The herd dynamic milk (HDM) model is a dynamic model capable of simulating the performance of individual dairy animals (from birth to death), with a daily time step. Within this study, the HDM model is described and evaluated in relation to milk production, body condition score (BCS) and BCS change throughout lactation by comparing model simulations against data from published experimental stud...

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) has been shown to be associated with fertility, growth, and development in cattle. The aim of this study was to (1) identify novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the bovine IGF-1 gene and alongside previously identified SNPs (2) determine their association with traits of economic importance in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle. Nine novel SNPs were i...

Vitamin B-12 (also called cobalamin) is essential for human health and current intake levels of vitamin B-12 are considered to be too low. Natural enrichment of the vitamin B-12 content in milk, an important dietary source of vitamin B-12, may help to increase vitamin B-12 intake. Natural enrichment of the milk vitamin B-12 content could be achieved through genetic selection, provided there is ...

To improve the culture system of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos, we studied the effects of activin A on developmental competence of bovine SCNT embryos during the early development stage based on the traditional culture method, and analyzed the expression level of the genes related to blastocyst hatching (Na/K-ATPase, Glut-1) and related to activin A signalling pathway (Act...

and Implications The relationships between body condition score (BCS) observed during the first 45 days of lactation and two measures of feed efficiency, residual feed intake (RFI) and gross efficiency (GE) defined as milk energy / DMI, measured during mid-lactation were assessed in 255 first lactation Holstein cows. No significant differences in BCS at calving and at approximately 40 days in m...

The objective of this project is to compare growth and survival rate in Chinese carps reared under traditional culture conditions versus those reared in ponds treated with slurry (anaerobic fermented of cow manure). This experiment was conducted using two treatments one treatment using slurry and the other using cow manure plus chemical fertilizer as the control with three replicates for each....

Material suspected of originating from species of Rhinoceros is frequently seized by forensic organizations investigating trade in endangered species. At present identification of the species is possible by DNA sequencing of the material, such as powdered rhinoceros horns. The unambiguous identification of rhino products using a 402 bp fragment of cytochrome b gene was investigated. This DNA se...

DNA sequencing, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism were used to investigate mutations in the coding regions of the bovine myeloid antimicrobial peptide-28 (BMAP-28) and mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2) genes in 249 Chinese Holstein dairy cows. The associations between the polymorphisms and somatic cell score (SCS) ...