• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.573-579
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• 1998

The effects of supplementation with mixed fodder or concentrate were investigated on the performance of a) growth of male lambs and kids grazing extensively under oil palm trees and b) reproduction of ewes and goats stall-fed with native herbage. Supplemented kids and lambs had higher average daily weight gain than controls but the effect was only significant for those which received concentrate (p < 0.05). Final body weight was only significantly different from controls for lambs supplemented with concentrate (p < 0.05). The ages at puberty, first mating, first conception and first kidding of supplemented goats were about 110 days earlier than those for controls (p < 0.05 or better). Supplemented goats had first mating and conceived at lower body weights (p < 0.01) than those in control groups. Different feeding regimes had no effects (p > 0.05) on the reproductive performance of ewes apart from highest body weight of first lambing in animals supplemented with concentrate (p < 0.05). Native herbage available under oil palm trees of 5 years old was sufficient for growth and reproduction of sheep and goats. Concentrate was better than mixed fodder as supplement for enhancing the reproductive performance of goats but both appeared to have limited effects on the performance of reproduction in ewes and growth in male kids.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1477-1486
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• 2009

Female germ cell meiotic divisions are typically asymmetric, giving rise to two daughter cells with different sizes. Spindle movements including spindle migration from the oocyte center to the cortex and spindle rotation from parallel to perpendicular (typically in the mouse) at the cortex are crucial for these asymmetric divisions and therefore are crucial for gamete production. Different regulatory mechanisms for spindle movements have been determined in different species and a wide variety of different molecular components and processes that are involved in spindle movements have also been identified in different species. Here, we review the current state of knowledge as well as our understanding of mechanisms for spindle movements in different systems with focus on three main aspects: microtubules (MT), microfilaments (MF) and molecules associated with cytoskeletal organization as well as molecules that are not directly related to the cytoskeleton. How they might interact or function independently during female meiotic divisions in different species is discussed in detail.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.630-637
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• 2013

To determine the effects of dry period (DP) length on milk yield, milk composition, some blood metabolites, complete blood count (CBC), body weight and score and follicular status, twenty five primiparous and multiparous Holstein cows were assigned to a completely randomized design with DP-60 (n = 13) and DP-20 (n = 12) dry period lengths. Cows in the DP-60 produced more milk, protein, SNF, serum non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and beta hydroxyl butyrate acid (BHBA) compared with cows in DP-20 ($p{\leq}0.05$). Serum glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), urea, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) were all similar among the treatments. Body Condition Score (BCS), body weight (BW), complete blood count (CBC) and health problems were similar between the treatments. Diameter of the first dominant follicle and diameter of the dominant follicle on d 14 were different among the treatments. Thus, results of this study showed that reducing the dry period length to DP-20 had a negative effect on milk production, milk composition and reproductive performance in Holstein dairy cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2001

Additive and dominance genetic variances were estimated for purebred Landrace selected with line breeding from 1989 to 1995 at Miyazaki Livestock Experiment Station, Kawaminami Branch. Ten body measurements, two reproductive traits and fifteen carcass traits were analyzed with single-trait mixed model analysis. The estimates of narrow-sense heritabilities by additive model were in the range of 0.07 to 0.46 for body measurements, 0.05 to 0.14 for reproductive traits, and 0.05 to 0.68 for carcass traits. The additive model tended to slightly overestimate the narrow-sense heritabilities as compared to the additive and dominance model. The proportion of the dominance variance to total genetic variance ranged from 0.11 to 0.91 for body measurements, 0.00 to 0.65 for reproductive traits, and 0.00 to 0.86 for carcass traits. Large differences among traits were found in the ratio of dominance to total genetic variance. These results suggested that dominance effect would affect the expression of all ten body measurements, one reproductive trait, and nine carcass traits. It is justified to consider the dominance effects in genetic evaluation of the selected lines for those traits.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.189-193
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• 2015

Calculating break-even price of calf production is closely associated with reproductive efficiency. To determine the price, we need data from reproduction records including number of claves weaned, number of cows exposed for breeding, and annual cash coast per cow, and average weaning or market weight of claves sold and retained. Unfortunately, the data were not available in Korea native cow (Hanwoo). To evaluate the performance and the price, we collected calving interval from about 60,000 cows for last 10 years and estimated reproductive performance. Calving interval was increased 4.3% and pregnancy rate was decreased about 1.4~2.8% year-on-year. Increases in growth rates of number of cow and semen per calf supported the low reproductive performance. Finally, break-even price was calculated using estimated percent calf crop and demonstrated that growth rate of break-even price is larger than that of annual cash per cow, suggesting cow-calf profitability and financial efficiency in Korea native cow (Hanwoo) is getting worse.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.185-197
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• 2010

The reproduction of animals is a means to maintain their species. The golden hamsters are seasonal breeders, and their reproduction is regulated by the photoperiod. The shifts of the sexual functions imply the changes of the protein expression, and those are reflected by the proteome. Thus the present study was to examine via two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2d PAGE), the physiological changes and the alterations of protein expressions in hypothalamus upon the reproductive situation related to the pineal gland. Among the pineal intact animals, the reproductive functions were sustained in animals housed in long photoperiod (LP) but regressed in animals housed in short photoperiod. And those pinealectomized animals showed high sexual activities regardless of photoperiod. Ultimately they were branched into dichotomy, sexually active and inactive animals. Apart from the changes of physiological parameters upon the reproductive conditions, there were obvious differences in proteins extracted from the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus of LP animals presented high levels of enzymes which are involved in the production of energy, glycolysis and Krebs cycle. The increased energy might be related to the GnRH synthesis in hypothalamus and indirectly to the constant cell divisions in spermatogenesis. Taken together, the impacts of the photoperiodic information controlling reproduction could be observed through 2d PAGE. Therefore, the present results suggest the potential of biomarkers collectively to diagnose the fertility and the infertility by way of proteomics in organs with regard to the reproductive system, further could be applied to diagnose various diseases.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.87-92
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• 2016

This field study investigated the effects of dystocia on the postpartum complications, milk production, and reproductive performance in Holstein dairy cows. Calving difficulty was scored on a rank scale of 1 to 5. Cows with a calving score of three or higher were judged to have dystocia. The cows (n = 565) were categorized based on the presence (n = 61) or absence (n = 504, control) of dystocia. The incidence of retained placenta (45.9% vs. 16.3%), metritis (39.3% vs. 17.1%), endometritis (47.5% vs. 16.3%) and pyometra (9.8% vs. 1.2%) were greater in cows from the dystocia group than those from the control group (p < 0.0001); however, there was no difference in the incidence of metabolic disorders (32.8% vs. 31.0%) between the two groups (p > 0.05). The prevalence of culling was higher in cows from the dystocia group (26.2%) than in those from the control group (14.5%, p < 0.05). During the 5-month postpartum period, milk production was lower (p < 0.05) in cows from the dystocia group than in those from the control group. Furthermore, the hazard of insemination by 150 days in milk (DIM) was lower in cows from the dystocia group (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.64, p < 0.005) than in those from the control group. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds ratio for the probability of pregnancy after the first artificial insemination was 0.36 times (p < 0.05) higher in cows from the dystocia group than in those from the control group. The hazard of pregnancy by 360 DIM was lower in cows from the dystocia group (HR = 0.45, p = 0.0001) than in those from the control group. In conclusion, dystocia resulted in increased postpartum complications, and decreased milk production and reproductive performance in Holstein dairy cows, leading to increased culling.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.185-198
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• 2001

This study was conducted to reveal the effects of local climatic conditions on reproductive growth in a mature stand of Korean white pine based on climatic estimates. For this, the reproductive growth such as production and characteristics of cone and seed were first measured and summarized for seven years from 1974 to 1980. The local climatic conditions in the study site were also estimated by both a topoclimatological method and a spatial statistical technique. The local climatic conditions were then correlated with and regressed on the growth factors to reveal the relationships between the climatic estimates and the reproductive growth. Average number of conelet formation per tree showed highly negative correlation with some climatic variables related to minimum temperature in the year of flower bud differentiation. Especially, the most significant negative correlation were found between average of the minimum temperature for June and July of flower bud differentiation year and the number of conelet formation. There was no significant correlation between the number of cone production and climatic variables. However, total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year showed the most high correlation (r=0.6036) with the number of cone production. It was found that significant climatic variables affecting the amount of cone drop and cone drop percentage were the sum of cloudy days from June of the flowering year to August of the cone production year. Positive correlation was significantly recognized between the average weight of empty seed per cone and total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. For the percentage of empty seed, five climatic variables among 19 variables were significantly correlated at 10% level. The average weight of a cone showed negative correlation with total precipitation from June of the flowering year to August of the cone production year. It was also found that average weight of a seed had highly negative correlation with total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. The average weight of cone coat was negatively correlated with two climatic variables derived from clear days, which are sum of clear days from November of the flowering year to March of the cone production year and sum of clear days from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. On the other hand, it showed positive correlation with mean temperature of May in the flowering year. The exactly same results were obtained in correlation analysis for the percentage of cone coat.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.71-75
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• 1986

Feeding ratio in relation to milk production, usage of silage, hay and minerals and vitamin suplement were investigated from 5 dairy farms located in the areas of Cheju city, Jochun, Hallim an Sung-up. In this survey conducted on the dairty cow of 51 farms in the four districts of Cheju-do, it was suspected that the reproductive disorders seemed to be high because of inadequate feeding of roughages (especially silage) and increasing feeding of concentrated feeds. The average milk production of dairy cows was 21.3 Kg in spring, 19.3 Kg in summer, 16.2 Kg in fall and 15.7 Kg in winter.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.787-794
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• 2005

The aim of this study was 1) to confirm the practical efficiency of a routine milk P4 monitoring system for postpartum reproductive management of a dairy herd, and 2) to evaluate the relationship between the blood metabolic profiles, milk quality and body weight of individual cows in the farm records, which may reflect the postpartum nutritional condition, and the time of postpartum resumption of ovarian activity of dairy cows. A total of 116 Holstein cows was used in the present study. First, during the period of Experiment 1, postpartum reproductive management based on weekly measured milk P4 concentration from individual cows was conducted. Compared with the reproductive records of the past two years without P4 monitoring, although the day from calving to first AI did not change, both the number of AI until pregnant (with P4; 1.9 times vs. without P4; 2.9 times) and the days open (with P4; 95.1 days vs. without P4; 135.8 days and 133.8 days) were significantly decreased. In Experiment 2, the measurement of blood constituents such as albumin, blood urea nitrogen, packed cell volume, ammonia, glucose, total cholesterol, non-esterified, AST and $\gamma$-GTP was performed on the blood samples taken once approximately 14 days postpartum, to monitor both health and nutritional conditions. The milk constituent parameters, such as milk protein (MP), milk fat (MF), SNF and lactose, collected from the monthly progeny test of individual cows, were used to monitor the postpartum nutritional status. Furthermore, the data obtained from the routine measurements of body weight were used to calculate the rate of peripartum body weight loss. The resumption day of the postpartum estrous cycle was assumed from the milk P4 profiles of individual cows. There was no clear relationship between each parameter from blood examination and those from resumption time. However, the cows had low values of MP, and SNF, which significantly affected the resumption of the postpartum estrous cycle. Similarly, a higher rate of body weight loss indicated a significant delay (more than 1 month) in the resumption of the postpartum estrous cycle, compared with the groups that had a medium or lower rate of body weight loss. The results of the present study demonstrated that the implementation of routine milk P4 monitoring-based postpartum reproductive management, together with milk quality parameters and routine BW data available in field conditions may be utilized as a practical approach for increasing the postpartum reproductive efficiency of a high yielding dairy herd.