Mitochondrial DNA diversity of D-loop region in three native Turkish cattle breeds.

This study aimed to reveal the genetic variability of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) displacement-loop (D-loop) region in 62 animals belonging to three native Turkish cattle breeds, namely Anatolian Black (AB), East Anatolian Red (EAR) and Zavot (ZAV), and to conduct phylogenetic relationship analyses to obtain deeper information on their genetic origin and breeding history by comparison of 6 taurine and 11 indicine breeds, together with 66 polymorphic sites, a total of 31 haplotypes, of which 15, 10 and 6 were detected in AB, EAR and ZAV, respectively. Mean nucleotide and haplotype diversity were 0.01 and 0.891, respectively, whereas the genetic differentiation derived from Wright's F ST index was 0.174 across the breeds. A significant level of total variation (17.42 %) was observed among breeds in molecular variance analysis. Six main haplogroups (T, T1, T2, T3, Q and I2) were detected in Anatolian cattle populations, where T3 was the most frequent among breeds (43.55 %), whereas I2, an indicine specific haplogroup, was observed only in ZAV. At the breed level, phylogenetic analyses supported by 198 sequences of 17 cattle breeds and 3 outgroup species retrieved from the GenBank clustered native Turkish cattle breeds with the taurine group rather than the indicine one, as expected. However, indicine admixture at low frequency (8.89 %) was detected in the ZAV breed for the first time due to more likely gene flow from indicine cattle breeds raised in neighbour countries, particularly Iran. This finding should be further investigated in all native Turkish and indicine cattle breeds from nearby countries to clarify gene flow and indicine admixture in Anatolian cattle.

Diagnosis of lameness via data mining algorithm by using thermal camera and image processing method in Brown Swiss cows.

Lameness is one of the culling factors such as mastitis, low milk yield, and infertility that cause economic losses in herd management as they threaten animal health and welfare. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the early detection of lameness in Brown Swiss cattle by using a data mining algorithm by both integrating lameness scores and some image parameters such as Lab (CIE L*, a*, b*), HSB (hue, saturation, brightness), RGB (red, green, blue) by processing thermal images with ImageJ program. In the study, the variables obtained as a result of processing the skin surface temperatures and thermal images taken at the fetlock joint of 33 Brown Swiss cattle were used as independent variables. Also, healthy cows (lameness scores 1 and 2) and unhealthy cows (lameness scores 3, 4, and 5) used in the diagnosis of lameness were used as a binary response variable. Classification and regression tree (CART) was used as a data mining algorithm in the diagnosis of lameness. As a result, the CART algorithm correctly classified 12 of the 13 heads unhealthy cows according to locomotion scores. According to locomotion scores by using CART analysis in this study, independent variables that are used to classify healthy and unhealthy (lame) animals were determined as maximum temperature (Tmax), green (mean), L (max), and age (P<0.05). The cut-off values of these independent variables were predicted as 32.40, 149.14, 97.11, and 5.50 for Tmax, green (mean), L (max), and age, respectively. Also, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the CART algorithm for locomotion scoring were found as 92.31%, 95%, and 93.7% respectively. The area under ROC curve (AUC) was found to be significant in the diagnosis of lameness (P<0.01). Results showed that the use of CART classification algorithm together with thermal camera and image processing methods is a usefull tool in the detection of lameness in the herds. It is recommended that more comprehensive studies by increasing the number of animals in the future would be more beneficial.

Lack of evidence for association between the leptin/Sau3AI gene and milk yield traits in Holstein Friesian dairy cattle.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of leptin gene polymorphism and some environmental factors on milk production traits. Blood samples from 212 Holstein Friesian dairy cattle reared on a private farm were used. The intron 2 region of the leptin gene was digested with Sau3AI restriction enzyme using the PCR-RFLP method. A and B alleles and AA, AB, and BB genotype frequencies for the Sau3AI polymorphism were determined as 0.8821 and 0.1179, and 0.764, 0.236 and 0.000, respectively. Chi-square analysis revealed that the leptin gene polymorphism followed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, including the absence of animals with the BB genotype. The effect of leptin gene polymorphism on all milk production traits was insignificant. For milk production traits, direct heritability (ha2) varied between 0.03 ± 0.283 (for the dry period) and 0.50 ± 0.183 (for milk conductivity). Regarding the milking time (MT), the estimated breeding values (EBVs) of cattle with the AA genotype were higher than the AB genotype (P < 0.05). As a result of this study, in the selection program, allele or genotype could not be suggested as a marker for milk yield characteristics except for the possible exception of milking time and its relationship to mastitis incidence.

Effect of inseminator on reproductive performance in dairy cattle.

The reproductive efficiency of dairy cattle is critical to the economic success and sustainability of the enterprise. Due to its many advantages, artificial insemination has inevitably taken its place in herd management today, and different artificial insemination methods have been developed until today. At the same time, artificial insemination is carried out by commercial artificial insemination operators or do-it-yourself operators in cattle farms. One of the factors affecting the success of artificial insemination is inseminators. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of inseminators on conception rates in reproductive challenges and to reveal the differences between the success rates of inseminators. A total of 227,297 artificial insemination acts carried out by 35 inseminators for 4 years belonging to the Konya Cattle Breeders' Association in Turkey were assessed for this purpose. In the study, the insemination success rate was determined as 41.36%. In addition, the percentage of inseminators with a total insemination success rate of more than 50% is very low, such as 2.9%, and the percentage of those who achieved 35.9% and below was 9.3%. As a result, it can be stated that the inseminators having a lower success rate than the overall should be retrained to avoid costs or losses in the farms.

Relationships between FAMACHA© scores and parasite incidence in sheep and goats.

One of the most important activities in animal raising is parasite control. Since parasites share what animals eat on one hand, they have disease-causing effects on the other hand, they are parasites that must be fought. In fact, they can be responsible for the decrease in yield and can also cause death. Haemonchus contortus parasite from the Trichostrongylidae family is a blood parasite that causes anemia in sheep and goats. In this study, using the FAMACHA© card, which is widely used in the determination of anemia caused by Haemonchus contortus in the world, the color of the conjunctiva was scored in Akkaraman sheep and Hair goats raised in the Sizma district of Konya, and the relations between the score and the parasite type and density were determined. Accordingly, while no animals with 1 and 5 scores were observed in sheep, the numbers of animals with scores of 2, 3, and 4 were determined as 7.84%, 40.2%, and 52.96%, respectively. Parasite eggs belonging to the Trichostrongylidae family were observed in 96.07% of the sheep. On the other hand, no animal with score 1 or 2 was observed in goats. The numbers of animals with 3, 4, and 5 scores were determined as 6.12%, 54.08%, and 39.80%, respectively. Eimeria, the most common parasite species, was found in 68.18% of the goats and parasite eggs from the Trichostrongylidae family were observed in 17.05%. As a result, it was concluded that the card in question was a practical, easily available, and cheap tool in the detection of anemia by using the relationships between FAMACHA© card scoring and parasite loads.

Association between MYLK4 gene polymorphism and growth traits at different age stages in Anatolian black cattle.

This study aims to find the association between MYLK4 gene polymorphism and growth traits at different ages, such as birth, 3rd-month, 6th-month and 12th-month ages in Anatolian black cattle. PCR-RFLP method was used to detect the polymorphism for MYLK4 gene in at G61595A locus. Allele and genotype frequencies were A: 0.34, G: 0.66 and AA: 0.17, AG: 0.34 and GG: 0.49. The chi-square χ2 test showed an agreement to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > .01). GLM and RRM models were used to estimate the association between MYLK4 gene polymorphism and growth traits. The results of the statistical analysis indicated an association between MYLK4 gene polymorphism and growth traits at different stage ages in Anatolian black cattle. Therefore, the G61595A mutation of MYLK4 gene can be used as a genetic marker for the selection of growth and development traits in the cattle breeding programs.

Fatty acid composition and conjugated linoleic acid content in different carcass parts of Dagliç lambs.

This study was conducted to compare fatty acid composition and content of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in different regions of sheep carcasses. Lambs of the Dagliç breed were used for this purpose. Subsequent to a 68-day period of intensive fattening, fatty acids were examined in samples taken from the legs, shoulders, breasts, and ribs of lamb carcasses. According to the analysis, in leg, shoulder, breast, and rib, respectively, total saturated fatty acids (SFA) were found to be 40.38, 42.69, 42.56, and 40.27%, unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were found to be 40.38, 44.17, 46.17, and 49.50%, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were found to be 4.79, 4.29, 3.80, and 3.72%, and CLAs were found to be 1.49, 1.69, 1.53, and 1.59%.

Evaluation of ISSR markers for genetic diversity analysis in Anatolian water buffaloes.

BACKGROUND: The utilisation of molecular markers has increased in molecular research recently. Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers allow the analysis of genomes without preliminary sequence information, since random primers are used. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate ISSR markers for assessing the genetic diversity of indigenous Anatolian Water Buffaloes reared in Afyon, Konya and Sivas provinces of Turkey, with a view to conservation of the gene resources. RESULTS: The 11 ISSR primers chosen for the analysis revealed a total of 110 bands, of which 76 (69.09%) were polymorphic. Also, genetic similarity, polymorphic information content (PIC), resolving power (R(p)) and mean resolving power (R(p)), heterozygosity (H) and Shannon index (I) were calculated as 0.9479-0.9562, 0.35 ± 0.20, 2.73, 0.27, 0.18 ± 0.07 and 0.28 ± 0.11, respectively. CONCLUSION: The ISSR markers were found to be promising for assessing the genetic diversity in buffalo populations. Potential genetic parameters such as PIC, R(p), R(p), H and I were effectively used in this study.