Although dairy goat production, characterized by traditional production on small farms, is an important source of income in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, locally adapted breeds have not been fully consolidated over the last 100 yr due to large fluctuations in population size and inconsistent breeding programs that allowed for different crossbreeding strategies. Our main objective in this study was therefore to assess the conservation status of 4 Czech (Alpine Goat, White Shorthair, Brown Shorthair, and Czech Landrace) and 1 Slovak (Slovak White Shorthair) local goat breeds, to analyze their population structure and admixture, and to estimate their relatedness to several neighboring breeds. Our analyses included 142 goats belonging to 5 local breeds genotyped with the Illumina 50K BeadChip, and 618 previously genotyped animals representing 15 goat breeds from Austria and Switzerland (all analyses based on 46,862 autosomal SNPs and 760 animals).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to estimate across-country genetic correlations for calving traits (birth weight, calving ease) in the Limousine breed. Correlations were estimated for eight populations (Czech Republic, joint population of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Estonia). An animal model on raw performance accounting for across-country interactions (AMACI) was used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The importance of sheep breeding in the Mediterranean part of the eastern Adriatic has a long tradition since its arrival during the Neolithic migrations. Sheep production system is extensive and generally carried out in traditional systems without intensive systematic breeding programmes for high uniform trait production (carcass, wool and milk yield). Therefore, eight indigenous Croatian sheep breeds from eastern Adriatic treated here as metapopulation (EAS), are generally considered as multipurpose breeds (milk, meat and wool), not specialised for a particular type of production, but known for their robustness and resistance to certain environmental conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genetic parameters for the survival of Holstein cows, analysed in nine consecutive time periods during the first three calving intervals, were estimated. The earlier the animals are culled, the more they are informationally underestimated. This undervaluing can be remedied by using a weighted analysis that balances the amount of information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe missense mutation Asp298Asn in the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is associated with daily gain or fatness in pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus). However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has directly compared the effects of the polymorphism between different feeding levels, even though diet plays a vital role in the swine industry. To explore possible differences, data from 439 mostly commercial hybrids fattened ad libitum and 119 commercial hybrids fattened with restricted feed ration were collected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWallachian and Sumava sheep are autochthonous breeds that have undergone a significant bottleneck effect and subsequent restoration efforts. The first objective of this study was to evaluate the degree of genetic variability of both breeds and, therefore, the current management of the breeding. The second was to determine whether these two breeds still retain their genetic uniqueness in relation to each other and other breeds, despite regenerative interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on conformation traits using 25,486 genotyped Czech Holsteins, with 35,227 common SNPs for each genotype. Linear trait records were collected between 1995 and 2020. The Interbull information from Multiple Across Country Evaluation (MACE) was included for bulls that mostly had daughter records in a foreign country.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1919, the European bison population became extinct in the wild. The rescue of the lowland subspecies and the whole species was achieved mainly thanks to individuals from the Białowieża Forest (Polish-Belarusian border). There are currently two breeding lines-the lowland (purebred B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters of a one-day performance test together with the linear type traits of 3-year-old warmblood horses. The study of genetic parameters was based on 5958 tested horses in the period 1998-2021. A total of 22 traits of linear description, three quantitatively measured traits, and one summary mark from the performance test were tested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSheep are one of the most important livestock species in Croatia, found mainly in the Mediterranean coastal and mountainous regions along the East Adriatic coast, well adapted to the environment and mostly kept extensively. Our main objective was therefore to map the positive selection of the X-chromosome (18,983 SNPs that passed quality control), since nothing is known about the adaptation genes on this chromosome for any of the breeds from the Balkan cluster. Analyses were performed on a sample of eight native Croatian breeds (101 females and 100 males) representing the East Adriatic metapopulation and on 10 mouflons (five females and males), all sampled in Croatia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial DNA and nonrecombinant parts of Y-chromosome DNA are a great tool for looking at a species' past. They are inherited for generations almost unaffected because they do not participate in recombination; thus, the time of occurrence of each mutation can be estimated based on the average mutation rate. Thanks to this, male and female haplogroups guide confirming events in the distant past (potential centers of domestication, settlement of areas, trade connections) as well as in modern breeding (crossbreeding, confirmation of paternity).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study focused on the genomic differences between the Czechoslovakian wolfdog (CWD) and its ancestors, the Grey wolf (GW) and German Shepherd dog. The Saarloos wolfdog and Belgian Shepherd dog were also included to study the level of GW genetics retained in the genome of domesticated breeds. The dataset consisted of 131 animals and 143,593 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInbreeding depression is the reduction of performance caused by mating of close relatives. In livestock populations, inbreeding depression has been traditionally estimated by regression of phenotypes on pedigree inbreeding coefficients. This estimation can be improved by utilising genomic inbreeding coefficients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for age at first calving (AFC) and first calving interval (FCI) for the entire beef cattle population and separately for the Charolais (CH) and Aberdeen Angus (AA) breeds in the Czech Republic. The database of performance testing between the years 1991 and 2019 was used. The total number of cows was 83,788 from 11 breeds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the study was to determine the luteolytic dose of cloprostenol administered directly into the corpus luteum (CL; intra-luteal treatment, ILT) in dairy cattle. Cows of two control groups were treated with 500 μg of cloprostenol (Estrumate®) intramuscularly (IM-500) or via ILT with 0.2 mL of physiological solution (ILT-0).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLoss off genetic diversity negatively affects most of the modern dog breeds. However, no breed created strictly for laboratory purposes has been analyzed so far. In this paper, we sought to explore by pedigree analysis exactly such a breed-the Czech Spotted Dog (CSD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-quality simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are invaluable tools for revealing genetic variability which could be utilized for many purposes, such as breeding new varieties or the identifying current ones, among other applications. Based on the analysis of 3.7 million EST sequences and 15 genomic sequences from bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries, 200 trinucleotide genic (EST)-SSR and three genomic (gSSR) markers were tested, where 17 of them fulfilled all criteria for quality markers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for longevity and assess the suitability of using these selection criteria to improve the genetic merit of the beef cattle population of the Czech Republic. The performance record database, which contains records of 363,000 beef cattle animals of 19 breeds and their crosses, was used. The populations of Charolais and Aberdeen Angus were large enough that the genetic parameter estimations and all analyses were done for these breeds separately.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This article proposes a new approach, called the "similarity coefficient" (SC) for verifying family relationships from skeletal remains using nonmetric traits. Based on this method and further analyses, the authors aim to show the degree of similarity between individuals with varying degrees of kinship, including inbred individuals.
Materials And Methods: Our sample includes the skeletal remains of 34 individuals with known genealogical data (four generations, 19th to 20th centuries).
The objective of this study was to assess the genetic parameters of insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in the Old Grey Kladruber horse, an original Czech warmblood horse breed. Insect bite hypersensitivity is a recurrent allergic skin disease affecting horses worldwide. Its etiology is multifactorial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEstimated breeding values (EBVs) and genomic enhanced breeding values (GEBVs) for milk production of young genotyped Holstein bulls were predicted using a conventional BLUP - Animal Model, a method fitting regression coefficients for loci (RRBLUP), a method utilizing the realized genomic relationship matrix (GBLUP), by a single-step procedure (ssGBLUP) and by a one-step blending procedure. Information sources for prediction were the nation-wide database of domestic Czech production records in the first lactation combined with deregressed proofs (DRP) from Interbull files (August 2013) and domestic test-day (TD) records for the first three lactations. Data from 2627 genotyped bulls were used, of which 2189 were already proven under domestic conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of our study was to develop an approximation procedure to estimate reliabilities of single-step genomic BLUP breeding values in a test-day model for routine evaluation of milk yield in a dairy cattle population. Input data consisted of 20,220,047 first-, second-, and third-lactation test-day milk yield records of 1,126,102 Czech Holstein cows (each lactation being considered a separate trait), with 1,844,679 animals in the pedigree file and with genomic data from 2,236 bulls. Evaluation was according to a multi-lactation model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegression coefficients and genetic variances for 40,890 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for milk yield were calculated using mixed model equations, with deregressed proof (DRP) as the dependent variable. Bulls were genotyped using the Illumina BovineSNP50 v2 BeadChip and SNPs were edited according the minor allele frequency (MAF) and high incidence of missing genotype. Evaluation was conducted in two rounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEstimated breeding values (EBV) for first-lactation milk production of Holstein cattle in the Czech Republic were calculated using a conventional animal model and by single-step prediction of the genomic enhanced breeding value. Two overlapping data sets of milk production data were evaluated: (1) calving years 1991 to 2006, with 861,429 lactations and 1,918,901 animals in the pedigree and (2) calving years 1991 to 2010, with 1,097,319 lactations and 1,906,576 animals in the pedigree. Global Interbull (Uppsala, Sweden) deregressed proofs of 114,189 bulls were used in the analyses.
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