• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.360-368
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• 2015

The present study evaluated the effect of controlled ryegrass-white clover herbage availability from day 128 until day 142 of pregnancy in comparison to unrestricted availability, on the performance of twin-bearing ewes of varying body condition score (BCS; 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0) and their lambs. It was hypothesised that under conditions of controlled herbage availability, the performance of lambs born to ewes with a greater BCS would be greater than those born to ewes with a lower BCS. During the period that the nutritional regimens were imposed, the pre- and post-grazing herbage masses of the Control regimen ($1,070{\pm}69$ and $801{\pm}30$ kg dry matter [DM]/ha) were lower than the ad libitum regimen ($1,784{\pm}69$ and $1,333{\pm}33kg\;DM/ha$; p<0.05). The average herbage masses during lactation were $1,410{\pm}31kg\;DM/ha$. Nutritional regimen had no effect on ewe live weight, BCS and back fat depth or on lamb live weight, indices of colostrum uptake, maximal heat production, total litter weight weaned or survival to weaning (p>0.05). The difference in ewe BCSs and back fats observed among body condition groups was maintained throughout pregnancy (p<0.05). At weaning, ewes from the BCS2.0 group had lower BCS and live weight ($2.4{\pm}0.2$, $74.3{\pm}2.6kg$) than both the BCS2.5 ($2.6{\pm}0.2$, $78.6{\pm}2.4kg$) and BCS3.0 ewes ($2.7{\pm}0.2$, $79.0{\pm}2.6kg$; p<0.05), which did not differ (p>0.05). Ewe BCS group had no effect on lamb live weight at birth or weaning or on maximal heat production (p>0.05). Serum gamma glutamyl transferase concentrations of lambs born to BCS3.0 ewes were higher within 36 hours of birth than lambs born to BCS2.0 ewes and BCS2.5 ewes ($51.8{\pm}1.9$ vs $46.5{\pm}1.9$ and $45.6{\pm}1.9IU/mL$, respectively [p<0.05]). There was, however, no effect of ewe body condition on lamb plasma glucose concentration (p>0.05). Lamb survival was the only lamb parameter that showed an interaction between ewe nutritional regimen and ewe BCS whereby survival of lambs born to BCS2.5 and BCS3.0 ewes differed but only within the Control nutritional regimen ewes (p<0.05). These results indicate farmers can provide twin-bearing ewes with pre- and post-grazing ryegrass-white clover herbage covers of approximately 1,100 and 800 kg DM/ha in late pregnancy, provided that herbage covers are 1400 in lactation, without affecting lamb performance to weaning. The present results also indicate that under these grazing conditions, there is little difference in ewe performance within the BCS range of 2.0 to 3.0 and therefore they do not need to be managed separately.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 1990

A reproductive potential trial using randomized complete block design with $3{\times}3{\times}2$ factorial, was conducted on 84 Baluchi yearling ewes. Ewes grazed on rangeland dominated by Artemisia maritime and Holoxylon grifthii with or without flushing and supplementation of barley grain (BG) and cotton-seed-cake (CSC) during premating, late pregnancy and lactation of 90 days. Analysis of variance revealed that conception rate which ranged 64.28 to 85.71, was significantly greater (p<.05) in ewes flushed with CSC followed by ewes under BG or control feeding regimes. During the gestation period, liveweight of ewes changed from 31.24 to 21.2 kg. A loss of 32% of initial body weight was observed at lambing. Losses in live weight of ewes, regardless the supplementation, were uniform and non-significantly different. Live weight of ewes at lambing and weaning were also similar. Birth weight of lambs was significantly different at p<.05. Lambs born to larger ewes seemed to be heavier than lighter ones. Lambs suckling to ewes with losses in body weight during lactation gained more weight which was significantly different at p<.05. In the paper, factors affecting the conception rate, changes in liveweight of ewes during gestation and lactation and subsequently growth of lambs are discussed.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.119-141
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• 2020

The Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedaries) is an important species because of its ability to produce good quality meat, milk, and fibers under harsh environmental conditions. Camels are also crucial for transportation, racing, and as draft animals in agriculture. Therefore, dromedary camels play a critical role in the economy for millions of people living in the arid part of the world. The inherent capability of camels to produce meat and milk is highly correlated with their reproductive performance. Compared with other domestic species, the reproductive efficiency in camelids is low. Although recent reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) have been successfully applied to camelids and the birth of live offspring following these technologies has been reported; in vitro embryo production (IVP) has lagged in this species. The development of the IVP system for dromedary camels may be a useful tool for the genetic improvement of this species. IVP in farm animals includes three main steps; in vitro maturation (IVM) of an oocyte, IVF of a matured oocyte, and in vitro culture (IVC) of fertilized oocyte up to the blastocyst stage. This review aims to summarize various factors that influence oocyte quality, IVM, and in vitro embryo development in dromedary camel.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1725-1731
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• 2003

Effect of strategically supplemented pregnancy allowance was ascertained during different phases of gestation on the reproductive performance of does. Gravid does (18) were allotted to 3 dietary treatments HH, HL and LH in a completely randomized block design. All does were provided wheat straw ad libitum and supplemented with concentrate mixture at the rate of $20g/kgW^{0.75}$ from 0-60 days post-mating. Subsequently, HH group was given concentrate at the rate of $40g/kgW^{0.75}$ from 61 d post-mating to term. HL group was offered concentrate from 61-90 d post-mating and 121d post mating to term at the rate of $20g/kgW^{0.75}$ and from 91-120 d post-mating at the rate of $40g/kgW^{0.75}$. LH group was provided with concentrate from 61 to 120 d post-mating and 121 to term at the rate of 20 g and $40g/kgW^{0.75}$, respectively. Mean total dry matter and concentrate intake ($g/kgW^{0.75}$) was significantly higher on HH in comparison to comparable intake of HL and LH treatments, however, wheat straw followed the reverse trend. Haematological and biochemical parameters except serum glucose, total serum protein and A:G ratio did not differ significantly among dietary treatments. The gross gain in weight, products of pregnancy at 21 weeks of gestation, pregnant does average daily gain, birth weight of kids and survivability of kids were significantly lower in treatment HL in comparison to comparable values for HH and LH treatments. The net gain in gravid does was significantly higher in treatment HH than the comparable values obtained in HL and LH treatments. The last month of pregnancy was found to be nutritionally most sensitive period of gestation for native goats.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.104-111
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• 2016

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito borne pathogen, belongs to Flaviviridae family having a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome, currently known for causing large epidemics in Brazil. Its infection can cause microcephaly, a serious birth defect during pregnancy. The recent outbreak of ZIKV in February 2016 in Brazil realized it as a major health risk, demands an enhanced surveillance and a need to develop novel drugs against ZIKV. Amodiaquine, prochlorperazine, quinacrine, and berberine are few promising drugs approved by Food and Drug Administration against dengue virus which also belong to Flaviviridae family. In this study, we performed molecular docking analysis of these drugs against nonstructural 3 (NS3) protein of ZIKV. The protease activity of NS3 is necessary for viral replication and its prohibition could be considered as a strategy for treatment of ZIKV infection. Amongst these four drugs, berberine has shown highest binding affinity of -5.8 kcal/mol and it is binding around the active site region of the receptor. Based on the properties of berberine, more similar compounds were retrieved from ZINC database and a structure-based virtual screening was carried out by AutoDock Vina in PyRx 0.8. Best 10 novel drug-like compounds were identified and amongst them ZINC53047591 (2-(benzylsulfanyl)-3-cyclohexyl-3H-spiro[benzo[h]quinazoline-5,1'-cyclopentan]-4(6H)-one) was found to interact with NS3 protein with binding energy of -7.1 kcal/mol and formed H-bonds with Ser135 and Asn152 amino acid residues. Observations made in this study may extend an assuring platform for developing anti-viral competitive inhibitors against ZIKV infection.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2023

Objectives: Rwanda reported a stunting rate of 33% in 2020, decreasing from 38% in 2015; however, stunting remains an issue. Globally, child deaths from malnutrition stand at 45%. The best options for the early detection and treatment of stunting should be made a community policy priority, and health services remain an issue. Hence, this research aimed to develop a model for predicting stunting in Rwandan children. Methods: The Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2019-2020 was used as secondary data. Stratified 10-fold cross-validation was used, and different machine learning classifiers were trained to predict stunting status. The prediction models were compared using different metrics, and the best model was chosen. Results: The best model was developed with the gradient boosting classifier algorithm, with a training accuracy of 80.49% based on the performance indicators of several models. Based on a confusion matrix, the test accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 were calculated, yielding the model's ability to classify stunting cases correctly at 79.33%, identify stunted children accurately at 72.51%, and categorize non-stunted children correctly at 94.49%, with an area under the curve of 0.89. The model found that the mother's height, television, the child's age, province, mother's education, birth weight, and childbirth size were the most important predictors of stunting status. Conclusions: Therefore, machine-learning techniques may be used in Rwanda to construct an accurate model that can detect the early stages of stunting and offer the best predictive attributes to help prevent and control stunting in under five Rwandan children.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1395-1403
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• 2008

The objective of the present study was to estimate genetic parameters for economic traits in Markhoz goats. Data collected from 1993 to 2006 by the Markhoz goat Performance Testing Station in Sanandaj, Iran, were analyzed. The traits recorded as body weight performance at birth (BW), weaning (WW), six month (6MW), nine month (9MW), yearling (YW) and yearling fleece weight (YFW) were investigated. Least square analyses were used for estimation of environmental effects. Genetic parameters were estimated with single and multi trait analysis using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedures, under animal models. By ignoring or including maternal additive genetic effects and maternal permanent environmental effects, five different models were fitted for each trait. The effects of sex, type of birth, age of dam and year of birth on the all body weights were significant (p<0.01), but had no effects on YFW except year of birth. Age of kids had significant influences on WW and 6MW (p<0.01). A log likelihood ratio test was carried out for choosing the most suitable model for each trait. Total heritability estimates for YFW and growth traits varied from 0.16 for YFW and WW to 0.41 for YW. For all traits, maternal heritability was lower than direct heritability, ranging from 0.06 for BW to 0.01 for 6MW and 9MW. The magnitude of $c^2$ was more substantial for BW than the others, and relative importance was reduced from 0.12 for BW to 0.04 for 9MW. The direct additive genetic correlations estimates were positive and varied from 0.21 between BW-YW to 0.96 between WW-6MW. Direct additive genetic correlations between YFW and body weight traits were positive and ranged from 0.14 between BW-YFW to 0.67 between 6MW-YFW. For all traits, the corresponding estimates for phenotypic correlation were positive and lower than genetic correlations. The maternal additive genetic correlations between various traits were varied and ranged from -0.19 between 9MW-YFW to 0.96 between 6MW-9MW. The estimates of the maternal permanent environmental correlations between various traits were positive and ranged from 0.33 between WW-YFW to 0.93 between WW-6MW. Also, the environmental correlations between various traits ranged from 0.01 between BW-YFW and WW-YFW to 0.70 between 9MW-YW. Estimates of genetic parameters for various traits in this study confirm that selection should be applied on WW for genetic improvement in Markhoz goats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1443-1450
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• 2003

Crossbred (Bos taurus${\times}$Bos indicus) calves were used from birth till 14 weeks of age to evaluate three sources of protein that differed in ruminal degradability viz. groundnut cake alone (HD) or in combination with cottonseed meal (MD) and meat and bone meal (LD), when fed along with two sources of non-structural carbohydrates viz. raw (R) and thermally processed (P) maize. Twenty four new born calves were arranged in six groups in a $3{\times}2$ factorial design and fed on whole milk up to 56 d of age. All the different calves received calf startes along with green oats (Avena sativa) from 14 d of age onwards free-choice. A metabolism trial of 6d starters duration, conducted after 90 d of experimental feeding, revealed greater (p<0.05) digestibility of DM, OM, total carbohydrates, NDF and ADF in calves fed on the P diets than on the R diets promoting greater (p<0.05) metabolizable energy intake. The digestibility of NDF was higher (p<0.01) on LD diets where as calves on MD diets exhibited significantly lower digestibility of ADF (p<0.01). The retention of nitrogen per unit metabolic body size was significantly (p<0.05) higher on the LD-P diet than on the diet HD-P which, in turn, was higher (p<0.05) than that of HD-R. Nitrogen retention as percentage of intake was significantly greater (p<0.05) on LD-P than on LD-R diets (52.2 vs. 36.4%). Also, P fed calves utilized nitrogen more efficiently than the R fed as shown by retention of significantly greater proportions of intake (47.4 vs. 40.9%) and absorbed (65.8 vs. 59.5%) nitrogen. Calorimetric evaluation of the diets through open-circuit respiration chamber revealed that the dietary treatments had no impact on methane production by calves. The intake of DE and ME was improved (p<0.01) because of maize processing resulting in greater (p<0.01) retention of energy. The protein degradability exerted no influence on the partitioning or retention of energy. A significant interaction between cereal and protein types was evident with respect to retention of both nitrogen (p<0.01) and energy (p<0.05). In conclusion, no discernible trend in the influence of cereal processing was apparent on the dietary protein degradability, but the positive effect of cereal processing on energy retention diminished with the increase in dietary undegradability.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.181-184
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• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in Kerala, South India, with the incidence increasing in the past two decades, also in young women. However, there are limited data regarding the burden of disease, its epidemiology and histopathological characteristics in the state. Materials and Methods: This desciptive study covered 303 breast cancers evaluated during the period of December 2011 to August 2013 in the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Kottayam.The patients were also interviewed regarding selected risk factors. Results: The majority of the cases were 41-60 years of age with a mean at presentation of 53 years. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the most common subtype, followed by pure mucinous carcinoma and then lobular carcinoma. Of the cases, 6.6% were nullipara and 52.8% had fewer than or equal to 2 children. Median age at first child birth was 23 years (national value-19.8 years). A significant proportion (15%) had family history of breast cancer. Some 13.5%(41 cases) comprised the young breast cancer group (${\leq}40$years) with a mean age at first child birth in them was 27.4 years, 5 being nullipara and 6 having a positive family history. Conclusions: Breast cancer awareness, better availability of screening techniques and identification and targeting high risk groups all help to tackle the increasing load of breast carcinoma. A good proportion of cases comprised the young breast cancer group (under 40). Younger women should thus also be educated about breast carcinoma-risk factors, symptoms and diagnostic techniques to help in early detection and effective approach esto treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1479-1485
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• 2015

Background: Even after completion of conventional treatment, breast cancer survivors continue to exhibit a variety of psychological and physical symptoms, affecting their quality of life. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between socio-demography, medical characteristics and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of a sample of breast cancer survivors in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: This pilot cross-sectional survey was conducted among breast cancer survivors (n=40) who were members of Breast Cancer Support Group Centre Johor Bahru. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the relationships between socio-demography, medical characteristics and HR-QOL of the participants. Results: Living with family and completion of treatment were significant predictive factors of self-rated QOL, while living with family and ever giving birth significantly predicted satisfaction with health and physical health. Psychological health had moderate correlations with number of children and early cancer stage. Survivors' higher personal income (>MYR4,500) was the only significant predictor of social relationship, while age, income more than MYR4,500 and giving birth significantly predicted environment domain score. Conclusions: The findings suggested the survivors coped better in all four HR-QOL domains if they were married, lived with family, had children and were employed.