Used were 15 bulls and 15 heifers of the Black-and-White Polish Holstein-Friesian breed, semiintensively fattened, with the aim of evaluating the effect of sex on the selected traits of quality of beef. Bulls were slaughtered at the mean age of 536.2 days and 523.1 kg body weight, and heifers at 528.7 days and 459.7 kg body weight, respectively. After slaughter and post-slaughter treatment, the...

Mechanistic animal growth models can incorporate a description of the genotype as represented by underlying biological traits that aim to specify the animal's genetic potential for performance, independent from the environmental factors captured by the models. It can be argued that these traits may therefore be more closely associated to genetic potential, or components of genetic merit that ar...

The demand for special breeding programmes for organic pig meat production is based on the assumption that pigs kept under organic conditions need different biological properties compared with conventionally kept pigs in order to achieve a good performance. This would mean that genotype-environment interactions exist. Therefore, 682 pigs of seven different genotypes were tested for growth perfo...

In this paper, weight, carcass dressing, weights of the primary cuts, weights of the physical components of the primary cuts, and weights of the main commercial cuts of 66 Purunã animals, of which 33 were bulls and 33 were steers were evaluated. These animals, with an average age of 19 months at the beginning of the experiment, were finished in a feedlot system during 116 days, and were fed wit...

Coleoid cephalopods are thought to go through only one reproductive cycle in their life. We here report that vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) show evidence of multiple reproductive cycles. Female vampire squid spawn their eggs, then return to a resting reproductive state, which is followed by the development of a new batch of eggs. This reproductive cycle is likely to be repeated more ...

Iberian x Duroc pigs (n = 168), with an average age of 152 d and 42 +/- 2 kg, were used to investigate the effect of feeding regimen [ad libitum access to feed (AL) vs. 82% of AL from 152 to 201 d of age and 72% from 202 to 263 d of age (FR)] and sex (intact females, castrated females, and castrated males) on growth performance and carcass and meat quality. For the last 54 d before slaughter at...

Data (n = 1,746) collected from 1985 through 1995 on Korean Native Cattle by the National Livestock Research Institute of Korea were used to estimate genetic parameters for marbling score, dressing percentage, and longissimus muscle area, with backfat thickness, slaughter age, or slaughter weight as covariates. Estimates were obtained with REML. Model 1 included animal genetic and residual rand...

Complex regulatory decisions about risk rely on the brokering of evidence between providers and recipients, and involve personality and power relationships that influence the confidence that recipients may place in the sufficiency of evidence and, therefore, the decision outcome. We explore these relationships in an agent-based model; drawing on concepts from environmental risk science, decisio...

cass traits as barrows fed the C-SBM diet (P > 0.10). In Exp. 2, 60 barrows (initial and final BW of 74.6 and 104.5 kg, respectively) were used to estimate the dTrp requirement. The levels of dTrp used in Exp. 2 were 0.06, 0.08, 0.10, 0.12, or 0.14%. Response variables were growth performance, PUN concentrations, carcass traits, and pork quality. The dTrp requirement was estimated to be 0.102%....

In two separate 2 x 2 factorial arrangements, 69 male, crossbred lambs were allotted randomly to the following treatments: 1) nonimplanted (NI) rams, 2) implanted (I) rams, 3) NI wethers, and 4) I wethers. In Trial 1, 36 lambs were allotted to treatment groups at birth (n = 9) and I lambs were implanted with 12 mg of zeranol between 1 and 3 d of age and again at weaning (average age of 62 d). L...