Bar-headed goose (Anser indicus), a species endemic to Asia, has become one of the most popular species in recent years for rare bird breeding industries in several provinces of China. There has been no information on the gut metagenome configuration in both wild and artificially reared Bar-headed geese, even though the importance of gut microbiome in vertebrate nutrient and energy metabolism, ...

Greylag goose populations are steadily increasing in north-western Europe. Although individuals breeding in the Netherlands have been considered mainly sedentary birds, those from Scandinavia or northern Germany fly towards their winter quarters, namely over France as far as Spain. This study aimed to determine the genetic structure of these birds, and to evaluate how goose populations mix. We ...

Geese are large, herbivorous birds that graze in huge flocks in ways that may have a considerable impact on vegetation. This is exemplified best in two subspecies of snow geese, the lesser and the greater, both of which have increased dramatically in numbers in recent decades. In arctic coastal salt marshes, moderate goose grazing on Puccinellia phryganodes enhances plant production, but if it ...

Biomineralization is an important process in which hard tissues are generated through mineral deposition, often assisted by biomacromolecules. Eggshells, because of their rapid formation via mineralization, are chosen as a model for understanding the fundamentals of biomineralization. This report discusses purification and characterization of various proteins and peptides from goose eggshell ma...

Malonyl-CoA decarboxylase was purified from goose uropygial gland, reduced, carboxymethylated, and digested with trypsin. Several peptides were purified by high performance liquid chromatography and their amino acid sequences determined. Oligonucleotide probes were prepared based on their amino acid sequences. Size-selected RNA from the goose uropygial gland was used to construct cDNA libraries...

Good phylogenetic trees are required to test hypotheses about evolutionary processes. We report four new avian mitochondrial genomes, which together with an improved method of phylogenetic analysis for vertebrate mt genomes give results for three questions in avian evolution. The new mt genomes are: magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmata), an owl (morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiae); a basal passerin...

113 Effects of dietary non-phytate phosphorus level and phy­ tase on growth performance of Cherry Valley duck. Z. Z. Ren*1, Q. F. Zeng1, X. M. Ding1, S. P. Bai1, Y. H. Luo1, J. P. Wang1, K. Y. Zhang1, and G. Xu2, 1Institute of Animal Nutrition, Animal Nutrition and Feed Engineering, Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan, China, 2Sichuan Chuanheng Chemi­ ca...

Interferons, as the first line of defense against the viral infection, play an important role in innate immune responses. Type III interferon (IFN-λ) was a newly identified member of IFN family, which plays IFN-like antiviral activity. Towards a better understanding of the type III interferon system in birds, type III interferon lambda receptor (IFNLR1) was first identified in the Chinese goose...

Duck Tembusu virus (TMUV), an emerging avian flavivirus, is highly pathogenic to birds and has the potential to become a zoonotic pathogen. Here, the molecular antiviral mechanism of goose type I, II, and III interferon (goIFNα, goIFNγ, and goIFNλ), the key components of the innate immune pathway, against TMUV was studied. We found that the transcription of goIFNs was obviously driven by TMUV i...

Nebraska’s Rainwater Basin (RWB) is a key spring migration area for millions of waterfowl and other avian species. Avian cholera has been endemic in the RWB since the 1970s and in some years tens of thousands of waterfowl have died from the disease. We evaluated patterns of avian cholera mortality in waterfowl species using the RWB during the last quarter of the 20th century. Mortality patterns...