Persistence of differences between dairy cows categorized as low or high methane emitters, as estimated from milk mid-infrared spectra and measured by GreenFeed.

Currently, various attempts are being made to implement breeding schemes aimed at producing low methane (CH4) emitting cows. We investigated the persistence of differences in CH4 emission between groups of cows categorized as either low or high emitters over a 5-mo period. Two feeding regimens (pasture vs. indoors) were used. Early- to mid-lactation Holstein Friesian cows were categorized as low or high emitters (n = 10 each) retrospectively, using predictions from milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectra, before the start of the experiment. Data from MIR estimates and from measurements with the GreenFeed (GF; C-Lock Technology Inc., Rapid City, SD) system over the 5-mo experiment were combined into 7-, 14-, and 28-d periods. Feed intake, eating and ruminating behavior, and ruminal fluid traits were determined in two 7-d measurement periods in the grazing season. The CH4 emission data were analyzed using a split-plot ANOVA, and the repeatability of each of the applied methods for determining CH4 emission was calculated. Traits other than CH4 emission were analyzed for differences between low and high emitters using a linear mixed model. The initial category-dependent differences in daily CH4 production persisted over the subsequent 5 mo and across 2 feeding regimens with both methods. The repeatability analysis indicated that the biweekly milk control scheme, and even a monthly scheme as practiced on farms, might be sufficient for confirming category differences. However, the relationship between CH4 data estimated by MIR and measured with GF for individual cows was weak (R2 = 0.26). The categorization based on CH4 production also generated differences in CH4 emission per kilogram of milk; differentiation between cow categories was not persistent based on milk MIR spectra and GF. Compared with the high emitters, low emitters tended to show a lower acetate-to-propionate ratio in ruminal volatile fatty acids, whereas feed intake and ruminating time did not differ. Interestingly, the low emitters spent less time eating than the high emitters. In conclusion, the CH4 estimation from analyzing the milk MIR spectra is an appropriate proxy to form and regularly control categories of cows with different CH4 production levels. The categorization was also sufficient to secure similar and persistent differences in emission intensity when estimated by MIR spectra of the milk. Further studies are needed to determine whether MIR data from individual cows are sufficiently accurate for breeding.

Locus-specific ancestry to detect recent response to selection in admixed Swiss Fleckvieh cattle.

Identification of selection signatures is one of the current endeavors of evolutionary genetics. Admixed populations may be used to infer post-admixture selection. We calculated local ancestry for Swiss Fleckvieh, a composite of Simmental (SI) and Red Holstein Friesian (RHF), to infer such signals. Illumina Bovine SNP50 BeadChip data for 300 admixed, 88 SI and 97 RHF bulls were used. The average RHF ancestry across the whole genome was 0.70. To identify regions with high deviation from average, we considered two significance thresholds, based on a permutation test and extreme deviation from normal distribution. Regions on chromosomes 13 (46.3-47.3 Mb) and 18 (18.7-25.9 Mb) passed both thresholds in the direction of increased SI. Extended haplotype homozygosity within (iHS) and between (Rsb) populations was calculated to explore additional patterns of pre- and post-admixture selection signals. The Rsb score of admixed and SI was significant in a wide region of chromosome 18 (6.6-24.6 Mb) overlapped with one area of strong local ancestry deviation. FTO, with pleiotropic effect on milk and fertility, NOD2 on dairy and NKD1 and SALL1 on fertility traits are located there. Genetic differentiation of RHF and SI (Fst ), an alternative indicator of pre-admixture selection in pure populations, was calculated. No considerable overlap of peaks of local ancestry deviations and Fst was observed. We found two regions with significant signatures of post-admixture selection in this very young composite, applying comparatively stringent significance thresholds. The signals cover relatively large genomic areas and did not allow pinpointing of the gene(s) responsible for the apparent shift in ancestry proportions.

Hot topic: Innovative lactation-stage-dependent prediction of methane emissions from milk mid-infrared spectra.

The main goal of this study was to develop, apply, and validate a new method to predict an indicator for CH4 eructed by dairy cows using milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectra. A novel feature of this model was the consideration of lactation stage to reflect changes in the metabolic status of the cow. A total of 446 daily CH4 measurements were obtained using the SF6 method on 142 Jersey, Holstein, and Holstein-Jersey cows. The corresponding milk samples were collected during these CH4 measurements and were analyzed using MIR spectroscopy. A first derivative was applied to the milk MIR spectra. To validate the novel calibration equation incorporating days in milk (DIM), 2 calibration processes were developed: the first was based only on CH4 measurements and milk MIR spectra (independent of lactation stage; ILS); the second included milk MIR spectra and DIM information (dependent on lactation stage; DLS) by using linear and quadratic modified Legendre polynomials. The coefficients of determination of ILS and DLS equations were 0.77 and 0.75, respectively, with standard error of calibration of 63g/d of CH4 for both calibration equations. These equations were applied to 1,674,763 milk MIR spectra from Holstein cows in the first 3 parities and between 5 and 365 DIM. The average CH4 indicators were 428, 444, and 448g/d by ILS and 444, 467, and 471g/d by DLS for cows in first, second, and third lactation, respectively. Behavior of the DLS indicator throughout the lactations was in agreement with the literature with values increasing between 0 and 100 DIM and decreasing thereafter. Conversely, the ILS indicator of CH4 emission decreased at the beginning of the lactation and increased until the end of the lactation, which differs from the literature. Therefore, the DLS indicator seems to better reflect biological processes that drive CH4 emissions than the ILS indicator. The ILS and DLS equations were applied to an independent data set, which included 59 respiration chamber measurements of CH4 obtained from animals of a different breed across a different production system. Results indicated that the DLS equation was much more robust than the ILS equation allowing development of indicators of CH4 emissions by dairy cows. Integration of DIM information into the prediction equation was found to be a good strategy to obtain biologically meaningful CH4 values from lactating cows by accounting for biological changes that occur throughout the lactation.

Accuracy of direct genomic values for functional traits in Brown Swiss cattle.

In this study, direct genomic values for the functional traits general temperament, milking temperament, aggressiveness, rank order in herd, milking speed, udder depth, position of labia, and days to first heat in Brown Swiss dairy cattle were estimated based on ~777,000 (777 K) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) information from 1,126 animals. Accuracy of direct genomic values was assessed by a 5-fold cross-validation with 10 replicates. Correlations between deregressed proofs and direct genomic values were 0.63 for general temperament, 0.73 for milking temperament, 0.69 for aggressiveness, 0.65 for rank order in herd, 0.69 for milking speed, 0.71 for udder depth, 0.66 for position of labia, and 0.74 for days to first heat. Using the information of ~54,000 (54K) SNP led to only marginal deviations in the observed accuracy. Trying to predict the 20% youngest bulls led to correlations of 0.55, 0.77, 0.73, 0.55, 0.64, 0.59, 0.67, and 0.77, respectively, for the traits listed above. Using a novel method to estimate the accuracy of a direct genomic value (defined as correlation between direct genomic value and true breeding value and accounting for the correlation between direct genomic values and conventional breeding values) revealed accuracies of 0.37, 0.20, 0.19, 0.27, 0.48, 0.45, 0.36, and 0.12, respectively, for the traits listed above. These values are much smaller but probably also more realistic than accuracies based on correlations, given the heritabilities and samples sizes in this study. Annotation of the largest estimated SNP effects revealed 2 candidate genes affecting the traits general temperament and days to first heat.

Estimates of autozygosity derived from runs of homozygosity: empirical evidence from selected cattle populations.

Using genome-wide SNP data, we calculated genomic inbreeding coefficients (FROH  > 1  Mb , FROH  > 2 Mb , FROH  > 8 Mb and FROH  > 16 Mb ) derived from runs of homozygosity (ROH) of different lengths (>1, >2, >8 and > 16 Mb) as well as from levels of homozygosity (FHOM ). We compared these values of inbreeding coefficients with those calculated from pedigrees (FPED ) of 1422 bulls comprising Brown Swiss (304), Fleckvieh (502), Norwegian Red (499) and Tyrol Grey (117) cattle breeds. For all four breeds, population inbreeding levels estimated by the genomic inbreeding coefficients FROH  > 8 Mb and FROH  > 16 Mb were similar to the levels estimated from pedigrees. The lowest values were obtained for Fleckvieh (FPED  = 0.014, FROH  > 8 Mb  = 0.019 and FROH  > 16 Mb  = 0.008); the highest, for Brown Swiss (FPED  = 0.048, FROH  > 8 Mb  = 0.074 and FROH  > 16 Mb  = 0.037). In contrast, inbreeding estimates based on the genomic coefficients FROH  > 1 Mb and FROH  > 2 Mb were considerably higher than pedigree-derived estimates. Standard deviations of genomic inbreeding coefficients were, on average, 1.3-1.7-fold higher than those obtained from pedigrees. Pearson correlations between genomic and pedigree inbreeding coefficients ranged from 0.50 to 0.62 in Norwegian Red (lowest correlations) and from 0.64 to 0.72 in Tyrol Grey (highest correlations). We conclude that the proportion of the genome present in ROH provides a good indication of inbreeding levels and that analysis based on ROH length can indicate the relative amounts of autozygosity due to recent and remote ancestors.

Prediction of breed composition in an admixed cattle population.

Swiss Fleckvieh was established in 1970 as a composite of Simmental (SI) and Red Holstein Friesian (RHF) cattle. Breed composition is currently reported based on pedigree information. Information on a large number of molecular markers potentially provides more accurate information. For the analysis, we used Illumina BovineSNP50 Genotyping Beadchip data for 90 pure SI, 100 pure RHF and 305 admixed bulls. The scope of the study was to compare the performance of hidden Markov models, as implemented in structure software, with methods conventionally used in genomic selection [BayesB, partial least squares regression (PLSR), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) variable selection)] for predicting breed composition. We checked the performance of algorithms for a set of 40 492 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), subsets of evenly distributed SNPs and subsets with different allele frequencies in the pure populations, using F(ST) as an indicator. Key results are correlations of admixture levels estimated with the various algorithms with admixture based on pedigree information. For the full set, PLSR, BayesB and structure performed in a very similar manner (correlations of 0.97), whereas the correlation of LASSO and pedigree admixture was lower (0.93). With decreasing number of SNPs, correlations decreased substantially only for 5% or 1% of all SNPs. With SNPs chosen according to F(ST) , results were similar to results obtained with the full set. Only when using 96 and 48 SNPs with the highest F(ST) , correlations dropped to 0.92 and 0.90 respectively. Reducing the number of pure animals in training sets to 50, 20 and 10 each did not cause a drop in the correlation with pedigree admixture.

Short communication: Genomic selection using a multi-breed, across-country reference population.

Three breeds (Fleckvieh, Holstein, and Jersey) were included in a reference population, separately and together, to assess the accuracy of prediction of genomic breeding values in single-breed validation populations. The accuracy of genomic selection was defined as the correlation between estimated breeding values, calculated using phenotypic data, and genomic breeding values. The Holstein and Jersey populations were from Australia, whereas the Fleckvieh population (dual-purpose Simmental) was from Austria and Germany. Both a BLUP with a multi-breed genomic relationship matrix (GBLUP) and a Bayesian method (BayesA) were used to derive the prediction equations. The hypothesis tested was that having a multi-breed reference population increased the accuracy of genomic selection. Minimal advantage existed of either GBLUP or BayesA multi-breed genomic evaluations over single-breed evaluations. However, when the goal was to predict genomic breeding values for a breed with no individuals in the reference population, using 2 other breeds in the reference was generally better than only 1 breed.

Inbreeding depression on semen quality in Austrian dual-purpose simmental bulls.

Using pedigree data, the inbreeding coefficients of 715 Austrian dual-purpose Simmental (Fleckvieh) bulls stationed in two artificial insemination (AI) centres in Upper and Lower Austria were calculated and incorporated in statistical models for the analysis of semen quality. Five semen quality parameters (volume, concentration, motility, number of spermatozoa per ejaculate and percentage of viable spermatozoa) of approximately 30,000 ejaculates, used in two separate data sets, were investigated. The mixed model included the fixed effects age class of the bull, bull handler, semen collector, month and year of collection, number of collection per bull and day, time interval since last collection, the linear continuous effect of the inbreeding coefficient of the bull, interactions between age class and month, and age class and interval since last collection, respectively, as well as the random effect of the bull and the random residual effect. Non-linear effects of inbreeding were significant for motility only. Despite the quite low inbreeding coefficients (mean 1.3%), all semen quality traits showed inbreeding depression, in four of the five traits significantly in at least one of the data sets. The magnitude of inbreeding depression was small, which might partly be caused by the low inbreeding levels and a potential pre-selection of the bulls in the AI centres. However, monitoring of inbreeding depression on fertility traits is recommended to avoid unrecognized deterioration of such traits.

Genetic parameters for semen production traits in Austrian dual-purpose Simmental bulls.

Genetic parameters were estimated for semen production traits collected in an Austrian AI centre in the years 2000-2004. In total, 12,746 ejaculates from 301 Austrian dual-purpose Simmental (Fleckvieh) AI bulls were examined considering different effects on ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, percentage of viable spermatozoa in the ejaculate, total spermatozoa per ejaculate and motility. The model for genetic parameter estimation included the fixed effects age of bull, collection interval, number of collections on collection day, bull handler, semen collector, year and month of collection, a random additive genetic component and a permanent environmental effect. Correlations between estimated breeding values for semen traits and male fertility from the routine evaluation were calculated. The fertility trait considered in the routine evaluation is non-return rate 90 for the first insemination. All semen production traits were moderately heritable. Heritabilities for volume, concentration, percentage of viable spermatozoa, total number of spermatozoa and motility were 0.18, 0.14, 0.10, 0.22 and 0.04, respectively. Correlations between breeding values for semen quality traits and routinely estimated breeding values for male fertility were low and ranged from 0.08 to 0.17 indicating that semen production traits are rather poor predictors of male fertility.

[Smoking intervention program]. / Interventionsprogramm Rauchen.

For promoting health the "Fonds Gesundes Osterreich" worked out an "Intervention Programme Against Smoking". In cooperation with different institutions as "Osterreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Volksgesundheit", "Ludwig-Boltzmann Institut für Gesundheitspsychologie der Frau" and "Institute of Social Medicine, University of Vienna" a report on smoking and health, an update on smoking in pregnancy and associated health hazards, report and overview of smoking cessation in Austria and state of the art of smoking cessation therapy were carried out. Based on these projects curricula for physicians, pharmacists, midwives and psychologists were prepared to involve more and more health professionals that smoking cessation treatment will become a generally accepted part of any preventive or therapeutic strategy to control tobacco associated diseases. The target group of the intervention programme is the dissonant smoker, who wants to stop smoking, informing him and providing professional help. Many techniques ranging from self help to sophisticated combined therapeutic approaches including pharmacological interventions are now available to deal with the nicotine addiction problem. For health policy and public health smoking cessation will be one approach within the framework of a comprehensive approach to control the most important modern epidemic, the health damages caused by tobacco consumption.

[Results of a survey of experts regarding early diagnosis of breast cancer]. / Ergebnisse von Expertenbefragungen zur Mammakarzinom-Frühdiagnostik.

An anonymous expert inquiry was carried out during the First Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society for Senology in Vienna in December 1984. To 230 participants - all of them experts in the fields of gynaecology, surgery, radiology and internal medicine - a semi-structurised inquiry form was handed out, questioning for actual problems of routine screening mammography and efficacy of breast self-examination. Only 27 persons (12%) returned the completely filled out inquiry form, 14 experts (52%) advocated a mass-screening with the legal health examinations, most of them from the 30th year of age on in intervals of two years, 17 doctors (63%) agreed with the screening of well defined risk groups with individually determined screening intervals, most of them also from the 30th year of age on. 17 colleagues (63%) rather preferred a screening consisting of basis-mammography with individualised, according to age and personal risk factors adjusted screening intervals, again mostly from the 30th year of age on. Thus our study suggests no particular expert preference of a certain screening modality. 22 experts (81%) believe that breast self-examination from the 20th year of age on is of value, half of them recommending monthly controls. These doctors also believe that one should inform women about this early detection method through directed campaigns in the mass media. A representative inquiry among 1,000 Austrian women, carried out from the fund "Kampf dem Krebs" during summer 1986, showed that, although 70% are informed about the possibility and importance of early detection of breast cancer as well as of the method of breast self-examination, only about 14% perform it indeed regularly.

[Value of breast palpation in gynecologic practice]. / Stellenwert der Brustpalpation in der gynäkologischen Praxis.

A representative inquiry was carried out among 100 Austrian gynecologists and obstetricians. Aim of the study was to determine the percentage of gynecologists, who carry out routinely the palpation of the breast in their office: 73% of all gynecologists are performing breast-palpation routinely in every patient, 27% only in case of complaints. The highest percentage of routine-breast-palpation performing gynecologists was found among doctors, who are in private-practice only (97%). Particularly low percentages, however, were found e. g. among doctors, who have contracts with all social insurances (58%), who have a high frequency of social-insured patients (55%) or have many patients per day (61%). Since the routine-breast-palpation is of particular importance for the reduction of breast cancer mortality, this examination should be also performed routinely by all general practitioners, internists and surgeons. Therefore, from the point of view of preventive medicine and public health the routine examination of the female breast should be refunded by social insurance in Austria.

Pap screening in Austria.

In view of the efficacy of the pap-smear, particularly little advantage is taken of this early detection test: only 35% of Austrian women (over 20 years of age) go to at least one gynecological-cytological check-up per year. Previously when low participation in the pap-test program was analysed, mostly socioeconomic and psychosocial factors were taken into consideration, whereas less attention was given to what local preventive and curative services are being offered in this field. Hereby a structural lack of services offered to the target group of older women results in urban areas, because the elderly population primarily takes advantage of curative medical services offered through general practitioners, of whom, however, only 8-27% take smear tests. Regional low participation can also be found in rural areas, due to the lack of preventive behaviour of the rural population regarding prevention. Based on these results, increasing health information through the physician and improving his motivation to take the smear test seem to be a purposeful strategy for increasing participation in the pap-test program.

Lung cancer in Austria: present and future trends.

Between 1966 and 1982, age-standardized lung cancer mortality rates in Austria showed a slightly decreasing trend in men and an increasing trend in women. Differences between male and female lung cancer rates and different trends among particular age groups, especially male, can be understood as a function of the difference in past smoking habits: in men, the lung cancer epidemic had already passed its peak. Mortality will continually decrease, with the possibility of a slight and short-lasting future increase, when 1917 to 1931 birth cohorts reach an older age. In women, lung cancer mortality will increase steadily as a consequence of the increasing epidemic of cigarette smoking among young women. But it will never reach the same proportion as in men, because high tar cigarettes have not played the same role in female smoking habits as in male.

[Facts on the topic "gentle birth": a representative survey of Austrian gynecologists]. / Fakten zum Thema "sanfte Geburt": Eine repräsentative Umfrage bei österreichischen Gynäkologen.

With regard to discussions in the public being held in this country throughout the past months, a representative inquiry was carried out among Austrian gynaecologists and obstetricians. Aim of the study was to determine the percentage of obstetricians performing the so-called "birth without violence" according to Leboyer as well as their opinion to this alternative obstetrical thinking: Approximately one half of Austrian gynaecologists is carrying out so-called "births without violence." However, the vast majority of them (78%) prefers for their own wives and their own children "electronic fetal monitoring" during labour and delivery. Analysis of our data according to the age of the doctor, the geographic region of his office, and the number of treated patients shows a considerable discrepancy between performance and personal preference of "alternative" obstetrical methods. These results should be taken into account for further discussions in the public about "births without violence", as obstetricians are among all professions those experts who can estimate the risks of pregnancy and delivery best.