Shale Oil Value Enhancement Research. Quarterly Report, June 1 - August 31, 1996

The overall objective is to develop a new technology for manufacturing valuable marketable products from shale oil. The quarter`s efforts were concentrated on (a) THDA and reaction of alkylpyridines at elevated conditions, (b) compound type analysis of kerogen oil and its derived products, (b) thermal hydrodealkylation of the > 290{degrees}C polar fraction, (c) secondary reactions of pyridinic type compounds to form marketable products, and (d) preparation of presentation to the Dawnbreaker Commercial Assistance Program. Excellent progress is being made in all cases. Our market analysis and industrial feedback indicate that the low molecular weight pyridines are the main market driving force. We are concentrating our effort toward increasing the yield of ``light`` pyridines before the end of Phase II(a). Our current laboratory set-up can only produce analytical quantity of samples, which is not sufficient for marketing purpose. However, the completion of a secondary flow THDA unit for a pilot-scale production depends on the availability of the Phase-II(b) and Phase-III funding

Typing Late Prehistoric Cows and Bulls—Osteology and Genetics of Cattle at the Eketorp Ringfort on the Öland Island in Sweden

Human management of livestock and the presence of different breeds have been discussed in archaeozoology and animal breeding. Traditionally osteometrics has been the main tool in addressing these questions. We combine osteometrics with molecular sex identifications of 104 of 340 morphometrically analysed bones in order to investigate the use of cattle at the Eketorp ringfort on the Öland island in Sweden. The fort is dated to 300–1220/50 A.D., revealing three different building phases. In order to investigate specific patterns and shifts through time in the use of cattle the genetic data is evaluated in relation to osteometric patterns and occurrence of pathologies on cattle metapodia. Males were genotyped for a Y-chromosomal SNP in UTY19 that separates the two major haplogroups, Y1 and Y2, in taurine cattle. A subset of the samples were also genotyped for one SNP involved in coat coloration (MC1R), one SNP putatively involved in resistance to cattle plague (TLR4), and one SNP in intron 5 of the IGF-1 gene that has been associated to size and reproduction

Predicting body protein and body fat for breeding sows of a modern commercial genotype

Modern sow genotypes have changed considerably since body composition studies were conducted over 25 years ago on Australian genotypes. Earlier predictive equations were developed on datasets of slaughtered gilts and first-litter sows (e.g. Mullan and Williams 1990) or used genotypes from the United Kingdom (Large White × Landrace crossed with Landrace × Meishan; Gill 2006). As part of a larger project to evaluate sow lifetime performance and longevity over several parities (Smits et al. 2017), we established predictive equations based on measured live animal data for body protein and fat of sows before mating for Australian maternal genotypes. The hypothesis was that predicted and actual tissues reserves were similar

Genetic parameters for reproduction in ostriches

Between 1212 and 1487 hen-year reproduction records of a pair-bred ostrich flock were recorded from 1991 to 2003. These data were used to estimate (co)variances between reproduction traits. Egg (EP) and chick production (CP) were highly variable and moderately heritable (h² > 0.25). Hatched eggs as a percentage of EP (HATCH%) was lowly heritable (h² = 0.05), but depended strongly on the female permanent environment (c² = 0.24) and service sire (ss² = 0.19) effects. Average chick weight (ACW) was highly heritable (h² = 0.71) with a small contribution from the service sire (ss² = 0.08). Genetic correlations (ra) between reproductive traits were generally favourable, and effectively unity between EP and CP. CP was unrelated genetically to ACW (ra: -0.01). Correlations between service sire effects (rss) were low between HATCH% and EP but high with CP (rss: -0.01 vs 0.81)

Selection to reduce residual feed intake in pigs produces a correlated response in juvenile insulin-like growth factor-I concentration

Data from a selection experiment for residual feed intake (RFI) were used to estimate genetic correlations between measures of efficiency and performance traits with juvenile IGF-I, and to demonstrate direct and correlated responses to selection. The heritability of IGF-I was 0.28 ± 0.06 and genetic correlations of IGF-I with feed intake (0.26 ± 0.17), backfat (0.52 ± 0.11), and feed conversion ratio (0.78 ± 0.14) were moderate to large. The estimated and realized genetic correlations between RFI and IGF-I were 0.63 ± 0.15 and 0.84. In contrast, genetic correlations between IGF-I and lifetime or test period growth did not differ (P > 0.05) significantly from zero (0.06 ± 0.14 and –0.19 ± 0.14). Selection for decreased RFI produced a direct response in RFI, as expected, and was accompanied by downward correlated responses in ADFI, juvenile IGF-I, backfat, and growth traits, listed in order of decreasing relative magnitude, and an increased loin muscle area. The correlated response in IGF-I to selection on RFI demonstrates that this physiological measure is genetically associated with efficiency, and is thus useful as an early information source to estimate genetic merit for efficiency before performance testing. Decreased juvenile IGF-I is associated with leaner, more efficient animals

Pregnancy scanning can be used as a source of data for genetic evaluation of reproductive traits of ewes

Reproductive traits generated from mothering up lambs to ewes ('n' = 59 603 records) were compared with data resulting from pregnancy scanning ('n' = 46 663 records), to examine the consistency between the two data sources for deriving specific reproductive traits and to estimate genetic parameters. The reproductive traits considered were fertility (FERT: 0/1) of ewes joined, total litter size (LSIZE: lambs born), the number of lambs surviving at weaning (LSIZEW: lambs weaned) and the percentage of lambs surviving (LSURV = LSIZEW/LSIZE) for ewes that lambed, along with the composite traits number of lambs born (NLB) and number weaned (NLW) for ewes joined. Corresponding trait values were derived from pregnancy scan data (FERT_S, LSIZE_S and NLB_S) for comparison, and were classified as inconsistent if the trait values did not match from scanning and lambing records. Data were obtained from four flocks, representing different time frames, locations, management and breeds or bloodlines. Each flock recorded scan data separately from lambing outcomes. Genetic parameters were estimated separately within each flock. Average levels of inconsistency between scan- and lambing-data values varied between 4.6% and 14.8% across flocks, tending to be highest (9.1-18.5%) for litter size of ewes scanned with multiple fetuses, and lowest (0.29-7.3%) for assignment of fertility. Inconsistencies did not have a significant impact on estimates of trait heritabilities, suggesting recording errors were independent of genetic merit. In three flocks, the genetic correlations (ra) between comparable traits derived from the different data sources were not different from unity (ra ≥ 0.99) even when phenotypic correlations (rp) were lower (rp ≥ 0.84). In the flock with the highest inconsistency rate between data sources, the range in ra varied between 0.60 (fertility) and 1.0 (litter size). Therefore, pregnancy scan data can be directly substituted for reproductive traits traditionally based on lambing data, but attention should be paid to ensuring accuracy of the data sources used. Scan data also provide no information on lamb-survival outcomes after birth, so does not constitute complete data on reproductive outcomes. Genetic evaluation systems might also benefit from fine tuning for scale-induced effects (due to litter size) on parameters to improve the accuracy of across flock prediction of breeding values for reproductive traits