Bangladesh is a densely populated agricultural country with an acute shortage of dairy milk. There are about 24.5 million cattle in Bangladesh, of which about 10 million are breeding cows. They provide mainly milk, meat, draught power, transport, and hide (an important export item). Dairying is practiced in Bangladesh as a part of local crop livestock farming systems, typically involving one or...

The objectives of this study were to analyze the genetic properties of three measures of lactation persistency in Polish Holstein-Friesian cows, and possibly to choose one measure which could be used for estimation of breeding value for lactation persistency in the Polish dairy cattle population. Data included 117,327 first three lactations of 110,141 cows calved in 1995-2009. The lactation cur...

Introduction Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) costs the US pork industry $1.8 million per day.1 Swine practitioners have been successful eliminating PRRS virus (PRRSv) from breeding herds by implementing herd closure-homogenization protocols.2 Implementation of these protocols has resulted in a source of PRRSv PCR-negative weaned pigs to be placed in growing facilities. A la...

The purpose of this review is to define possible breeding objectives for Southern African beef cattle farmers and to review different means of expressing genetic reproductive merit. The breeding objective considered was to maximize the number of calves born or weaned for a given number of cows in a herd under prevailing environmental and management conditions. This is a complex trait that has m...

Ž . Our understanding of insulin-like growth factor-I IGF-I in cervids has been limited mostly to its effects on antler Ž . Ž . Ž . Ž development in red deer Cer us elaphus , roe deer Capreolus capreolus , fallow deer Dama dama , and pudu Pudu . puda . Although IGF-I has been found to play a critical role in reproductive function of other mammals, its role in reproduction of deer is unknown. Th...

Ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM) requires taking account of indirect effects (such as habitat destruction, incidental mortality, and competition between the fishery and marine mammals or birds) and dealing with non-commensurate values (such as yield from the fishery and production of offspring by the birds or mammals competing for the same resource). The perspective of EBFM requires th...

One of the objectives of plant translational genomics is to use knowledge and genes discovered in model species to improve crops. However, the value of translational genomics to plant breeding, especially for complex traits like abiotic stress tolerance, remains uncertain. Using comparative genomics (ionomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics) we analyzed the responses to salinity of three mode...

Black rot, caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), is a severe seedborne disease of Brassica crops around the world. Nine races are recognized, being races 1 and 4 the most aggressive and widespread. The identification of Xcc races affecting Brassica crops in a target area is necessary to establish the adequate control measures and breeding strategies. The objectives of this stud...

A model of an ecosystem provides a useful tool for the exploration of management options to achieve desired objectives. With the move to a more holistic approach to marine resource management, ecosystem models and the indicators that can be derived using them, are providing a means to move away from single species management and allow for the ecosystem effects of population dynamics to be explo...

Pig breeding programs worldwide continue to focus on both productivity and robustness. This selection emphasis has to be accompanied by provision of better-quality environments to pigs to improve performance and to enhance health and welfare of pigs. Definition of broader breeding objectives that include robustness traits in addition to production traits is the first step in the development of ...