Publications by authors named "Alice Van den Broeke"
Article Synopsis
- - The administration of a GnRF analog in gilts leads to the production of antibodies that effectively suppress ovarian activity and delay sexual maturation, preventing them from reaching puberty before harvest at 27 weeks of age.
- - In three studies, vaccinated gilts showed significantly smaller reproductive organs and lower levels of progesterone and estradiol compared to untreated gilts, with antibody levels remaining elevated following vaccination.
- - These findings suggest that vaccination protocols can be tailored to fit different pig management practices, offering veterinarians and producers flexible options to control the puberty timing in gilts.
Heat stress in pigs negatively affects welfare, health, and performance. Osmoprotectants and antioxidants may alleviate oxidative damage during hot periods. We investigated whether an additive-enriched feed can reduce negative effects in pigs during summer conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Immunocastration and rearing entire males (EMs) are alternatives to surgical castration, but they have varying risks of boar taint that need to be detected at slaughter.
- The study evaluated pelvic urogenital tract weight as a potential indicator for identifying boar-taint animals, measuring various androgen-related substances and reproductive organ weights in both EMs and immunocastrates (ICs).
- Results showed that a significant majority of EMs had high androstenone levels, while most ICs did not, suggesting that pelvic urogenital tract weight could be a reliable way to identify at-risk carcasses, particularly in EMs.
The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurgical castration of piglets without pain relief is still common practice in many countries. Possible alternatives for surgical castration are application of pain relief or anaesthesia or production of boars (entire males) and immunocastrates. Each of these alternatives faces advantages and disadvantages which may result in different citizen attitudes and consumers acceptability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLowering the CP level in piglet diets reduces the risk of postweaning diarrhea and N excretion to the environment. The question remains at what point CP becomes limiting. An experiment was designed with 2 standardized ileal digestible (SID) Lys levels (10 and 11 g) and 6 CP levels (140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190 g/kg) in a 2 × 6 factorial design (with 6 pens of 6 animals each per treatment).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The ribosomal protein SA (RPSA), previously named 37-kDa laminin receptor precursor/67-kDa laminin receptor (LRP/LR) is a multifunctional protein that plays a role in a number of pathological processes, such as cancer and prion diseases. In all investigated species, RPSA is a member of a multicopy gene family consisting of one full length functional gene and several pseudogenes. Therefore, for studies on RPSA related pathways/pathologies, it is important to characterize the whole family and to address the possible function of the other RPSA family members.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF