The expanding demand for livestock products in developing countries is expected to drive changes in livestock farming systems, such as intensification and technological development. However, while large commercial farms can take advantage of these new opportunities, semi-subsistence agriculture will be the main option for many poor livestock keepers. Development pathways may depend on local and...

The molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic control of fat development in humans and livestock species still require characterization. To gain insights on gene expression patterns associated with genetic propensity for adiposity, we compared subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT) transcriptomics profiles from two contrasted pig breeds for body fatness. Samples were obtained from Large White (LW...

Helminthiases are among the most important livestock diseases worldwide, in particular for small ruminants, which are the focus of this review. Resource Allocation Theory implies that high-productivity farm animals proportionate insufficient resources for adequate coping with stressful conditions. Significant differences between breeds and within breeds are seen, as well as genotype vs. environ...

Importance of Genetic Diversity: To meet growing demand, U.S. livestock and aquatic species are produced in a wide array of environments that have different management systems. Genetic combinations present within breeds and between breeds are the building blocks for these management systems. Without genetic diversity we lose the ability to develop new and more efficient production systems and t...

Sheep are among the major economically important livestock species worldwide because the animals produce milk, wool, skin, and meat. In the present study, the Illumina OvineSNP50 BeadChip was used to investigate genetic diversity and genome selection among Suffolk, Rambouillet, Columbia, Polypay, and Targhee sheep breeds from the United States. After quality-control filtering of SNPs (single nu...

AIM In Sultanate of Oman, goats are considered as one of the most important livestock in which there are many breeds of goat such as Batinah, Jabali, Dhofari, Jabal Al-Akhdar, Sahrawi, and Sahrawi Musandam. Little hematological and biochemical information is known on Omani goat breeds; therefore, the main purpose of this study was to determine reference baseline data regarding hematological and...

Highly adaptable and versatile populations of domestic sheep, the result of millennia of intense husbandry, are found in almost every corner of the world. Here we describe a genetic survey of sheep from the western fringe of its European distribution. We studied the mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from 161 individuals belonging to 7 Portuguese sheep breeds. Our study revealed a high ...

Crossbreeding is a popular tool for genetic improvement of pigs, beef cattle, and other livestock species, but its use in US dairy cattle has been limited for several reasons. The primary reason is the advantage of Holstein cows in milk volume, coupled with a milk pricing system that still tends to reward quantity, rather than quality, in many regions of the country (i.e., through volume premiu...

A protocol was developed for collection and storage of somatic cell samples under adverse conditions with little infrastructure, for somatic-cell banks as a backup for endangered livestock breeds. The procedure, which is uniform across species, includes sample collection with ear taggers with an integrated tag/vial system, and recording of global positioning system (GPS) coordinates, digital im...

In developing countries, cross-breeding between local breeds and indigene or exotic breeds represents one of the main threats to the livestock diversity, leading to genetic dilution and loss of unique allelic combination underlying essential local adaptive traits. In this study, two Algerian sheep breeds, known to be highly admixed, were considered as a case study, to demonstrate how combinatio...