The objective of this study was to estimate genetic associations of prolificacy traits with other traits under selection in the Finnish Landrace and Large White populations. The prolificacy traits evaluated were total number of piglets born, number of stillborn piglets, piglet mortality during suckling, age at first farrowing, and first farrowing interval. Genetic correlations were estimated wi...

This study hypothesized that the gut microbial populations, intestinal morphology, and cytokine production are differentially altered in 2 different pig breeds, namely, Chinese native Jinhua pigs and European Landrace pigs, after orally challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) K88. A total of 12 Jinhua pigs and 12 Landrace pigs were allocated to either the nonchallenged or the cha...

Sporidesmin is the mycotoxin that causes facial eczema disease (FE) in New Zealand (NZ) livestock. In an artificial sporidesmin dosing test, the introduced Finnish Landrace sheep breed was found to be significantly more tolerant to FE than the introduced Texel breed. This finding enables cross-breeding strategies to improve disease tolerance. Combining published data with the current study, a t...

The polymorphisms of ESR1, FSHB and RBP4 genes were detected by PCR-SSCP, PCR and PCR-RFLP in a Large White and a Landrace herd in Beijing, China and the influence of ESR1, FSHB and RBP4 on litter size traits was analyzed using three models. We found polymorphisms for the three genes in Large White besides for ESR1 and RBP4 genes in Landrace. The results showed that the most genotype effects ar...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major crop, grown worldwide and in a wide range of climatic conditions. Despite its importance as a crop species, little is known about the population genetics of barley and the effects of bottlenecks, adaptation, and gene flow on genetic diversity within and between landrace populations. In areas with highly developed agriculture, such as Northern Europe, these ty...

As maize was domesticated in Mexico around 9,000 years ago, local farmers have selected and maintained seed stocks with particular traits and adapted to local conditions. In the present day, many of these landraces are still cultivated; however, increased urbanization and migration from rural areas implies a risk that this invaluable maize germplasm may be lost. In order to implement an efficie...

Records on 47,360 Yorkshire, 28,762 Landrace, 14,020 Duroc, and 9,983 Hampshire pigs for backfat depth and days to 100 kg made between 1989 and 1992 in herds on the Ontario Swine Improvement Program (OSIP) were used to estimate additive genetic (animal), common environmental (litter), and residual variances and covariances of the two traits. Analysis was by the DFREML program of K. Meyer using ...

Jiao W., Ma Q., Lv X., Shan A., Li Z. (2017): Gene expression and tissue distribution of β-defensins in Chinese Min pigs and Landrace pigs. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 62, 178–183. β-Defensins are a major group of mammalian antimicrobial peptides and play an important role in innate and adaptive immunity due to their antimicrobial, chemotactic, and regulatory activities. In this study, the tissue dist...