Veterinary Spanish Students' Attitude Toward Presumed Consent in Organ Donation.

Veterinarians often are involved in transplantation research projects. They are a fundamental social group who can influence public opinion about organ donation and transplantation (ODT). OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the knowledge of Spanish veterinary students about the concept of brain death and the law of presumed consent. METHODS: A sociologic, multicenter, and observational study was carried out in the veterinary students enrolled in Spain (n = 9000) in a complete academic year. A sample of 2815 students was stratified by geographic area and academic year. The students' attitudes on the psychosocial aspects of ODT were evaluated using a psychosocial validated questionnaire (PCID-DTO Rios). It was self-administered and completed anonymously. Veterinary schools were randomly selected. The questionnaire was applied to each academic year at compulsory sessions. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Student t test, χ2 test, and logistic regression analysis were used. RESULTS: The completion rate was 91% (n = 2558). Of students, 66% (n = 1664) understood the concept of brain death, 30% had doubts, whereas 5% believed that a person with brain death can recover and lead a normal life. Concerning legislation, 63% (n = 1615) were against the law of presumed consent, and 37% were in favor. An analysis of variables determining more favorable acceptance of the law showed that year of study (P = .000), knowing a donor (P = .020), and attitude toward ODT (P = .000) did have an effect on acceptance. Most students, 71% (n = 1875), were interested in attending a talk about ODT. CONCLUSION: Only 37% of Spanish veterinary students would accept the law of presumed consent. Most students were interested in attending an informative talk about ODT.

Whole-genome sequence analysis reveals differences in population management and selection of European low-input pig breeds.

BACKGROUND: A major concern in conservation genetics is to maintain the genetic diversity of populations. Genetic variation in livestock species is threatened by the progressive marginalisation of local breeds in benefit of high-output pigs worldwide. We used high-density SNP and re-sequencing data to assess genetic diversity of local pig breeds from Europe. In addition, we re-sequenced pigs from commercial breeds to identify potential candidate mutations responsible for phenotypic divergence among these groups of breeds. RESULTS: Our results point out some local breeds with low genetic diversity, whose genome shows a high proportion of regions of homozygosis (>50%) and that harbour a large number of potentially damaging mutations. We also observed a high correlation between genetic diversity estimates using high-density SNP data and Next Generation Sequencing data (r = 0.96 at individual level). The study of non-synonymous SNPs that were fixed in commercial breeds and also in any local breed, but with different allele, revealed 99 non-synonymous SNPs affecting 65 genes. Candidate mutations that may underlie differences in the adaptation to the environment were exemplified by the genes AZGP1 and TAS2R40. We also observed that highly productive breeds may have lost advantageous genotypes within genes involve in immune response--e.g. IL12RB2 and STAB1-, probably as a result of strong artificial in the intensive production systems in pig. CONCLUSIONS: The high correlation between genetic diversity computed with the 60K SNP and whole genome re-sequence data indicates that the Porcine 60K SNP Beadchip provides reliable estimates of genomic diversity in European pig populations despite the expected bias. Moreover, this analysis gave insights for strategies to the genetic characterization of local breeds. The comparison between re-sequenced local pigs and re-sequenced commercial pigs made it possible to report candidate mutations to be responsible for phenotypic divergence among those groups of breeds. This study highlights the importance of low input breeds as a valuable genetic reservoir for the pig production industry. However, the high levels of ROHs, inbreeding and potentially damaging mutations emphasize the importance of the genetic characterization of local breeds to preserve their genomic variability.

Conservation genomic analysis of domestic and wild pig populations from the Iberian Peninsula.

BACKGROUND: Inbreeding is among the major concerns in management of local livestock populations. The effective population size of these populations tends to be small, which enhances the risk of fitness reduction and extinction. High-density SNP data make it possible to undertake novel approaches in conservation genetics of endangered breeds and wild populations.A total of 97 representative samples of domestic and wild pig populations from the Iberian Peninsula, subjected to different levels of threat with extinction, were genotyped with a 60 K SNP panel. Data analyses based on: (i) allele frequency differences; (ii) linkage disequilibrium and (iii) runs of homozygosity were integrated to study population relationships, inbreeding and demographic history. RESULTS: The domestic pigs analyzed belonged to local Spanish and Portuguese breeds: Iberian ─ including the variants Retinto Iberian, Negro Iberian and Manchado de Jabugo ─, Bisaro and Chato Murciano. The population structure and persistence of phase analysis suggested high genetic relations between Iberian variants, with recent crossbreeding of Manchado de Jabugo with other pig populations. Chato Murciano showed a high frequency of long runs of homozygosity indicating recent inbreeding and reflecting the recent bottleneck reported by historical records. The Chato Murciano and the Manchado de Jabugo breeds presented the lowest effective population sizes in accordance with their status of highly inbred breeds. The Iberian wild boar presented a high frequency of short runs of homozygosity indicating past small population size but no signs of recent inbreeding. The Iberian breed showed higher genetic similarities with Iberian wild boar than the other domestic breeds. CONCLUSIONS: High-density SNP data provided a consistent overview of population structure, demographic history and inbreeding of minority breeds and wild pig populations from the Iberian Peninsula. Despite the very different background of the populations used, we found a good agreement between the different analyses. Our results are also in agreement with historical reports and provide insight in the events that shaped the current genetic variation of pig populations from the Iberian Peninsula. The results exposed will aid to design and implement strategies for the future management of endangered minority pig breeds and wild populations.