Experimental and comparative studies suggest that the striped coats of zebras can prevent biting fly attacks. Biting flies are serious pests of livestock that cause economic losses in animal ...production. We hypothesized that cows painted with black and white stripes on their body could avoid biting fly attacks and show fewer fly-repelling behaviors. Six Japanese Black cows were assigned to treatments using a 3 × 3 Latin-square design. The treatments were black-and-white painted stripes, black painted stripes, and no stripes (all-black body surface). Recorded fly-repelling behaviors were head throw, ear beat, leg stamp, skin twitch, and tail flick. Photo images of the right side of each cow were taken using a commercial digital camera after every observation and biting flies on the body and each leg were counted from the photo images. Here we show that the numbers of biting flies on Japanese Black cows painted with black-and-white stripes were significantly lower than those on non-painted cows and cows painted only with black stripes. The frequencies of fly-repelling behaviors in cows painted with black-and-white stripes were also lower than those in the non-painted and black-striped cows. These results thus suggest that painting black-and-white stripes on livestock such as cattle can prevent biting fly attacks and provide an alternative method of defending livestock against biting flies without using pesticides in animal production, thereby proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment.
Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) treatment induced mRNA expression of Prolactin (PRL) in the chicken anterior pituitary gland. VIP responsive element (VRE) of the PRL promoter was identified in ...the various bird species. However, transcription factor, which binds to VRE, has not yet been identified. Prolactin regulatory element-binding protein (PREB) gene cloned as a candidate transcription factor binds to VRE. Increases of mRNA levels of PRL and PREB during embryogenesis were identified. However, whether VIP affects levels of PRL and PREB mRNA during embryogenesis remains unknown. The effects of VIP and forskolin on mRNA expression of PRL and PREB in the embryonic anterior pituitary gland were assessed. Furthermore, administration of VIP to laying hens was conducted to examine the relationship between VIP and PREB mRNA expression. At day 14 of the embryonic growth stage, VIP treatment did not affect mRNA levels of either PRL or PREB, whereas forskolin treatment induced the increase of these mRNA levels. At day 20, both VIP and forskolin induced an increase of PRL and PREB mRNA levels. The administration of VIP significantly increased mRNA levels of PRL and PREB in the anterior pituitary gland of White Leghorn and Nagoya. These results indicate that the effects of VIP on PRL and PREB mRNA expression levels of VIP receptor may in turn affect PRL and PREB mRNA levels in the chicken anterior pituitary gland.
Background
The Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) is an important poultry species owing to their high economic efficiency and biological advantages. The genetic diversity of farm quail populations ...has rarely been studied.
Objectives
This study aimed to assess the genetic diversity of farm quail populations and their genetic relationships, which could provide important information for designing breeding programmes to maintain egg and/or meat production efficiency.
Methods
Molecular phylogenetic and STRUCTURE analyses were conducted for seven farm populations and six laboratory lines using 50 microsatellite markers previously developed by us.
Results
The genetic diversity within each farm population was relatively high despite long‐term breeding within closed colonies. However, the genetic variation between populations was absent. Twenty highly polymorphic markers, selected based on Ne, He and FST values, enabled the construction of reliable phylogenetic trees and STRUCTURE plots.
Conclusions
In the farm populations analysed in the present study, gene flow between genetically distant populations is needed to restore genetic diversity between farm populations, which could exploit heterosis and decrease the risk of inbreeding depression. Our findings demonstrate that these markers are useful for examining the genetic structure of farm quail populations.
We conducted genetic monitoring for six farm populations in Aichi prefecture, Japan, and five laboratory lines, whose breeding histories are well recorded, using 48 microsatellite markers. We estimated the genetic diversity of the farm populations and their genetic relationships by molecular phylogenetic and STRUCTURE analyses, which provided important information to obtain suitable genetically distinct candidates for cross‐mating to restore genetic diversity among populations.
We compared heat production (HP) and plasma lipid metabolites between meat- and egg-types of Nagoya breed chickens during embryonic development. To investigate HP and respiratory quotient, oxygen ...consumption and carbon dioxide production were measured using an open-circuit calorimeter system. HP was significantly lower in meat- than in egg-type chickens during embryonic development, and HP gradually decreased with developmental stage in both types. The respiratory quotient was constant at approximately 0.68 at every embryonic stage investigated, and the value was similar in both types. Plasma concentrations of triacylglycerol, nonesterified fatty acid, glycerol and D-3-hydroxybutyrate, which are associated with lipid metabolism, were similar in both types during embryonic development. These results demonstrate that chicken embryos selected for rapid growth of Nagoya breed have characteristic lower HP, and that when selecting chickens for rapid growth, HP is an important parameter during embryonic stages.
Egg Characteristics of the Nagoya Breed Minoguchi, Naokazu; Nakamura, Kazuhisa; Kino, Katsutoshi
Nihon Shokuhin Kagaku Kougakkaishi/Nippon Shokuhin Kagaku Kōgaku kaishi,
01/2017, Letnik:
64, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Eggs of the Nagoya breed of chickens are characterized by a bright cherry blossom-colored eggshell and a thick, full-flavored yolk. The eggshell is covered by white spots of calcium carbonate, while ...the yolk has a deep color and a higher ratio of yolk weight compared to that of White Leghorn chickens. As for nutritional characteristics, the lipid content of the yolk is significantly higher in Nagoya compared to that in White Leghorn. As for physical characteristics, the yolk viscosity of eggs is higher in Nagoya than that in White Leghorn. Recent findings using an artificial taste sensor revealed the high umami taste intensity of Nagoya egg yolk compared to that of White Leghorn. As for processing properties, the emulsifying ability of the yolk of Nagoya is superior to that of White Leghorn. The hardness and elastic modulus are high in the boiled eggs of Nagoya compared to those of White Leghorn. From these findings, Nagoya eggs are characterized by the yolk. Thus, it is proposed that this characteristic is one of factors responsible for the palatability of eggs of Nagoya chickens.
We reported that meat chicks have either a greater capability to acclimatize to novel environments, or a blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response to novel environments compared with layer ...chicks in a commercial base. The present study compared the differences in behavior and plasma corticosterone concentrations under isolation-induced stress between neonatal meat and layer Nagoya chicks which had been separated from the same population. Both types of neonatal chicks reared in groups were individually separated and their spontaneous activity and distress-induced vocalizations were monitored for 10 min. The responses of the two types were remarkably different, with the meat chicks being less active than the layer chicks. Distress-induced vocalizations were fewer in the meat than in the layer chicks. The meat chicks spent more time in a sleeping posture during isolation-induced stress. Plasma corticosterone concentrations measured at the end of the test tended to be higher in the layer chicks than in meat ones, but not significantly. In conclusion, the selection of Nagoya chickens for meat and layer may have trends similar to those observed in commercial chickens in relation to stress susceptibility.
We compared heat production (HP) and plasma lipid metabolites between meat- and egg-types of Nagoya breed chickens during embryonic development. To investigate HP and respiratory quotient, oxygen ...consumption and carbon dioxide production were measured using an open-circuit calorimeter system. HP was significantly lower in meat- than in egg-type chickens during embryonic development, and HP gradually decreased with developmental stage in both types. The respiratory quotient was constant at approximately 0.68 at every embryonic stage investigated, and the value was similar in both types. Plasma concentrations of triacylglycerol, nonesterified fatty acid, glycerol and D-3-hydroxybutyrate, which are associated with lipid metabolism, were similar in both types during embryonic development. These results demonstrate that chicken embryos selected for rapid growth of Nagoya breed have characteristic lower HP, and that when selecting chickens for rapid growth, HP is an important parameter during embryonic stages. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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