During the final stages of Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis fifteen nurse cells, sister cells to the oocyte, degenerate as part of normal development. This process involves at least two cell death mechanisms, caspase-dependent cell death and autophagy, as indicated by apoptosis and autophagy markers. In addition, mutations affecting either caspases or autophagy partially reduce nurse cell remo...

Species' life history traits, including maturation age, number of reproductive bouts, offspring size and number, reflect adaptations to diverse biotic and abiotic selection pressures. A striking example of divergent life histories is the evolution of either iteroparity (breeding multiple times) or semelparity (breed once and die). We analysed published data on salmonid fishes and found that sem...

A 12-wk laying trial, using 240 hens and 24 cocks of 52-wk old Fayoumi chicken strain, was conducted to determine whether hatchability can be improved by dietary biotin supplementation during the late stages of egg production and to study its effect on progeny performance. Birds were divided into 4 equal groups of 6 replicates each. A corn-soybean meal basal layer diet was formulated to contain...

Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serotype Enteritidis is a major cause of egg-borne human salmonellosis. The ability to survive in egg albumen at chicken body temperature was hypothesized to be an important factor involved in the predominant contamination of eggs by this specific serotype. Eighty-nine Salmonella strains from different serotypes, belonging to 5 serogroups, were incubated ...

The present study was conducted to evaluate the responses of Tamoxifen (TAM) administration on sexual maturity, productive and reproductive performance and blood parameters in two local juvenile female strains. Ninety females from each of Gimmizah and Bandarah strains at four weeks of age were divided into three equal groups involving 30 chicks per each and injected intramuscularly with TAM twi...

1. The effect of biotin supplementation of low-biotin practical diets during rearing and laying stages on performance was studied in White Leghorn-type laying hens. 2. Biotin supplementation during rearing did not have any apparent effect on the condition of the bird at point-of-lay or on subsequent laying performance. 3. Biotin supplementation during lay did not have any beneficial effect upon...

background: our study compares the efficacy of the combined contraceptive vaginal ring to oral contraceptive pills (ocps) for hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (hpo) axis suppression in egg donor in vitro fertilization (ivf) cycles. methods: our retrospective cohort study includes patients from the center for assisted reproduction (care) in bedford, texas undergoing ivf cycles as egg donors from j...

data related to yazd native fowls (obtained during 2000-2008) yazd native fowls were made use of in the present study. the investigated traits consisted of body weight at 8 (bw8) and 12 weeks (bw12), age at sexual maturity (asm), egg number during the first three months of production period (en) and the mean egg weight at 28, 30 and 32 weeks of age (ew). the genetic and phenotypic parameters we...

the experiment was carried out in poultry experimental station belonging to nrc, cairo, egypt. a total of 120 fayoumi layers, 45 weeks old, were randomly divided into four equal groups. each group included three replicates (10 hens in each). the first group was fed the control diet containing 3.3% gram ca, whereas, the other three received diets containing 2.8, 2.6 and 2.4% gram ca, respectivel...