Adult females of the tick Boophilus decoloratus were removed from 6 breeds of cattle on 2 farms in the Northern Transvaal. Highest numbers of female ticks were collected from Simmentaler, followed by Santa Gertrudis, Bonsmara, Afrikaner, Brahman and Nguni. Resistance levels of each breed to B. decoloratus was positively correlated with the amount of Bos indicus genes in the breed, with the exce...

Introduction Taurine (Bos taurus) and zebu (Bos indicus) cattle were domesticated independently in the Near East and in India respectively (Beja-Pereira et al., 2006) and are believed to have diverged 117-275,000 years ago (Bradley et al., 2006). Bos taurus cattle were introduced to Australia by European settlers in the end of the 18th century. The main B. indicus breed used for beef production...

In the recent publication “Comparative Analyses of Nonpathogenic, Opportunistic, and Totally Pathogenic Mycobacteria Reveal Genomic and Biochemical Variabilities and Highlight the Survival Attributes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis,” Rahman et al. (1) used bioinformatic methods to examine the evolutionary relatedness and metabolic capacity of mycobacteria of diverse pathogenic potential. A key co...

OBJECTIVE To observe three species of Kalicephalus found in three species of snake (Ophiophagus hannah, Ptyas mucosus, and Naja Sputatrix) during research on Capture Snake for Trading in Java and Snake Biodiversity in Kalimantan Islands. METHODS Specimens for light microscopy examination were fixed with warm 70% alcohol, cleared and mounted in lactophenol for wet mounting. Drawings were made ...

Mechanisms of testicular thermoregulation, the relationship of scrotal, testicular vascular cone (TVC), and testicular morphology with thermoregulatory capability, and their effects on semen quality and sperm production were studied in 20 Bos indicus, 28 crossbred, and 26 Bos taurus bulls. The ratio of testicular artery length and volume to testicular volume were larger (P<0.05) in B. indicus a...

A new species of spider crab, Sunipea callistus, n. sp., from Cape Guardafui, Somali Republic, is described and illustrated. Sunipea indicus (Alcock, 1895) is also redescribed and figured. Sunipea callistus n. sp. differs from S. indicus in the structures of the carapace, third maxillipeds, thoracic sternum, male abdomen, and chelipeds. Despite a number of characteristics that separate both spe...

Heat stress has negative effects on pregnancy rates of lactating dairy cattle. There are genetic differences in tolerance to heat stress; Bos taurus indicus (B. t. indicus) cattle and embryos are more thermotolerant than Bos taurus taurus (B. t. taurus). In the present study, the effects of sire and sire breed on conception and embryonic/fetal loss rates of lactating Holstein cows during the Br...

Greater than half of the cattle in the world are managed in tropical environments, while approximately 40% of beef cows in the United States are located in subtropical areas. Furthermore, approximately 80% of global beef production is Bos indicus based. Given this, Bos indicus germplasm plays a critical role in both US and worldwide beef production particularly when used as part of a well-struc...