Facial eczema (FE) is a disease of grazing ruminants causedbyingestingsporesofthefungusPithomyces chartarum. The spores contain a toxic compound, sporidesmin, which causes liver injury, sensitivity to sunlight andreduced performance in susceptible dairy cattle. The extent of production losses is summarised. Research at Ruakura has demonstrated that the resistance of animals to FE is inherited, ...

A clonal adjunct to a large Pinus radiata D.Don provenance-progeny trial involved six populations (all the natural populations except Cedros, plus two "land-race" populations from New Zealand) x 30 wind-pollinated progenies (families) x two clones nested within each of two sites x four ramets per clone. The clones were cuttings taken from previously hedged 3-year-old ortets at c. 55 cm height, ...

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis of Pistacia vera L. was used to distinguishing sex type in progeny plants. Varied genotypes of the pistachio were analyzed by PCR amplification of a ten base primer previously found to be linked to the expression of a 945bp amplification band in female trees and its absence in males. Results revealed that genetic material from cultivar samples am...

Environmental conditions experienced by parents are increasingly recognized to affect offspring performance. We set out to investigate the effect of parental larval diet on offspring development time, adult body size and adult resistance to the bacterium Serratia marcescens in Drosophila melanogaster. Flies for the parental generation were raised on either poor or standard diet and then mated i...

The objective of this study was to examine the health and meat production of cloned sows and their progenies in order to demonstrate the application of somatic cell cloning to the pig industry. This study compared the growth, reproductive performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Landrace cloned sows, F1 progenies and F2 progenies. We measured their body weight, growth rate and f...

A software tool was developed for the stochastic simulation of multiple traits and uses sequential culling for the different traits. It selects superior progeny and, at present, can calculate genetic gain from the backward selection of parent clones based on progeny performance, crossing those parent clones, and forwards selection among the progeny. Key information input to the program includes...

Performance records for 223 boars and gilts in Duroc and Yorkshire selected and control lines and for 231 boar and gilt progeny from reciprocal breed crosses were analyzed to evaluate (1) maternal effects, (2) effects of mass selection in purebreds on performance of crossbred progeny and (3) heterosis effects. Selection of purebred herd replacements was based mainly on an index (Index) of avera...