Agris category codes: L01, Q04
COBISS Code 1.01 Language: English
CARCASS
QUALITY OF AUTOCHTHONOUS CIKA CATTLE
a), Marko ČEPON and
Silvester ŽGUR
a)Univ. of
Ljubljana, Biotechnical Fac., Dept. of Animal Science, Groblje 3, SI-1230
Domžale, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
The Cika cattle
is the only Slovenian autochthonous cattle breed, counting around 1,600
animals in 2007.. The breeding goal for Cika cattle is dual purpose with the
emphasis on milk production. However, Cika cattle is mostly reared in the
cow-calf system. To a smaller extent Cika cattle is still used for milk
production in the traditional regions for Alpine dairy-farming. Our main
interest was to get an insight into carcass quality of Cika cattle. The data
used in this survey were collected in slaughterhouses in the years 2005
through 2007. Out of all slaughtered cattle in 2007 the share of slaughtered
Cika cattle was 0.24%. According to the category, the slaughtered animlas
were very heterogenic in carcass weight which is seen in rather large
standard deviations. The average carcass weight of A category (bulls under
24 months of age) was 260.3 kg. The majority of bulls under 24 months of age
and calves were classified in conformation class O (57.1 and 47.8%), whereas
bulls over 24 months of age were mostly classified in the conformation class
R. The majority of calves (88.1%), bulls under 24 months of age (55.8%) and
bulls over 24 months of age (49.5%) were classified in fatness class 2. Most
of Cika cattle are reared extensively on small farms, mostly on mountain
pastures without any additional concentrates. This could present the basis
and the opportunity for Cika breeders to promote beef from Cika cattle on
the market and to increase their income. Autochthonous Cika is well adapted
to the environment and helps to maintain biodiversity and sustainable
agricultural production, especially in less favourable agricultural areas.
Agris category
codes: L10
COBISS Code 1.01 Language: English
GENETIC
PARAMETERS FOR GROWTH IN CHAROLAIS CALVES
a), Mojca SIMČIČ and
Špela MALOVRH
a)Univ. of
Ljubljana, Biotechnical Fac., Dept. of Animal Science, Groblje 3, SI-1230
Domžale, Slovenia, M.Sc., Lecturer
ABSTRACT
Genetic parameters for birth weight (BW), weight at the beginning (WB), in
the middle (WM), and at the end of grazing season (WE), as well as weight at
the age of one year (WY) were estimated. Data were collected on 319
Charolais calves. The total number of records, including pedigree data
(parents and grandparents) was 377 animals. Variance and covariance
components were estimated by REML method using the VCE-5 package. The
effects of sex, parity and year of birth were included in the models for all
traits. Age of calves at the beginning of grazing season was included as
linear regression in models for all traits except for birth weight. The age
of calves in the middle, at the end of grazing season, and age at
approximately one year were included as linear regression in the models for
corresponding weights. Direct additive genetic effect was included in models
for all traits as random effect. Estimated heritabilities for BW, WB, WM, WE
and WY were 0.62 ± 0.06, 0.23 ± 0.09, 0.35 ± 0.08, 0.29 ± 0.07 and 0.23 ±
0.07, respectively.
Agris
category codes:
L10
COBISS Code 1.01 Language: English
Calculation of PrP GENOTYPE
AND NSP TYPE PROBABILITIES IN SLOVENIAN SHEEP
a),
Marko PLOHL and Drago KOMPAN
a) Univ.
of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Fac., Dept. of Animal Science, Groblje 3, SI-1230
Domžale, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
The PrP genotype
probabilities in non genotyped Slovenian sheep were calculated. Altogether
36 083 ewes and rams of various breeds were included into analysis. The PrP
genotype was known for 10 504 animals. Five different PrP alleles were
present in the data set. Pedigree and genotype data structure differed
between breeds. Iterative allelic peeling with incomplete penetrance model
was used for the calculation of genotype probabilities for each animal given
the genotype data of relatives. Analyses were performed for each breed
separately. Additionally, NSP (National Scrapie Plan) type probabilities and
the average NSP value were calculated from the genotype probabilities.
Results were presented for live animals only. There were no animals with
additionally identified PrP genotype or NSP type with certainty. The PrP
genotype was additionally identified with 95% probability for 0.0 to 5.7%
animals of different breeds. NSP type was additionally identified with the
same probability for 0.0 to 34.9% animals of different breeds. We assume
that the low number of additional identifications was due to: a large number
of alleles, intermediate allele frequencies, data structure, a uniform
prior, and the use of incomplete penetrance model. Additional
identifications provided some cost savings, but did not prove useful in the
selection for scrapie resistance of the entire population. The average NSP
value should be used instead, since it can be calculated for all animals and
encompasses all information from genotype probabilities.
Agris
category codes: L10
COBISS Code 1.01 Language: English
LONG-TERM
DIVERGENT SELECTION FOR 8-WEEK BODY WEIGHT IN CHICKENS – A REVIEW OF
EXPERIMENTS
a)and
Antonija HOLCMAN
a)
Univ. of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Fac., Dept. of Animal
Science, Groblje 3, SI-1230 Domžale, Slovenia, Ph.D.
ABSTRACT
In order to study the effects of long-term selection on genetic parameters,
the effect of selection on selected and correlated traits and to develop
lines for various physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic studies a
comprehensive selection study for body weight in chickens has been conducted
at the Biotechnical Faculty of University in Ljubljana. Long-term divergent
selection in chickens for 8-week body weight for 31 generations produced a
high weight (D+) and low weight (D–) line. Body weight at 8 weeks of age was
the exclusive selection criterion. Selection lines were compared for body
weight and for unselected traits including carcass traits, feed conversion,
egg and meat quality traits, reproduction traits, muscle characteristics,
nutritional and physiological traits. This paper describes the most
important results of different experiments that were performed on animals
from both lines in various generations of selection.
CARNIOLAN
BEE (Apis mellifera carnica
Pollman) POPULATION DEFINITION AS
BASED ON DIFFERENCE IN WING VENATION STRUCTURE
a)
a) Agricultural
institute of Slovenia,
Hacquetova 17, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Ph.D.
ABSTRACT
Based on morphology of Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera carnica Pollman
1879) the population in Slovenia has been divided in more subgroups or
ecotypes, but these differences could not be vonfirmed using genetic
methods. Therefore one more time Slovenian population of honeybees were
studied, this time based on wing venation analysis. Two hundred seventythree
samples from Slovenia and 68 samples from Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece
including some selection lines from Austria, Germany, Poland and France were
used. On each wing 19 points were marked from which 37 wing characteristics
were measured and calculated. Slovenian population of honeybees were
analyzed and compared with other groups. Differences, based on discriminant
and PCA analysis as well as analysis of variance were found between groups.
Differences between groups were also confirmed using measurements of cubital
index. On the other hand, the same approach did not reveal any differences
within Slovenian populations. According to our results we can conclude that
Slovenian population of honeybees is homogenous and as such does not offer
additional variability which coulnd be exploited for selection or
preservation purposes.
a)
Univ. of
Ljubljana,
Fac. of Electrical Engineering, Laboratory for Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, Tržaška cesta 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Ass.Prof., Ph.D.
ABSTRACT
Microcomputers have become ubiquitous tools for DNA research and analysis.
Before DNA sequences can be fed into computer programs they need to be
suitably coded, which is usually done in a widely accepted FASTA format.
According to this scheme, DNA sequence is represented as an ASCII string of
four nucleotide characters A, G, C and T, possibly extended with additional
codes for representation of degenerated sites, and a character code for
FASTA blanks when dealing with aligned DNA sequences. FASTA representation
is intuitive for biologists and it eases development of programs since
developers can utilize a myriad of available libraries for working with
ASCII strings. Despite the mentioned advantages, FASTA format possesses
certain drawbacks like inefficient searching for substrings, especially in
the presence of degenerative codes. The second disadvantage is inefficient
storage of FASTA blank characters, since each such character occupies one
byte of memory. Substring searching speed is also negatively affected in the
case of excessive number of blanks. Due to the stated drawbacks, we propose
an alternative coding of DNA sequences, which enables faster searching of
substrings and efficient storage of FASTA blanks, with the result that a
greater set of DNA sequences can be held in working memory of a computer and
processed faster.
a)
Univ. of
Ljubljana,
Medical Fac., Institute of Pathology,
Medical Experimental Centre, Zaloška 4, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
The FELASA (Federation
of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations) and ICLAS (International
Council for Laboratory Animal Science) Joint Meeting took place in Italy in
June 2007. The meeting has attended over 1100 experts from the whole world.
The international symposium has provided a comprehensive overview of the
most recent developments in the field of laboratory animal sciences and
technologies. It was organized to present, consult and create guidelines for
the future. Main topics of the meeting were refinment and innovative
techologies of experimental procedures, housing and use of laboratory
animals, legislation, education and training of personel and ethics, which
are described in article. In article special attention is also devoted to
legislation in European Union, which is in the process of supplementing and
changing, because all accepted amendments will affect legislation in
Slovenia.
ENUMERATION OF
PROBIOTIC MICROORGANISMS IN FEED MIXTURES
a), Bojana BOGOVIČ-MATIJAŠIÆ
and Irena ROGELJ
a)
Univ. of
Ljubljana, Biotechnical Fac., Dept. of Animal Science, Groblje 3, SI-1230
Domžale, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
In animal nutrition
a wide range of probiotic microorganisms belonging to lactic acid bacteria,
yeasts and Bacillus genus are used. In this study we determined the
number of microorganisms in different complete feed mixtures and premixtures,
containing commercial probiotic supplements Bioplus 2b, Vebac or Biosaf.
Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis bacterial strains,
which were isolated from product Bioplus 2b, were tested for antibiotic
susceptibility, antimicrobial activity and ability to survive in simulated
gastric and intestinal juice. We found that all tested products contained
lower number of microorganisms than declared. The difference between
declared and established value was the highest in products with Vebac and
Biosaf. B. subtilis and B. licheniformis isolates were
sensitive to all selected antibiotics except metronidazol. Survival test
showed that simulated gastric or intestinal juices did not have considerable
effect on spore survival, while vegetative cells of Bacillus strains
were very sensitive to low pH and bile salts. B. licheniformis
inhibited mostly Gram positive bacteria, while B. subtilis was more
efficient against Gram negative bacteria.
Agris
category codes: L73
COBISS Code 1.03 Language: English
Polymorphism analysis of the promoter of cow lactoferrin gene with PCR-RFLP
and its correlation with subclinical mastitis
a), Gao-ming HE, Yan-liang WANG
and Zhao-xia ZHANG
a)
Shihezi University, College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi Xinjiang,
China 832000
ABSTRACT
CMT was used to
detect the incidence of mastitis. One hundred twenty cows were selected and
assigned into 2 groups, 60 animals in each group: control group (healthy
cows), experimental group (cows with subclinical mastitis) and the
relationship between cow′s subclinical mastitis and polymerase chain
reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the promoter
of cow lactoferrin gene was explored. The results showed that polymorphism
existed in the promoter of bovine lactoferrin gene, which suggested that
this polymorphism could be associated with mastitis susceptibility.
