• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of the study was to find a possible association between the ${\beta}-$ and ${\kappa}-casein$ and ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$ genotypes and important milk physiochemical and technological characteristics such as acidity, alcohol stability, the contents of some minerals and the parameters of acid fermentation ability (FEA) in Czech Fleckvieh Cattle. Methods: Milk and blood samples were collected from 338 primiparous Czech Fleckvieh cows at the same stage of lactation. The genotypes of individual cows for ${\kappa}-casein$ (alleles A, B, and E) and ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$ (alleles A and B) were ascertained by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, while their ${\beta}-casein$ (alleles $A^1$, $A^2$, $A^3$, and B) genotype was determined using melting curve genotyping analysis. The data collected were i) milk traits including active acidity (pH), titratable acidity (TA), alcohol stability (AS); calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K) contents; and ii) yoghurt traits including active acidity (Y-pH), titratable acidity (Y-TA), and the counts of both Lactobacilli and Streptococci in 1 mL of yoghurt. A linear model was assumed with fixed effects of herd, year, and season of calving, an effect of the age of the cow at first calving and effects of the casein and lactoglobulin genotypes of ${\beta}-CN$ (${\beta}-casein$, CSN2), ${\kappa}-CN$ (${\kappa}-casein$, CSN3), and ${\beta}-LG$ (${\beta}-lactoglobulin$, LGB), or the three-way interaction between those genes. Results: The genetic polymorphisms were related to the milk TA, AS, content of P and Ca, Y-pH and Lactobacilli number in the fresh yoghurt. The CSN3 genotype was significantly associated with milk AS (p<0.05). The effect of the composite CSN2-CSN3-LGB genotype on the investigated traits mostly reflected the effects of the individual genes. It significantly influenced TA (p<0.01), Y-pH (p<0.05) and the log of the Lactobacilli count (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the yoghurt fermentation test together with milk proteins genotyping could contribute to milk quality control and highlight new perspectives in dairy cattle selection.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.335-346
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• 2004

Factors associated with milk urea nitrogen on milk yield and milk composition were investigated in this study regarding feeding management and Physiological status of lactating cows. The data for 3 years between 1999 and 2002 for this study were collected from 129,645 cows by Korean Agricultural Cooperatives Federation. The objectives of this study were to describe the relationships between milk urea concentrations and seasonal factors, cow factors and production of milk, milk fat, protein and somatic cell score(SCS). Milk urea was highest in summer and it also showed a nonlinear association with milk yield. Milk yield was higher at milk urea concentrations of 21 ${\sim}$ 24mg/dl, however it decreased at higher level of milk urea concentrations than 24mg/dl. Milk urea was higher with increased parities of cows and in particular, at 3 to 4 parities. There was a negative association between milk urea and SCS in milk. SCS in milk was lowest at milk urea concentrations of 2l${\sim}$24mg/dl. Milk fat and milk protein were greatly affected by days in milk(DIM), year of birth, season and milk urea concentrations, respectively. While milk urea increased in summer, milk fat and protein were decreased. Milk protein decreased according to longer days in milk. With regard to the influences of parity, milk protein in overall was negatively correlated to milk urea in all lactations, however the extent of decrease of milk protein at high concentrations of milk urea was bigger at third lactation. The balanced supply of energy and protein to the animals might have greatly affected the urea concentrations and protein content of milk.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.573-584
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• 2002

Milk urea nitrogen (MUN) and Milk protein (MP) are being used as indicators of the protein-energy balance and for actual farm feeding practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate the MUN and MP concentrations of individual cows and bulk tank milk to evaluate the dietary protein-energy balance from lactating Holstein cows. Mean MUN and MP concentrations in the milk samples obtained from 132,636 cows of 4,856 herd during Jan. 1999 to Dec. 2001 were 16.2 5.2mg/dl and 3.30 0.35%, respectively. The highest values were found during summer and lowest valued during winter in MUN. But, the average contents of MP were the highest during winter and the lowest during summer. In order to evaluate protein-energy balance for feeding, we set the level of recommended MP range of 2.90${\sim}$3.29% in early lactation considering a negative energy balance. The recommended level of MP in mid-lactation and late lactation were set as 3.10${\sim}$3.49%, and 3.30${\sim}$3.69%, respectively. Recommended MUN range of 12${\sim}$18 mg/dl was determined through the whole lactation period. Individual cows milk were analyzed by the 9 types based on this levels of MP and MUN in this study. Among the total cows investigated, 26.8%, 25.8%, and 22.2% have shown the recommended criteria of MP and MUN values, respectively. Also, of total herds surveyed, 11.6% had MUN values lower than 12.0 mg/dl and 32.9% had values higher than 18.0 mg/dl and 44.5% of total herd have not met with the recommended criteria of MP values in bulk tank milk. In case of MP, out of the total herd surveyed, 26.0% had MP values lower than 3.10% and 24.0% had values higher than 3.30% and 50.0% had MP values outside the recommended interval (3.1${\sim}$3.3%). This study has indicates that many dairy farms are under improper feeding management practice of the dietary protein-energy balance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1625-1632
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• 2009

Four lactating Holstein Friesian crossbred cows, with an average initial weight of 450 kg, 48${\pm}$12 days in milk and initial milk yield of 18 kg/h/d, were randomly arranged according to a 2${\times}$2 factorial arrangement in a 4${\times}$4 in Latin square design with 21-d period to investigate the effects of type of total mixed ration (TMR) and type of whole cottonseed (WCS) on intake, digestibility and milk production. The dietary treatments were i) TMR and WCS supplementation at 0.5 kg/h/d, ii) TMR and cracked WCS (cWCS) supplementation at 0.5 kg/h/d, iii) fermented TMR (FTMR) and WCS supplementation at 0.5 kg/h/d, and iv) FTMR and cWCS supplementation at 0.5 kg/h/d. Voluntary feed intake was 15.9, 15.2, 15.4 and 15.6 kg DM/d in dietary treatment 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Digestibility of DM, OM, CP, EE, NDF and ADF were not significantly different among dietary treatments. Ruminal pH, $NH_{3}-N$ and volatile fatty acids in the rumen were also not significantly different among type of TMR or type of WCS. Blood urea-N concentration was not significantly different among dietary treatments. Ruminal bacteria population tended to increase but ruminal protozoa population tended to decrease with supplementation of cWCS, but they were not affected by FTMR. Milk yield and 3.5% FCM were not statistically different among treatments (16.6, 16.2, 17.0, 16.3 kg/d and 18.0, 18.6, 19.9 and 19.0 kg/d, respectively). Milk composition was not significantly different among dietary treatments. However, unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat in cows fed FTMR were lower (p<0.05) than in cows fed TMR. In conclusion, fermentation is a conceivable method to improve the quality of TMR for long-time storage and the cracking method is suitable to release the fat from cottonseed for enhancing fatty acid deposition in milk. Thus, the combination of FTMR and cWCS supplementation would be an alternative strategy to improve performance of lactating cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.774-780
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• 2000

For this study three types of block such as medicated urea-molasses-mineral block (MUMMB, 7% urea), urea-molasses-mineral blocks ($UMMB_a$ 7% urea) and urea-molasses-mineral blocks ($UMMB_b$ 21% urea) were prepared. Naturally infested 24 indigenous dairy cows with gastrointestinal nematodes were used to study the effect of MUMMB, $UMMB_a$ and $UMMB_b$ on different parameters (body weight, milk yield, serum urea level, milk urea level). The cows were offered normal diet added with 250 g block per cow for every day. Straw and green grasses were used as basal diet in the ration. The managemental facilities for all cows of each group were similar. Cows were stall fed, calves were tied up at night and had free access to their dam during day time. Milking was done once daily in the morning. The daily average live weight gains by MUMMB, $UMMB_a$, $UMMB_b$, and control group (no block) were 52.08 g, 44.44 g, 48.58 g, and 1.41 g respectively. The live weight gain were statistically significant (p<0.01) in comparison to control group. The highest daily milk yield was observed in MUMMB treated cows (2.39 L/d); followed by $UMMB_b$ treated cows (1.82 L/d) and $UMMB_a$ treated cows (2.16 L/d). The lowest milk yield was found in control group (1.54 L/d). This result differs significantly (p<0.05) between treated groups and also with control group. During urea-molasses-mineral blocks $UMMB_a$, $UMMB_b$ licking milk urea level increased from initial $22.76{\pm}2.35mg/dl$ to $35.46{\pm}4.80mg/dl$ and initial $22.86{\pm}2.96mg/dl$ to $40.66{\pm}0.87mg/dl$ respectively. This variation of milk urea level was statistically significant (p<0.001). Similarly during $UMMB_a$, and $UMMB_b$ blocks licking, serum urea level increased in both treated groups from initial $22.76{\pm}2.60mg/dl$ to $32.68{\pm}2.21$ and initial $23.70{\pm}2.78mg/dl$ to $40.48{\pm}3.24mg/dl$, respectively. This variation of serum urea level was also statistically significant (p<0.001). Use of MUMMB instead of UMMB was proved better for milk production and live weight gain in dairy cows under the village condition of Bangladesh where balanced ration for dairy cows are a major scarcity. And various concentration of urea in blocks positively affect milk and serum urea levels of indigenous dairy cows.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1258-1264
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• 2009

In this study, effects of feeding Holstein cows with TMR feed, which includes un-dried citrus byproducts, on the nutritional components of their raw milk were investigated. Two kinds of raw milk from primipara cows and multipara cows were used for the experiment: T0 (raw milk produced by dairy cows not fed with TMR feed including citrus byproducts) and T1 (raw milk produced by dairy cows fed with TMR feed including citrus byproducts). For both primipara and multipara cows, there was no statistically meaningful difference between T0 and T1 in terms of moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash contents or caloric content. T1 showed a lower amount of cholesterol in raw milk for both primipara and multipara cows, which was especially statistically meaningful in multipara cows (p<0.05). Regarding mineral contents in raw milk, T1 showed significantly higher amounts of Na and S in primipara cows, and Na, Cu, Fe, S in multipara cows, respectively. For both primipara and multipara cows, there were no statistically meaningful differences between T0 and T1 in terms of the total amount of amino acids in the raw milk, the composition of saturated fatty acid/unsaturated fatty acid, vitamin A, E, $B_2$ or $\beta$-carotene, while T1 showed significantly higher levels of vitamin $B_1$ in primipara cows than T0.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1237-1246
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to estimate variance components and genetic parameters for lactation milk yield (LY), lactation length (LL), average milk yield per day (YD), initial milk yield (IY), peak milk yield (PY), days to peak (DP) and parameters (ln(a) and c) of the modified incomplete gamma function (MIG) in an Ethiopian multibreed dairy cattle population. The dataset was composed of 5,507 lactation records collected from 1,639 cows in three locations (Bako, Debre Zeit and Holetta) in Ethiopia from 1977 to 2010. Parameters for MIG were obtained from regression analysis of monthly test-day milk data on days in milk. The cows were purebred (Bos indicus) Boran (B) and Horro (H) and their crosses with different fractions of Friesian (F), Jersey (J) and Simmental (S). There were 23 breed groups (B, H, and their crossbreds with F, J, and S) in the population. Fixed and mixed models were used to analyse the data. The fixed model considered herd-year-season, parity and breed group as fixed effects, and residual as random. The single and two-traits mixed animal repeatability models, considered the fixed effects of herd-year-season and parity subclasses, breed as a function of cow H, F, J, and S breed fractions and general heterosis as a function of heterozygosity, and the random additive animal, permanent environment, and residual effects. For the analysis of LY, LL was added as a fixed covariate to all models. Variance components and genetic parameters were estimated using average information restricted maximum likelihood procedures. The results indicated that all traits were affected (p<0.001) by the considered fixed effects. High grade $B{\times}F$ cows (3/16B 13/16F) had the highest least squares means (LSM) for LY ($2,490{\pm}178.9kg$), IY ($10.5{\pm}0.8kg$), PY ($12.7{\pm}0.9kg$), YD ($7.6{\pm}0.55kg$) and LL ($361.4{\pm}31.2d$), while B cows had the lowest LSM values for these traits. The LSM of LY, IY, YD, and PY tended to increase from the first to the fifth parity. Single-trait analyses yielded low heritability ($0.03{\pm}0.03$ and $0.08{\pm}0.02$) and repeatability ($0.14{\pm}0.01$ to $0.24{\pm}0.02$) estimates for LL, DP and parameter c. Medium heritability ($0.21{\pm}0.03$ to $0.33{\pm}0.04$) and repeatability ($0.27{\pm}0.02$ to $0.53{\pm}0.01$) estimates were obtained for LY, IY, PY, YD and ln(a). Genetic correlations between LY, IY, PY, YD, ln(a), and LL ranged from 0.59 to 0.99. Spearman's rank correlations between sire estimated breeding values for LY, LL, IY, PY, YD, ln(a) and c were positive (0.67 to 0.99, p<0.001). These results suggested that selection for IY, PY, YD, or LY would genetically improve lactation milk yield in this Ethiopian dairy cattle population.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1734-1741
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• 2016

This study was conducted to examine the effects of adding phytoncide oil extracted from Korean pine nut cone by-product to the diet of dairy cows on milk yield and compositions, fatty acid characteristics, complete blood count and stress response. A total of 74 Holstein cows were used for 30 days and divided into two groups. Each group was given a basal diet (C) or an experimental diet containing phytoncide additives at 0.016% (T) in feed. The results showed that phytoncide feeding had no effect on milk yield. In addition, there were no observed effects on milk composition, but the ratio of fatty acid in milk was significantly affected by the phytoncide diet, and it showed a positive effect. Not only were the major functional fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid increased, but also ${\omega}6:{\omega}3$ fatty acid ratio was reduced in milk of T group (p<0.05). In blood analysis, the complete blood count showed no significant difference between C and T group on all parameters. However, the cortisol concentration was significantly decreased in T group compared to control (p<0.05). Taken together, we suggest that phytoncide oil does not have a great influence on the physiological changes, but can be a potential feed additive that improves the milk fatty acid and stress resilience in dairy cows. In addition, it will contribute to the development of feed resource, a reduction in feed cost and a lessening of environmental pollution.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2012

A total of 150,624 records of Holstein milk production collected from 2005 to 2009 were analyzed to investigate the effects of two different contemporary group definitions, parity and somatic cell score (SCS). The first definition (H BY S) of contemporary group was milking cows and heifers born in the same year and season. And the second thing (H CY S) was milking cow and heifers that delivered calves in the same year and season. Effects of contemporary group, parity and regression effect on SCS from two models were highly significant sources of variation. Coverage of variation ($R^2$) was somewhat higher in models with H BY S as contemporary group. From multivariate models with H BY S, phenotypic correlation coefficients of milk components were estimated high and positive. However, the phenotypic correlation coefficient between milk yield and SCS was -0.09, which was low enough to evidence no correlation between them. Phenotypic correlation between SCS and butter fat or between SCS and protein were also negligible but negative. From multivariate models with H CY S as contemporary group, phenotypic correlation among milk traits and SCS were similar to the estimates from models with H BY S. However, SCS in these models were lowly but negatively correlated with milk yield, milk protein, butter fat or SNF, and the phenotypic correlation coefficients of which were -0.10, -0.08, -0.08, -0.11, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2012

The experiment involved observations of 2,514 Holstein-Friesian cows to determine the effects of environmental factors (cow's age, calving season, weight and sex of calves, housing system) and genetic factors on gestation length in dairy cattle and the correlation between gestation length and other reproductive traits (calving ease, stillbirth rates and placental expulsion). Genetic parameters were estimated based on the sires of calved cows (indirect effect) and the sires of live-born calves (direct effect). The following factors were found to contribute to prolonged gestation: increasing cow's age, male fetuses and growing fetus weight. Optimal gestation length was determined in the range of 275-277 days based on calving ease and stillbirth rates. The heritability of gestation length was estimated at 0.201-0.210 by the direct effect and 0.055-0.073 by the indirect effect. The resulting genetic correlations suggest that the efforts to optimize (prolong) gestation length could exert an adverse influence on the breeding value of bulls by increasing perinatal mortality and calving difficulty. The standard errors of the investigated parameters were relatively high, suggesting that any attempts to modify gestation length for the purpose of improving calving ease and reducing stillbirth rates should be introduced with great caution.