Abstracted/indexed

This study aimed to compare the quality of frozen–thawed spermatozoa from microminipig boars. We also evaluated the effects of caffeine and heparin as well as the sperm–oocyte co-incubation length on the fertilization and embryonic development. We found that the presence of caffeine in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) medium and the appropriate length of sperm–oocyte co-incubation may have beneficial effects for improving IVF results when using microminipig spermatozoa with low quality.

We evaluated the effects of supplementing cattle feed with difructose anhydride III (DFA III) by measuring urinary sterigmatocystin (STC) concentrations. DFA III was supplemented for 2 weeks to 10 animals, and non-treated animals served as controls. Our findings demonstrate the effect of DFA III on reducing the urinary concentration of STC in Japanese Black cattle.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was used to reveal variation in bovine leptin gene (LEP) in New Zealand (NZ) Holstein Friesian × Jersey (HF × J) dairy cows. This is the first report of findings of this kind in NZ HF × J cows, and they suggest that variation in exon 3 of bovine leptin gene could be explored as a means of decreasing the concentration of saturated fatty acids in milk.

The purpose of our study was to investigate whether glutamine and L-carnitine could be used as anti-cold stress nutrients to alleviate the adverse effects of cold stress on newborn broilers. Broilers were respectively fed with different levels of glutamine and L-carnitine according to the L₁₆ (4⁵) orthogonal experimental design for 3 weeks. Their interaction occurred and improved the growth performance, nutritional status and cold stress response of broilers at low temperature.

Associations of different regions of BMPR1B, BMP15, and GDF9 genes with litter size were analyzed in Ramlıç and Dağlıç sheep. A total of 51 SNPs in Ramlıç and 54 in Dağlıç sheep were detected. The slopes of significant regression coefficients in four SNPs for Ramlıç and two for Dağlıç in the BMPR1B gene as well as one deletion mutation in the BMP15 gene of Ramlıç were in the direction of the rare allele. Candidate QTNs determined in this study could be used to produce more prolific sheep.