Problem statement: Gohilwari breed of goat is a multipurpose goat mainly for milk and meat purposes and best suited in its harsh climatic condition. This breed is inadequately characterized till now at DNA level. So the present study was undertaken for population genetic analysis at molecular level to exploit the breed for planning sustainable improvement, conservation and utilization, which su...

The genetic analysis of composite data is very complicated, mainly because it is necessary to adjust data to the effects of heterosis and breed complementarity, and because there is usually considerable confounding of these data with several other effects, such as contemporary group effects, breed composition of the animal and maternal breed composition, among others. Data on birth weight (n = ...

Heterosis and breed differences were estimated for milk yield traits, somatic cell score (SCS), and productive life (PL), a measure of longevity. Yield trait data were from 10,442 crossbreds and 140,421 purebreds born since 1990 in 572 herds. Productive life data were from 41,131 crossbred cows and 726,344 purebreds born from 1960 through 1991. The model for test-day yields and SCS included eff...

A highly contagious virus infection in horses, influenza is the single most important equine respiratory disease in the world. This paper presents details of a one-year study (1 June 2008 to 31 May 2009) to determine the prevalence of equine influenza in the horses of Gujarat State in India. The prevalence of equine influenza A/equi-2 was 12.02%, but none of the samples were positive for equine...

The objective of this study was to evaluate sire breed effect on mineral concentration in beef longissimus thoracis (LT) and investigate the correlations between beef mineral concentrations and carcass and palatability traits. Steer progeny (N=246) from the Germplasm Evaluation project-Cycle VIII were used in this study. In addition to carcass traits, LT was evaluated for mineral concentrations...

Four breed types with 12 cows/breed-type (Hereford x Angus, AHx; Charolais and Angus and Charolais x Hereford, Cx; Jersey x Angus, Jersey x Hereford, Jx and Simmental x Angus, Simmental x Hereford, Sx) were used to estimate nutrient requirements for zero daily weight change. Four nonpregnant, nonlactating cows of each breed type were assigned to one of three feeding levels [90 kcal metabolizabl...

Objectives were to estimate effects of sire breed (Dorset, Finnsheep, Romanov, Texel, and Montadale), dam breed (Composite III and northwestern whiteface), mating season (August, October, and December), ewe age (1, 2, and 3 yr), and their interactions on reproductive traits of F1 ewes. A total of 1,799 F1 ewes produced 3,849 litters from 4,804 exposures to Suffolk rams during 35-d mating season...

Purebred Angus (A), Polled Hereford (PH) and Santa Gertrudis (SG) bulls were mated to grades, two-breed and three-breed rotational crosses of these breeds (seven herds) to produce three generations (G1, G2 and G3) of calves. The grade A and PH cows were higher in A and PH breeding, respectively, than grade SG cows were in SG breeding. Reproductive performance among grade and rotational-cross he...

The eating quality of meat is a function of the animal production and carcase processing that has been applied. While live animal factors (animal age, nutrition, breed, pre-slaughter stress) often have a marked effect on beef eating quality, in many cases the treatment of the carcase on the slaughter floor and in the chiller can have a far greater effect. This update, which follows on from Meat...