In many organisms, large offspring have improved fitness over small offspring, and thus their size is under strong selection. However, due to a trade-off between offspring size and number, females producing larger offspring necessarily must produce fewer unless the total amount of reproductive effort is unlimited. Because differential gene expression among environments may affect genetic covari...

Body measurement traits are known to play numerous important roles in the assessment of productivity and economic value. They are influenced by several factors, among which genetic factors are predominant. The gene GDF₁₀ is involved in skeletal morphogenesis and is associated with body measurement traits. It may be an important candidate gene for marker-assisted selection. We used the PCR-SSCP ...

In the present study a deterministic bio-economic model was used to estimate economic values for reproduction traits (conception rate, twining rate and litter size), production traits (body weight of kid sold at 6.5 months, annual cashmere weight, body weight of doe and annual milk yield) and longevity (survival of doe, survival of kid until weaning and survival of kid until sale age at 6.5 mon...

As herd sizes have increased in the last decades, computerized monitoring solutions, which provide fast, objective and accurate evaluations of the herd status, gain more and more importance. This study analyzes the feasibility of a Time-of-Flight-camera-based system for gathering body traits in dairy cows for use under cow barn conditions. Recording, determination of body condition score on a 5...

The regulation of the bioavailability of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) is critical for normal mammalian growth and development. The imprinted insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor gene (IGF2R) encodes a transmembrane protein receptor that acts to sequester and degrade excess circulating insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-II) - a potent foetal mitogen - and is considered an important inhibit...

Physical deformities have been a recurrent challenge on broiler production in the tropics. The effect of physical body deformity (PBD) differential growth 550 commercial chicks Ross308 strain from day-old to 56 days were evaluated. Experimental design was completely randomized Design (CRD), while treatment groups normal birds (NB), crooked neck (CN), twisted Leg (TL) and neck+twisted leg (CN+TL...