Retroviruses have been infecting mammals for at least 100 million years, leaving descendants in host genomes known as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). The abundance of ERVs is partly determined by their mode of replication, but it has also been suggested that host life history traits could enhance or suppress their activity. We show that larger bodied species have lower levels of ERV activity by...

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of polymorphisms in the acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT1), leptin and growth hormone receptor genes on body energy (body condition score, total body energy content and cumulative effective energy balance) and blood metabolic traits (levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate, glucose and non-esterified fatty acids), measured once before th...

AIM The aim was to estimate genetic and non-genetic factors affecting morphometric traits of Sirohi goats under field condition. MATERIALS AND METHODS The detailed information of all animals on body measurements at birth, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age was collected from farmer's flock under field condition born during 2007-2013 to analyze the effect of genetic and non-genetic factors. The lea...

Body weight is an important economic trait in the selection of animals. The main purpose of animal breeding practices is to improve traits of economic value (Mendes et al., 2005). These traits have close association with explanatory variables such as age, breed and morphological characters. Body measurements have been used in animals to estimate body weight (Topal and Macit, 2004; Yakubu et al....

Quantitative genetic analyses of fish composition have been strongly biased towards lipid deposition, rather than protein deposition. This is partly at odds with desires of the modern aquaculture industry, to improve the efficiency of lean growth. Using a quantitative genetic approach, we examined the selection potential in both protein and lipid components of wet weight growth in rainbow trout...

OBJECTIVE The growth, carcass and retail cut yield records on 1,428 Hanwoo steers obtained through progeny testing were analyzed in this study, and their heritability and genetic relationships among the traits were estimated using animal models. METHODS Two different models were compared in this study. Each model was fitted for different fixed class effects, date of slaughter for carcass trai...

We evaluated the genetic and environmental contributions to metabolic cardiovascular risk factors and their mutual associations. Eight metabolic factors (body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, and serum uric acid) were measured in 508 twin pairs aged 8-17 years from the Qingdao Tw...

This study was conducted to analyze the difference of body types within and between wild and farmed populations of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus using measured records of morphological traits. The results showed that surveyed traits and standard deviation were 1,355±742 g of body weight, 48.01±7.79 cm of total length, and 40.96±6.80 cm of body length. Also body height, body shape index ...

Genetic correlations between longevity and conformation traits were estimated using data on Czech Holstein cows first calved in the years 1993–2008. Longevity traits considered were length of productive life and number of lactations initiated and their functional equivalents (i.e. the longevity traits corrected for milk production). Conformation traits were twenty one linear descriptive type tr...

the objective followed in the present study was to survey the relationship between 18 body trait measurements (live weight, height at wither, paunch girth, neck diameter, body length, girth around the body, width of fat tail at above, below and midpoint of fat tail, fat tail length lowers right and left sides, fat tail gap length, fat tail depth at the above, below, and midpoint, and girth arou...