Effects of the beta-adrenergic agonist cimaterol on chicken muscle atrophy induced by stretch-release.

Thirty-eight White Leghorn chickens, 5 weeks of age, were used to investigate the effect of cimaterol on patagialis muscle (PAT) atrophy due to release of passive-stretch. Cimaterol (CIM) was mixed in a standard commercial chicken diet at 0.5 ppm.

Sexing and detection of gene construct in microinjected bovine blastocysts using the polymerase chain reaction.

We present a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based procedure for rapid bovine embryo sexing and classifying embryos for the presence of exogenous DNA. Fourteen bovine blastocysts microinjected with gene construct DNA at the pronuclear stage were divided into quarters and subjected to amplification with construct-specific and sex gene-specific (ZFY/ZFX) primers in the same initial PCR reaction. Blastocysts carrying microinjected construct DNA could be identified by the presence of construct-specific PCR product in approximately 4 h.