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Sep
19
Interpretive Summary: Oxidative stress and postmortem meat quality in crossbred lambs
The mechanism of meat tenderization is well-recognized, but the impact of oxidative stress of skeletal muscle and its influence on factors critical to meat quality, as well as the impact of oxidative stress and its relationship toward the muscle transcriptome, has yet to be understood.
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Sep
19
Interpretive Summary: Influence of air equilibration time, sampling techniques, and storage temperature on enzymatic starch availability of steam-flaked corn
A recent study in the Journal of Animal Science conducted five experiments to evaluate factors influencing starch availability estimates of steam-flaked corn. This information is valuable because measuring enzymatic starch availability is commonly used as a quality control method to ensure steam-flaked corn manufacturing consistency in commercial cattle feeding operations, but starch availability estimates can be variable.
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Sep
19
Interpretive Summary: In vivo estimation of lipogenesis using a bolus injection of [U-13C]glucose in pigs
The use of radioactive isotopes to measure de novo lipogenesis in pigs has been well established; unlike radioactive isotopes, stable isotopes present little or no risk to human and animal subjects, but in vivo approaches to estimate de novo lipogenesis using stable isotopes have not been reported in pigs.
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Sep
16
Interpretive Summary: BHBA Metoformin Bovine Hepatocytes
Bovine hepatocytes were first treated with different doses of metformin, then exposed to BHBA levels commonly observed in cows experiencing ketosis. Various methods, including western blot, real-time quantitative PCR, chromatin precipitation, and immunofluorescence, were used to assess the activation of various pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways in hepatocytes.
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Sep
16
Interpretive Summary: Digestibility Reduced Lignin Alfalfa Horses
Alfalfa is a commonly used forage for horses with high nutritional requirements, but some of its utility as a highly digestible feed source may be negatively affected by lignin content. Lignin is a complex phenolic polymer that increases plant rigidity and growth, but negatively interacts gastrointestinal microbial populations, limiting the total tract digestibility of the forage.
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Sep
15
Interpretive Summary: Esfandyari and Jensen Bayesian genetic selection beef cattle
Esfandyari and Jensen conducted a Bayesian analysis of growth performance records of Danish beef herds to calculate residual feed intake and demonstrated its statistical utility in genetic selection of beef bulls over a period of 392 days.
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Sep
15
Interpretive Summary: Hidalgo Accuracy Genomic Prediction Broilers
In poultry, the accuracy genomic prediction has historically remained relatively stable when animal with known genotypes and phenotypes were added to the breeding population, but was dramatically reduced when no new animals were included, and as a result the response to selection was smaller than expected.
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Sep
13
Interpretive Summary: Effects of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation on nitrogen retention and methionine flux in cattle
Creatine stores high-energy phosphate bonds in muscle and is synthesized in the liver through methylation of guanidinoacetic acid; supplementation of guanidinoacetic acid may therefore increase methyl group requirements, which may affect methyl group utilization.
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Sep
13
Interpretive Summary: Using an automated head chamber system to administer an external marker to estimate fecal output by grazing beef cattle
GreenFeed, is an acceptable method to measure fecal output. The research team hypothesized that there would be adequate agreement in fecal output estimated using titanium dioxide as an external marker dosed between the GreenFeed and hand feeding in stanchions.
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Sep
13
Interpretive Summary: Melatonin alters bovine uterine artery hemodynamics, vaginal temperatures, and fetal morphometrics during late gestational nutrient restriction in a season-dependent manner
Research recently published in the Journal of Animal Science aimed to use beef heifers to evaluate the effect of maternal nutrient restriction and melatonin supplementation during late gestation on uteroplacental blood flow, vaginal temperatures, and fetal morphometrics during compromised pregnancy. It was hypothesized that maternal nutrient restriction during late gestation would decrease uteroplacental blood flow and melatonin supplementation during the daytime, which would mitigate the adverse effects of compromised pregnancy.
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Sep
13
Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of sow thermal preference across three stages of reproduction
A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated whether different reproductive stages of sows altered thermal preference and if current recommendations required updating. It was hypothesized that the reproductive stage would alter thermal preference in sows. This study is the first to look at temperature preference differences based on the reproductive stage of sows.
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Sep
13
Interpretive Summary: Detecting effective starting point of genomic selection by divergent trends from BLUP and ssGBLUP in pigs, beef cattle, and broilers
A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science aimed to find the start date of genomic selection for a set of economically important traits in pigs, Angus cattle, and broiler chickens by comparing trends obtained using best linear unbiased prediction and single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction.
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Sep
09
Interpretive Summary: Effects of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation on nitrogen retention and methionine flux in cattle
The research team from Kansas State University hypothesized that guanidinoacetic acid supplementation to Metdeficient cattle would induce a methyl group deficiency and that methionine supplementation would reduce the methyl group deficiency. Additionally, it was thought that guanidinoacetic acid might improve nitrogen retention when methionine was supplemented.
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Sep
09
Interpretive Summary: The impact of direct-maternal genetic correlations on international beef cattle evaluations for Limousin weaning weight
Maternally influenced traits include genetic factors that impact birth and weaning. Cultivating a better understanding of the heritability of maternally influenced traits may improve estimated breeding values (EBV), genetic selection and ultimately productivity.
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Sep
09
Interpretive Summary: Piglet birth weight increases, and litter size decreases, with compensatory feeding of sows
High backfat is not a desired trait in finisher pigs. Backfat thickness can vary depending on the season when piglets are born. Sows with high weight loss after summer lactation, for instance, yield smaller pigs with higher backfat thickness at harvest.
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Sep
09
Interpretive Summary: Review: optimizing genomic selection for crossbred performance by model improvement and data collection
Crossbreeding enables breeders to capitalize on heterosis, which is the phenomenon of superior average performance of crossbreds compared with the average performance of their parental lines. Breeding programs aiming to improve the performance of crossbreds may benefit from genomic prediction of crossbred performance for purebred selection candidates.
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Sep
09
Interpretive Summary: Wingless-type mouse mammary tumor virus integration site regulation of bovine theca cells
The results of the present study, outlined in the full paper, support the idea that the WNT signaling pathway is involved in the regulation of theca cell proliferation and steroidogenesis, but further research is required to explain the specific mechanisms of action and dose responses of WNT, Dickkopf, and secreted frizzled-related protein 4 and their relationship with other molecules during follicular growth. A better understanding of the role of WNT and their molecular mechanisms will allow for a greater perspective on how these signals impact follicular maturation and subsequent conditions that could lead to ovarian cysts.
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Aug
30
Interpretive Summary: Addition of dietary methionine but not dietary taurine or methyl donors/receivers to grain-free diet increases postprandial homocysteine concentrations in adult dogs
Grain-free diets have been popular in the pet industry for over a decade; however, recently, they have been associated with canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Research has linked DCM with a deficient of taurine in cats, which may be a possible cause for DCM in large breed dogs. Methionine and cysteine, amino acid precursors to taurine synthesis in dogs, is very low in ingredients used to replace grains. To date, there has been no research evaluating the plasma and whole blood taurine concentration of dogs when feeding grain-free diets supplemented with nutrients involved in the biosynthesis of taurine.
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Aug
30
Interpretive Summary: The impacts of xylanase on the fermentability and digestibility of high insoluble fiber diets in growing pigs
Adding coproducts to swine feed is an economical choice that can also adversely impact the digestibility of feed. Coproducts contain a higher amount of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), which cannot be digested by pigs. Poorly digested feed leads to reduced performance, an undesired effect. Adding carbohydrase enzymes to feed may make NPS more digestible without negatively impacting performance.
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Aug
30
Interpretive Summary: Effects of induced hindgut acidosis in growing pigs on growth, intestinal morphology and inflammation
Hindgut acidosis was induced by continuously infusing glucose (GLC) or casein (CAS) into the terminal ileum of growing pigs. Pigs were separated into three groups and given either an infusion of water (control), dextrose 50% (GLC) or casein sodium salt (CAS). Average daily feed intake was reduced in GLC and CAS pigs compared to the control.
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