macroporosity, pH and V%.