Bioscientifica Proceedings

Summary. Mastitis has a deleterious effect on reproductive responses and fertility of dairy cows, which depends on whether it occurs before or after artificial insemination (AI). Subclinical intramammary infection (IMI) before AI reduced steroid concentrations in the preovulatory follicle of approximately one third of lactating cows, and was associated with low expression of major steroidogenic genes. Consequently, IMI induced an attenuated LH surge and delaye...

Summary. This paper attempts to summarize and discuss the new evidence on the effectiveness of selection for prolificacy. In recent years selection between lines, and the adoption of formal cross-breeding programmes, have led to considerable improvements at a commercial level. Within-line selection has not been tackled seriously except in a few experiments. The mainly negative results from these should not lead to the conclusion that progress is impossibl...

The introduction of high-density SNP arrays in livestock species has enabled genomic evaluations on a scale not possible just a few years ago. Faster genetic gains are realized from application of genomics in pigs by increasing the accuracy of selection. This is especially important for lowly heritable reproductive traits, where female selection candidates have not yet expressed a phenotype at the point of selection and male candidates have no phenotype at all. Litter si...

The introduction of high-density SNP arrays in livestock species has enabled genomic evaluations on a scale not possible just a few years ago. Faster genetic gains are realized from application of genomics in pigs by increasing the accuracy of selection. This is especially important for lowly heritable reproductive traits, where female selection candidates have not yet expressed a phenotype at the point of selection and male candidates have no phenotype at all. Litter si...

The retrospective cohort studies of David Barker and colleagues during the late 1980s established the principle that the incidence of certain adult diseases such as stroke, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidaemia may be linked to in utero development. Later termed the "Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)" hypothesis, there have been several more recent attempts to explain this phenomenon. Although a general conceptual framework has been established t...