• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.1013-1025
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• 1993

Agriculture in Swaziland is the most important sector of the economy from the stand point of export earning, rural employment and dependency for family food. But, inspite of 65.5 percent of the household being busy in food production for family consumption in Swaziland, the import bill of food and live animals is rising from E119.7268 million in 1987/90 (An.St.Bul.1988) . A typical farm size, based on holding's growing crops, is only 1.93 ha which may prohibit owning a four wheel tractor for farm operations. The traditional hand tools are just not efficient and comfortable to operate in order to exploit full potential of the land. There are over 120.000 draught animals which have potential to be utilized in farming. The two wheel-tractor is another energy source which can be used for many farm-operations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.323-328
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• 2000

The administration of soluble glass bolus (SGB) with cobalt (Co), selenium (Se) and copper (Cu), among 50 upgraded does in the farm of Central Luzon State University, Philippines, was effective in improving the mineral status of the animals. After one year, blood Se and plasma Cu had been significantly increased; subsequently plasma molybdenum (Mo) level had been reduced, but other macro-minerals were not affected. Soluble glass bolus supplementation did not affect plasma calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na), although the treated does had higher plasma phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and zinc (Zn) in some parts of the year. Hematocrit count of the animals was also improved reaching 32% level after 9 months; although it was still 6% below the lower limit of a normal range of 38 to 45%. The desired improvement in Se, Cu and Mo was not able to influence live weight among the animals. After one year, body weight was not significantly different from the control group of animals. Nevertheless, the study showed the effectiveness of SGB in improving Cu and Se levels, and subsequently reducing the plasma Mo levels of grazing goats in a typical Philippine farm.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.424-424
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• 1989

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-2
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• 1983

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.73-82
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• 1977

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1983

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 1982

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.640-647
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• 2008

Breed differences in adult animals are determined during fetal development. If interventions are to be developed that influence growth of muscle and fat, it is important to know at which time during gestation breed differences appear and are fixed. The objective of this study was to characterize fetal development in cattle of different breeds. Pregnant cows of 4 cattle breeds with different growth impetus and muscularity were slaughtered under normal processing conditions and the fetuses were removed. German Angus, a typical beef cattle; Galloway, a smaller, environmentally resistant beef type; Holstein Friesian, a dairy type; and Belgian Blue, an extreme type for muscle growth were used. Fetuses of each breed were investigated at 3, 6, and 9 mo of gestation. Fetuses were weighed and dissected into carcass, organs, and muscles. Body fat weight was obtained using the Soxhlet extraction method. Fetal weight increased most rapidly in the third trimester of gestation mainly due to the accelerated muscle and fat deposition. The organ weight to body weight (BW) ratios decreased and the muscle and fat weight to BW ratios increased. At 3 mo of gestation, Galloway fetuses had the significantly smallest BW, half-carcass weight, leg weight, organ weight, muscle weight and shortest leg length. In contrast, Holstein fetuses had the significantly greatest BW, liver, kidney, and lung weights and significantly longest leg length among the 4 breeds, but no differences between Holstein Friesian and Belgian Blue were detected in half-carcass and leg weight. Indeed, Belgian Blue fetuses had the significantly greatest half-carcass weight, leg weight, and muscle weight at 9 mo of gestation, and Galloway had a significantly greater body fat to BW ratio than Holstein Friesian and Belgian Blue. These differences were not evident at 3 and 6 mo of gestation. These data show that the profound increase of tissue and organ weights occurred in later gestation in cattle fetuses even though breed differences were evident as early as 3 mo of gestation. Depending on the tissue of interest, impacting fetal growth likely needs to occur early in gestation before the appearance of breed-specific differences.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1135-1155
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• 2007

Selenium is considered to be one of the most controversial trace elements. On the one hand, it is toxic at high doses and there is a great body of information related to environmental issues of Se contamination. On the other hand, Se deficiency is a global problem related to an increased susceptibility to various diseases of animals and humans and decreased productive and reproductive performance of farm animals. Optimisation of Se nutrition of poultry and farm animals will result in increased efficiency of egg, meat and milk production and even more important, will improve quality. From the data presented in the review it is clear that the main lesson which we have to learn from nature is how to use organic selenium in animal and human diets. Selenium-enriched yeast (Sel-Plex) is the result of such a lesson and it is just a matter of time before animal nutrition moves completely from using ineffective sodium selenite to organic selenium. Other lessons from nature will follow. Recent advances in genomics and proteomics, in association with descriptions of new selenoproteins, will be a driving force in reconsidering old approaches related to Se nutrition. Probably 90% of all Se research has been conducted with sodium selenite and we now understand that the natural form of selenium is different. The main advances in Se status assessment and Se requirements were established based on the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), an enzyme which for many years was considered to be the main selenoprotein. Recently it was discovered that it is only one of at least 25 various selenoproteins. Se research and practical applications are developing quickly and they are very exciting and promising.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2008

Since the birth of Dolly using fully differentiated somatic cells as a nuclear donor, viable clones were generated successfully in many mammalian species. These achievements in animal cloning demonstrate developmental potential of terminally differentiated somatic cells. At the same time, the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique provides the opportunities to study basic and applied biosciences. However, the efficiency generating viable offsprings by SCNT remains extremely low. There are several explanations why cloned embryos cannot fully develop into viable animals and what factors affect developmental potency of reconstructed embryos by the SCNT technique. The most critical and persuasive explanation for inefficiency in SCNT cloning is incomplete genomic reprogramming, such as DNA methylation and histone modification. Numerous studies on genomic reprogramming demonstrated that incorrect DNA methylation and aberrant epigenetic reprogramming are considerably correlated with abnormal development of SCNT cloned embryos even though its mechanism is not fully understood. The SCNT technique is useful in cloning farm animals because pluripotent stem cells are not established in farm animal species. Therapeutic cloning combined with genetic manipulation will help to control various human diseases. Also, the SCNT technique provides a chance to overcome excessive demand for the organs by production of transgenic animals as xenotransplantation resources. Here, we describe the factors affecting the efficiency of generating cloned farm animals by the SCNT technique and discuss future directions of animal cloning by SCNT to improve the cloning efficiency.