• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1379-1387
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• 2013

In a majority of mammals, male infants have heavier body mass and grow faster than female infants. Accordingly, male offspring nursing requires a much greater maternal energy contribution to lactation. It is possible that the maternal-fetal immunoendocrine dialog plays an important role in female preparation for lactation during pregnancy. Immune system genes are an integral part of gene regulatory networks in lactation and tumor necrosis factor alpha ($TNF{\alpha}$) is a proinflammatory cytokine that also plays an important role in normal mammary gland development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the sex of calf and/or the -824A/G polymorphism in the promoter region of $TNF{\alpha}$ gene on milk performance traits in Black Pied cattle over the course of lactation. We also studied the allele frequency differences of -824A/G variants across several cattle breeds, which were bred in different climatic conditions. The G allele frequency decreased gradually over the course of lactation events in the Black Pied dairy cattle because of a higher culling rate of cows with the G/G genotype (p<0.001). In contrast to the genotypes A/A and A/G, cows with G/G genotype showed significant variability of milk and milk fat yield subject to sex of delivered calf. Milk yield and milk fat yield were significantly higher in the case of birth of a bull calf than with a heifer calf (p<0.03). The G allele frequency varies from 48% to 58% in Grey Ukrainian and Black Pied cattle to 77% in aboriginal Yakut cattle. Our results suggest that the $TNF{\alpha}$-824A/G gene polymorphism may have an influence on the reproductive efforts of cows over the course of lactation events depending on the sex of progeny. Allocation of resources according to sex of the calf allows optimizing the energy cost of lactation. This may be a probable reason for high G allele frequency in Yakut cattle breeding in extreme environmental conditions. Similarly, the dramatic fall in milk production after birth of a heifer calf increases the probability of culling for the cows with the G/G genotype in animal husbandry.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.733-737
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• 2012

Determination of sex origin of cattle meat by fast and reliable molecular methods is an important measure to ensure correct allocation of export refunds particularly in European countries and also female cattle (cow) slaughter is legally banned in India because of religious beliefs. Based on the DEAD box protein gene located on the X and Y chromosomes, 2 pair of primers were designed and the system of PCR was optimized. Upon PCR amplification, male tissue showed 2 bands, while female tissue resulted in only one band. The accuracy and specificity of the primers was assessed using DNA template extracted from cattle meat of known sex. The protocol was subjected to a blind test and showed 100% concordance, proving its accuracy and reliability.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.843-845
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• 1999

To evaluate direct and maternal effects on calf market weight (CMW) and carcass weight (CW) in Japanese Black cattle under an animal model, genetic parameters were estimated using 51,320 records of CMW and 11,944 records of CW, respectively. Direct and maternal heritabilities, and direct-maternal genetic correlation were estimated to be 0.22, 0.06 and 0.27 for CMW, and 0.23, 0.12 and -0.40 for CW, respectively. Correlation coefficient between maternal breeding values for CMW and CW was 0.521 for 157 sires appeared in both CMW and CW data sets. These results suggest that the maternal genetic effect on pre-weaning growth carries over to carcass weight. Maternal breeding values for both calf market weight and carcass weight could be used as the indicator traits of maternal ability in Japanese Black cattle.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.162-168
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• 2017

Mastitis is a common and serious infection of the mammary gland in dairy cattle and has a major economic impact on the production of milk and dairy products. Bacterial mastitis is caused by several pathogens and is most frequently associated with coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). Although CNS are typically associated with subclinical or mild mastitis, the importance of CNS has increased as these pathogens have emerged as predominant mastitis-related pathogens in many countries. CNS can cause persistent infections, resulting in increased milk somatic cell counts and thereby affecting milk quality and decreasing milk production. Globally, Staphylococcus chromogenes, S. epidermidis, and S. simulans are the predominant CNS species in dairy cattle mastitis. Antibacterial resistance of CNS varies with species, and most CNS are susceptible to vancomycin and resistant to penicillin and tetracycline. As the most frequently isolated CNS species, some strains of S. chromogenes exhibit phenotypic resistance to ampicillin, erythromycin, oxacillin, penicillin, and tetracycline. Some strains of S. epidermidis and S. haemolyticus are only susceptible to vancomycin and rifampicin. Therefore, more studies are needed to achieve the control and prevention of CNS as environmental pathogens.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 1997

This study was carried out to enhance the efficiency of Korean Native cattle embryos and establish the techniques for producing the twin calves. Bisected embryos without zona pellucida which were divided by simple method not using holding pipette or whole two embryos were transferred to recipients.The pedigrees of monozygotic twin calves produced by transfer of bisected pair embryos were identified. The results obtained were as follows ; The average successful bisection rate was 89.16%. The embryos of blastocyst stage (91.66%) were bisected successfully at significantly (P<0.05) higher rate, compared with the morula stage embryos (86.66%). The average survival rate of bisected embryos following 24 hours culture was 59.02%. The survival rate of morula stage embryos (62.50%) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of blastocyst stage embryos (55.5%). For the production of monozygotic twin calves, ten pairs of flesh or frozen demi-em- lymphocytes antigen, the twin calves produced by transfer of bisected pair embryos of Korean Native cattle were identified in pedigrees and confirmed as monozygotes.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.869-881
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• 2023

A genetic improvement program in Korea was implemented to improve the performance of Hanwoo cattle by generating livestock with genetically desirable economic characteristics. In particular, in response to external changes, such as the expansion of Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the livestock genetic improvement program has increased farm income by improving the productivity and quality of Hanwoo cattle. Using production cost data from Statistics Korea, the total input and output indices of Hanwoo feeding cattle from 2008 - 2021 were estimated and the growth and productivity changes were analyzed. The productivity change measures results were used to estimate the cumulative effects of the Hanwoo genetic improvement program on quality improvement, another purpose of the program, using a finite distributed lag model. The average annual increase in output (market weight) of Hanwoo was 0.9%. However, total input increased by 1.6%, resulting in a 0.6% decline in total factor productivity. In contrast, the Hanwoo genetic improvement program contributed significantly to the production of high quality beef, rather than contributing to improved productivity of the cattle. Hanwoo carcass weight, which is used as a performance indicator for the livestock genetic improvement program, has significantly improved and is projected to increase at a slower rate. The collective findings indicate the need for new performance indicators that can comprehensively indicate the performance of the genetic improvement of Hanwoo.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2015

These studies were conducted to establish the practical Hanwoo (Korean native cattle) improvement system through the combining of embryo transfer technology and confirming individual Hanwoo oocyte culture system and to investigate that correlation of Hanwoo carcass classification (intramuscular marbling) and oocyte donor for blastocyst production in vitro. In case of Hanwoo, the carcass meat quality grades were divided to grade $1^{{+}{+}}$, $1^{+}$, 1, 2, and 3 depends on fat distribution of longest muscle cross-sectional surface. As results, the numbers of follicular oocytes collected from individual fundamentally-registered Hanwoo yielded $1^{{+}{+}}$, $1^{+}$, 1, 2 and 3 meat quality were 9.5, 9.4, 8.5, 8.8 and 8.8 per ovary, respectively. The numbers of retrieval oocyte from follicles were significantly higher in the cattle yield $1^{{+}{+}}$, $1^{+}$ meat quality than in the cattle yield 1, 2 and 3 meat quality (p<0.05). The rates of blastocyst formation were 18.2, 21.3, 29.4, 30.9, and 31.5% in the cattle yield $1^{{+}{+}}$, $1^{+}$, 1, 2 and 3 meat quality of after in vitro maturation, respectively. It was significantly lower in the cattle yield $^{{+}{+}}$ and $1^{+}$ meat quality than in the cattle yield 1, 2 and 3 meat quality (p<0.05). In order to evaluate embryos quality, TUNNEL assay was conducted for each meat quality grade using blastocyst stage embryo on day 8. The results showed that apoptosis cell number was higher tendency in the cattle yield $1^{{+}{+}}$and $1^{+}$ meat quality (81 and 79, respectively) than in the cattle yield 1, 2 and 3 meat quality (51, 48 and 50, respectively) but there was no statistical significance in each group. After embryo transfer, the conception rate of recipient was 53.5 (23 out of 43), 52.1 (38 out of 73) and 58.0% (58 out of 100) in the meat quality of 1, $1^{+}$ and $1^{{+}{+}}$, respectively. These results showed that the conception rate was significantly higher in the cattle yield 1 meat quality than in the cattle yield $1^{{+}{+}}$, $1^{+}$, 2, and 3 meat quality (p<0.05). In summary, these results indicate that the application of confirming Hanwoo individual oocyte culture system and embryo transfer technology can make good use of the genetic resources conservation and improvement of Hanwoo. Relevance of the meat quality grade and reproductive ability of carcasses of Hanwoo will be considered to be one of the effective means for the associated research with obesity and reproduction.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 2004

Recent livestock people concern not only increase of production, but also superior quality of animal-breeding environment. So far, the optimization of the breeding and air environment has been focused on the production increase. In the very near future, the optimization will be emphasized on the environment for the animal welfare and health. Especially, cattle farming demands the precision livestock farming and special attention has to be given to the management of feeding, animal health and fertility. The management of individual animal is the first step for precision livestock farming and animal welfare, and recognizing each individual is important for that. Though electronic identification of a cattle such as RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) has many advantages, RFID implementations practically involve several problems such as the reading speed and distance. In that sense, computer vision might be more effective than RFID for the identification of an individual animal. The researches on the identification of cattle via image processing were mostly performed with the cows having black-white patterns of the Holstein. But, the native Korean and Japanese cattle do not have any definite pattern on the body. The purpose of this research is to identify the Japanese black cattle that does not have a body pattern using computer vision technology and neural network algorithm. Twelve heads of Japanese black cattle have been tested to verify the proposed scheme. The values of input parameters were specified and then computed using the face images of cattle. The images of cattle faces were trained using associate neural network algorithm, and the algorithm was verified by the face images that were transformed using brightness, distortion, and noise factors. As a result, there was difference due to transform ratio of the brightness, distortion, and noise. And, the proposed algorithm could identify 100% in the range from -3 to +3 degrees of the brightness, from -2 to +4 degrees of the distortion, and from 0% to 60% of the noise transformed images. It is concluded that our system can not be applied in real time recognition of the moving cows, but can be used for the cattle being at a standstill.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.878-883
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• 2002

Due to rising trend of beef demand in Asia in the next two decades it is necessary to find additional sources of beef supply. In most Southeast Asian countries, male dairy and swamp buffalo have not yet been raised for a primary purpose of quality beef production. This study was aimed to compare growth and feeding performances as well as economic returns from feeding male dairy, beef cattle and swamp buffalo for quality beef. Thirty-six animals, 12 of each breed group, were used in feeding trial to compare the cost of beef production. Two levels of concentrate feeding, 1.75% of body weight (BW) and 1.00% of BW, were used for each breed group in order to compare feeding methods i.e. high and low levels. Within each breed group two animals of similar initial BW were randomly assigned to the two levels of feeding. The animals were fed from about 150 kg BW until reaching the final weight of about 400 kg. The results from this study showed that under the prevailing economic conditions in Thailand the cost of beef production from buffalo was lowest due to very low cost of feeder stocks, followed by dairy and beef. However, the cost of feeding per kg of BW gain was lowest in beef and highest in buffalo i.e. when disregarding the differences in cost of feeder stocks. Beef calves grew faster than dairy and buffalo, with better feed efficiencies. The results indicated that beef cattle could be more suitable for beef production for high-quality beef market, while buffalo could be more suitable for small farms where high roughage feeding is common. Male dairy calves appeared to require higher level of concentrate feeding than 1% BW in order to maintain good body conditions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.1116-1122
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• 1999

Raising dairy cattle for milk production has been promoted and supported by the Thai government in recent years. The extent to which dairy farmers in southern Thailand use the practices recommended by government officers is not known and was investigated in this study. With dairy farming in southern Thailand mainly concentrated in the Phatthalung province, the entire population of dairy farmers in this province was studied. A total of 114 dairy farmers were studied by personal interviews. The results showed that the farmers varied widely in their use of the practices for dairy production in southern Thailand. The study identified that the major problems in dairy production in southern Thailand were low rates of conception to artificial insemination, the high price of feedstuffs and a shortage of roughage in the dry summer months.