In this experiment, grazing and nursing behavior of approximately 30 cow/calf pairs was examined in two years. Sires of the Polled Hereford x Angus cows had been selected for above (+) or below (-) average expected progeny difference for yearling weight and maternal weaning weight. Calves were sired by Angus bulls of United States (US) or New Zealand (NZ) origin. Observations from dawn to dusk were conducted on five days each year, spaced throughout lactation. All nursing episodes were recorded, and every ten minutes it was noted whether each cow and calf was or was not grazing. Periods of maximum grazing activity were early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The growth genotype of the cow did not affect her grazing time. Calves of maternal (+) cows grazed longer than calves of maternal (-) cows (P< 0.10), and their grazing time was not affected by the growth genotype of their dams. In year 1, US-sired calves spent 3% more time grazing than NZ-sired calves; whereas in year 2, NZ-sired calves grazed 4% longer than US-sired calves (interaction P <.10). Also in year 1, NZ-sired calves tended to graze during several intervals of time while US-sired calves tended to graze in longer continuous bouts. This tendency was reversed during the second year (interaction P<.10). As the grazing season progressed, time spent by calves grazing increased from < 20% to approximately 60%. Cows with (+) genetic merit for maternal weaning weight were nursed a similar number of times per day as cows with (-) genetic merit. Sire origin likewise did not affect nursing behavior. / Master of Science

The present study was a longitudinal analysis of the information needs of Red Angus cattle breeders and their use of networked information services. It was based on two surveys. The first, conducted in 1995--96, polled all 1067 ranches of the Red Angus Association of America. Responses from 192 Red Angus breeders were used to determine the value of different information types and to evaluate perceptions of the greatest barriers to the adoption of network information services. The second survey, mailed to 41 Red Angus breeders in 1998, focused on early adopters and likely users of network services. Responses from 15 breeders were used to evaluate perceptions of the greatest barriers to the effective use of Web-based information services.

The objective of the current study was to compare tick loads, growth, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Nguni, Bonsmara and Angus steers raised on natural pasture. A total of 30, 7-month old steers each of Bonsmara and Angus, and 40 Nguni steers were kept at the University of Fort Hare Farm till slaughter at 18 months. Monthly weights of the steers were recorded. Carcasses were electrically stimulated. The m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum was sampled for the measurement of meat colour, pH, drip loss, sarcomere length (SL), water holding capacity (WHC), cooking losses, myofibrillar fragmentation length (MFL), Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF), fatty acid profiles and sensory characteristics of the steers. Urine samples were collected at the slaughter line for the determination of stress hormone concentrations. The Nguni had the lowest tick load (P < 0.05) while the Angus had the highest tick load (P < 0.05). Tick load did not affect the growth rate and carcass characteristics of the steers. Bonsmara and Angus steers had higher (P < 0.05) carcass weight and dressing percentage than the Nguni steers. Meat quality characteristics were similar (P > 0.05) among all the breeds, except that Nguni meat was darker (L*) (P < 0.05) than meat from the other two breeds. The Bonsmara had the highest (P > 0.05) concentrations while the Nguni had the lowest (P > 0.05) concentrations of stress hormones. There were significant (P < 0.05) correlations between WB values of meat aged for two and 21 days in Nguni and Bonsmara, but not in Angus. The correlations among stress responsiveness hormones and meat quality were breed-dependent. Except monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and the n-6/n-3 ratio, fatty acid profiles among the breeds were similar (P > 0.05). Cholesterol levels among the breeds were similar (P > 0.05). The Nguni had the best (P < 0.05) sensory characteristics, such as flavour and tenderness. It can be concluded that while the Nguni is a small framed breed, its meat quality is similar to that of Bonsmara and Angus and has the best meat taste when raised on natural pasture.

Orientadores: Paula Regina Kuser Falcão, Adhemar Zerlotini Neto / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T05:46:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nagai_LuisAugustoEijy_M.pdf: 9861948 bytes, checksum: a64a8aaaf5e43919029e865524c0a73c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: A carne bovina é um dos principais produtos que o Brasil comercializa no mercado internacional. Atualmente, o Brasil é líder nas exportações e tem o objetivo de melhorar sua produção para aumentar a competitividade. A carne bovina é consumida em várias partes do mundo e é uma das principais fontes de proteínas e vitaminas para o homem. A publicação em 2009 do genoma bovino, proveniente de um animal da subespécie Bos taurus taurus, beneficiou os estudos de caracterização de mecanismos moleculares responsáveis por características de interesse. Dentre várias características, a maciez da carne é considerada o atributo mais importante. As raças zebuínas, principalmente Nelore (Bos taurus indicus), possuem grande aceitação na pecuária de corte brasileira e adaptabilidade ao território, porém apresentam menor produtividade e qualidade da carne, em relação às raças taurinas como Angus (B. taurus taurus). Assim, o interesse pela identificação de genes relacionados com a qualidade da carne bovina justifica o investimento em pesquisas genéticas, moleculares e bioquímicas. As novas tecnologias de sequenciamento de alto rendimento promoveram um grande avanço nas pesquisas de avaliação da expressão de genes, aliada às novas ferramentas computacionais e o poder de processamento de dados. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar genes diferencialmente expressos no tecido muscular de animais das raças Angus e Nelore, para elucidar os mecanismos genéticos envolvidos com maciez da carne. Para realizar este estudo foram utilizados 10 bovinos da raça Angus e 8 bovinos Nelore, a partir de um rebanho de 50 touros de cada raça, selecionados pelos extremos no resultado do teste de força de cisalhamento. Ao todo, 313 milhões de fragmentos de 100 pares de bases foram gerados em Illumina HiScanSQ paired end. Ao longo desse estudo, foi também avaliada a utilização de sequências originais e filtradas por qualidade para estimar a eficácia das ferramentas atuais ao trabalhar com sequências que comumente são trimadas. As sequências foram mapeadas no genoma bovino utilizando Tophat2 e a biblioteca edgeR foi utilizada na análise estatística para a identificação de expressão diferencial. Os resultados encontrados nos animais Angus, com sequências não filtradas, se mostraram mais semelhantes com o que tem sido observado em trabalhos relacionados à maciez da carne, os quais indicam o envolvimento da via de metabolismo de lipídeos no mecanismo de maciez. Contudo, os dados de Angus e Nelore possibilitaram a identificação de processos de resposta imune e inflamatórias, que poderiam ter sido influenciados por fatores externos pré abate / Abstract: Brazil is one of the largest beef exporters in the world, and beef quality is a major subject of research. The goal of this research is to improve the quality and productivity of Brazilian livestock. Beef is also an important source of protein and vitamins in human nutrition. Publication of The Bos taurus genome in 2009 has contributed to studies on the characterization of molecular mechanisms responsible for traits of interest, however, much remains to be determined. Among the many traits of interest, meat tenderness is the most important measured attribute. The Zebu breeds, particularly Nelore (Bos taurus indicus), have wide acceptance in the Brazilian market, and they are well adapted to tropical conditions. Nevertheless, Zebu cattle have lower productivity and beef quality when compared to Taurine breeds, such as Angus (Bos taurus taurus). The global market interest in the identification of genes involved in beef quality justifies the importance of research of genetic, molecular and biochemical mechanisms that determine this trait. The objective of this study is to identify differentially expressed genes found in the muscle tissue of Angus and Nelore breeds. To obtain the data to do this gene expression study, ten Angus steers and eight Nelore steers were used, they were chosen from a group of fifity animals of each breed, and were selected for their extreme tenderness and toughness scores on the shear force test. In total, 313 million fragments of a 100 base pairs were generated using Illumina HiScanSQ paired end. In parallel with the gene expression study, the use of trimmed or non-trimmed sequences was determined to evaluate the efficiency of the tools that have been used to filter this background noise. All sequences were mapped to the bovine genome using Tophat2, and the edgeR library provided the statistical analysis used to identify differential expression. Results obtained from the analysis of the data from the Angus breed animals with non filtered sequences are consistent with results observed in studies of beef tendernes. This finding implies the involvement of the lipid metabolism pathway in the biochemical mechanism underlying the improved tenderness. However, Nelore data analysis identified the existence of processes involved in inflammatory/immune response; they may have been influenced by external factors prior to the slaughter / Mestrado / Bioinformatica / Mestre em Genética e Biologia Molecular

Total weaning weight records of 29,832 Angus and 15,765 Hereford calves born during 1953 through 1983 in Virginia were used to evaluate phenotypic and genetic trends for adjusted weaning weight (AWWT), weaning weight ratio (WWR) and deviation of AWWT from the mean AWWT of the contemporaries (DEVN). Two approaches, namely the regression techniques and maximum likelihood (ML) procedure were taken to estimate the above trends. The estimates of annual phenotypic trend for AWWT in the Angus and Hereford breeds were .96 and .82 kg/yr, respectively. The sire and dam genetic trends obtained from both approaches for the traits of interest were positive and significant; however, the estimates from the regression analyses were slightly higher than those- from the ML procedure. The estimates of one-half of the sire genetic trends obtained from ML procedure for WWR and DEVN were .40 ± .04 ratio units/yr and .72 ± .07 kg/yr in the Angus breed and the corresponding values for the Hereford breed were .25 ± .06 ratio units/yr and .45 ± .12 kg/yr. The estimates of one-half of the darn trends for the corresponding traits were .32 ± .02 ratio units/yr and .55 ± .04 kg/yr for Angus and .21 ± .03 ratio units/yr and .30 ± .07 kg/yr for Herefords. The application of adjustment factors (to eliminate the bias due to non-random mating and culling levels) to estimates of sire genetic trends in the regression analyses produced estimates more similar to the estimates obtained from the ML procedure. The average annual genetic trends over the study period from the ML procedure for AWWT were 1.27 kg/yr for Angus and .75 kg/yr for Herefords. / Ph. D.

<p>Breeding for improved animal welfare is paramount for increasing the long-term sustainability of the animal food industry. In this context, the main objectives of this dissertation were to understand the genetic and genomic background of welfare indicators in livestock and evaluate the feasibility of single-step Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (ssGBLUP) for performing genomic selection in beef cattle. This dissertation includes five studies. First, we aimed to test and identify an optimal ssGBLUP scenario for crossbreeding schemes. We simulated multiple populations differing based on the genetic background of the trait, and then we tested alternative models, such as multiple-trait weighted ssGBLUP. Even though more elaborated scenarios were evaluated, a single-trait ssGBLUP approach was recommended when genetic correlation across populations were higher than 0.70. The goal of the second study was to identify genomic regions controlling behavior traits that are conserved across livestock species. We systematically reviewed genomic regions associated with behavioral indicators in beef and dairy cattle, pigs, and sheep. The genomic regions identified in this study were located in genes previously reported controlling human behavioral, neural, and mental disorders. In the third study we used a large dataset (675,678 records) from North American Angus cattle to investigate the genetic background of temperament, a behavioral indicator, recorded on one-year-old calves, and provide the models and protocols for implementing genomic selection. We reported a heritability estimate equal to 0.38 for yearling temperament, and it was, in general, genetically favorably correlated with other productivity and fertility traits. Candidate genomic regions controlling yearling temperament were also identified. The fourth study was based on temperament recorded on North American Angus cows from 2 to 15 years of age (797,187 records). The goal was to understand the genetic and genomic background of temperament across the animal’s lifetime. By fitting a random regression model, we observed that temperament is highly genetically correlated across time. However, animals have differential learning and behavioral plasticity (LBP; changes of the phenotype overtime), although the LBP heritability is low. In our last study we evaluated foot scores (foot angle, FA; and claw set, CS) in American (US) and Australian (AU) Angus cattle aiming to assess the genetic and genomic background of foot scores and investigate the feasibility of performing an across-country genomic evaluation (~1.15 million animals genotyped). Foot scores are heritable (heritability from 0.22 to 0.27), and genotype-by-environment interaction was observed between US and AU Angus populations (genetic correlation equal to 0.61 for FA and 0.76 for CS). An across-country genomic prediction outperformed within-country evaluations in terms of predictivity ability (bias, dispersion, and validation accuracy) and theoretical accuracies. We have also identified genes associated with FA and CS previously reported in human’s bone structure and repair mechanism. In conclusion, this dissertation presents a comprehensive genetic and genomic characterization of welfare indicators (temperament and foot scores) in (inter)national livestock populations. </p>