Preventive effects of CIDR-based protocols on premature ovulation before timed-AI in Ovsynch in cycling beef cows

Ovsynch is a program developed to synchronize ovulation for timed breeding. In this paper, the authors investigate whether controlled internal drug release (CIDR)-based protocols prevent premature ovulation before timed-artificial insemination (AI) when Ovsynch is started a few days before luteolysis in cycling beef cows. Nine beef cows at 16 days after oestrus were treated with (1) Ovsynch, i.e. gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue on day 0, prostaglandin (PG) F(2alpha) analogue on day 7 and GnRH analogue on day 9 with timed-AI on day 10, (n=3); (2) Ovsynch+CIDR (Ovsynch protocol plus a CIDR for 7 days from day 0, n=3), or (3) oestradiol benzoate (OB)+CIDR+GnRH (OB on day 0 in lieu of the first GnRH treatment, followed by the Ovsynch+CIDR protocol, n=3). In the Ovsynch group (1) plasma progesterone concentrations fell below 0.5 ng/mL earlier (day 5) than in both CIDR-treated groups (2) and (3), where this occurred on day 8. Plasma oestradiol-17beta concentrations peaked on day 8 in the Ovsynch group and on day 9 in both CIDR-treated groups. The dominant follicle ovulated on day 10 in the Ovsynch group and on day 11 in both CIDR-treated groups. Thus, both CIDR-based protocols prevented premature ovulation before timed-AI in Ovsynch when the protocol was started a few days before luteolysis. This reflects the fact that progesterone levels remained high until the beef cattle were treated with PGF(2alpha).     

The association of hoof lesions at claw trimming with test-day milk yield in Danish Holsteins

In a cross-sectional study, performed between October 2002 and April 2003 on 55 Danish dairy herds with 6161 predominantly Holstein Friesian cows the prevalence of 9 hoof lesions was determined.

All test-day yields (TDY) of kg energy corrected milk (ECM) in the lactation of diagnosis were recorded. For the purpose of including hoof lesions in a decision support model an attempt was made to aggregate the lesions into digital dermatitis (DD), other interdigital diseases (OID, infectious diseases other than DD) and hoof horn diseases (HHD, related to metabolic disorders and trauma). A division was made based on the stage of lactation in which the lesions were diagnosed; during the first 100 days in milk, between days 101 and 200 and between days 201 and 305. Associations between the presence of hoof lesions at trimming and milk production were analyzed by linear mixed modeling at the cow level, clustered within herd. The data of primiparous cows was analyzed separately from the multiparous cows.

Based on the associations between TDY and the individual lesions aggregated into HHD, this aggregation as initially planned could not be justified and was therefore not maintained. For OID the value of early diagnosis was apparent; an early diagnosis and early treatment (<101 DIM) was associated with either a positive value or a value less negative compared to a diagnosis and treatment in late lactation (201–305 DIM). This pattern was not as clearly present for the other lesions.     

Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among Salmonella on midwest and northeast USA dairy farms

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among Salmonella isolated from dairy herds in New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, USA. Serogroup and antimicrobial susceptibility characteristics were determined for Salmonella from cattle and environmental samples collected during August 2000–October 2001 as part of a longitudinal study where 129 herds were visited at 2-month intervals. Salmonella isolates were tested (using a broth microdilution method) for susceptibility to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, ceftiofur, ceftriaxone, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Of the 1506 isolates tested for minimum inhibitory concentrations to these 14 antimicrobial agents, 81.2% were pan-susceptible and for most herds (81.6%) the predominant antimicrobial resistance pattern was pan-susceptible. At least 1 Salmonella isolate resistant to 5 or more antimicrobial agents was found on 23.6% of herds. This resistance phenotype was most common among serogroups B and E1 and among samples from calves and farmer-designated sick cows. Resistant samples most frequently exhibited resistance to tetracycline, streptomycin, and/or ampicillin. No samples were resistant to ceftriaxone (though 13 were in the intermediate range), and very few samples were resistant to ciprofloxacin (n = 1), nalidixic acid (n = 5), or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (n = 7).     

Genomic prediction for meat and carcass traits in Nellore cattle using a Markov blanket algorithm

This study was carried out to evaluate the advantage of preselecting SNP markers using Markov blanket algorithm regarding the accuracy of genomic prediction for carcass and meat quality traits in Nellore cattle. This study considered 3675, 3680, 3660 and 524 records of rib eye area (REA), back fat thickness (BF), rump fat (RF), and Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), respectively, from the Nellore Brazil Breeding Program. The animals have been genotyped using low-density SNP panel (30 k), and subsequently imputed for arrays with 777 k SNPs. Four Bayesian specifications of genomic regression models, namely Bayes A, Bayes B, Bayes Cπ and Bayesian Ridge Regression methods were compared in terms of prediction accuracy using a five folds cross-validation. Prediction accuracy for REA, BF and RF was all similar using the Bayesian Alphabet models, ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. For WBSF, the predictive ability was higher using Bayes B (0.47) than other methods (0.39 to 0.42). Although the prediction accuracies using Markov blanket of SNP markers were lower than those using all SNPs, for WBSF the relative gain was lower than 13%. With a subset of informative SNPs markers, identified using Markov blanket, probably, is possible to capture a large proportion of the genetic variance for WBSF. The development of low-density and customized arrays using Markov blanket might be cost-effective to perform a genomic selection for this trait, increasing the number of evaluated animals, improving the management decisions based on genomic information and applying genomic selection on a large scale.     

突破肉牛产业发展效益瓶颈问题的探讨

随着肉牛产业从持续火热期逐渐回落,加上饲料价格的新一轮上涨,出栏育肥牛盈利空间被极度压缩,一度出现一定比例的亏损和弃养现象。这是市场规律调节的结果,是养殖业必然要经历的市场阵痛期。所以仅仅依靠高行情去获得盈利,促进肉牛产业的发展是不可能长久的。本文阐述了从提高种牛品质、提高母牛繁殖性能、抓好犊牛培育及早期断奶、粗饲料储备等几方面着手,抓技术提质增效,抓管理降低成本,理顺养牛投资理念,使肉牛产业安全走出低谷期,以突破肉牛产业发展效益瓶颈。这是市场规律调节的结果,是养殖业必然都要经过的市场阵痛期。所以仅仅依靠高行情去获得盈利,促进肉牛产业的发展是不可能长久的。文章阐述了从提高种牛品质、提高母牛繁殖性能、抓好犊牛培育及早期断奶、粗饲料储备等几方面着手,抓技术提质增效,抓管理降低成本,理顺养牛投资理念,使肉牛产业安全走出低谷期,以突破肉牛产业养殖效益瓶颈。     

超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定猪牛组织中甲基盐霉素残留量

建立超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定猪牛组织中甲基盐霉素残留量。猪、牛组织中残留的甲基盐霉素,经乙腈溶液提取,硅胶固相萃取柱净化,超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定,外标法定量。甲基盐霉素在5 ng/mL～250 ng/mL的浓度范围内呈现良好的线性关系,甲基盐霉素在猪、牛肌肉、肝脏、肾脏、脂肪中的检测限均为2.5μg/kg,定量限均为5.0μg/kg,猪牛肌肉、肝脏、肾脏、脂肪中5.0 ng/g～100 ng/g添加浓度范围内的回收率均值为71.9%～88.4%,批内批间RSD值均<15%。     

Plasma lipopolysaccharide elevations in cattle associated with early-stage infection by Fasciola hepatica

Fasciolosis is an endemic zoonotic parasitic disease with significant impacts on human health and both animal health and production. Early post-infection impacts on the host remain unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the changes, if any, to levels of endotoxin in cattle plasma in response to early-stage infection with Fasciola hepatica. Thirty-six (36) commercial bred cattle were experimentally infected with approximately 400 viable metacercariae. Plasma lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) levels were examined on 24 occasions from 0 h before infection to 336 h after infection using the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate chromogenic end point assay and compared with that of six (6) uninfected control animals. Peak lipopolysaccharide levels in infected animals were reached at 52 h after infection and returned to pre-infection levels at time 144 h after infection. Infected animals had significantly elevated lipopolysaccharide levels between 24 and 120 h after infection when compared to uninfected animals. The mean change in endotoxin units (EU)/mL over time after infection was statistically significant in infected animals. Elevations of lipopolysaccharide occurred in all infected animals suggesting a possible repeatable and titratable endotoxemia conducive to therapeutic agent model development.     

Development of House Architectural Area Computing and Plotting System

The exact computing of house architectural area and apportionment of area is strongly related to the actual interests of people. If it is done manually,there are many problem such as longer time spending, more workload, requiring detailed verification, nonstandard calculating report. Using ActiveX automation and ADO techniques, the house architectural area computing and plotting system was developed under Autocad R14 environment with VB 6.0 and Access database in order to solve above problem. The developed system can automatically compute house architectural area and apportionment of area for each floor of each building and can print the related data report and drawing. The system works well in many departments of house measurement. Several key technical problem of the system are discussed.     

燃煤热风炉解决北方温室供暖问题的研究

随着"菜篮子"工程的实施,温室和蔬菜大棚得到了广泛应用,它对改善人民生活,解决北方冬季吃青菜难问题,繁荣农村经济发展发挥着重要的作用.但是,在北方大部分地区,冬春两季气温低,如果无强制供暖设备,就无法进行农业生产.因此,为保证北方地区冬季新鲜蔬菜的供应,温室和大棚内供暖设备的研究一直是一项重要的研究内容.为此,根据我国的能源状况、环境保护要求以及温室农作物的特点,对燃煤热风炉在温室蔬菜生产供暖系统中的应用进行了系统阐述.