Effectiveness of iron supplementation (6- and 12- weeks) on hematological parameters among non-anemic iron deficient female students

Background and aim: According to the current protocols made by international organizations, the duration of iron supplementation depends on the severity of iron deficiency, ranging from 3 to 6 months in individuals with iron depletion and iron deficiency anemia, respectively. This study was performed to compare 6 and 12 weeks iron supplementations on iron status among a group of non-anemic iron deficient female students. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study 53 female students were selected. Students were divided into two groups. Control group were consisted of 30 students who had Hemoglobin level more than 12 ml/dl and serum ferritin level more than 23 ng/dl. Experimental group were 23 non-anemic iron deficient female students with ferritin level less than 23 ng/dl. Experimental group were orally given ferrous fumarate (containing 50 mg iron elemental) daily for three months. Blood samples were collected from experimental group in the beginning, 6 and 12 weeks after the study and for the case group samples were collected in the beginning and at the end of the study and the number of blood cells (CBC), ferritin level and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) were measured. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance and Paired-t tests. Results: Blood hemoglobin and serum ferritin concentrations increased after 6 weeks of supplementation among supplemented group, and were remained almost constant until the 12th week (P>0.001). Changes in serum iron concentrations at the end of study were not statistically different between two groups. Similar trend was observed for TIBC. Conclusion: This study showed that 3-month iron supplementation among iron deficient subjects, as advised by WHO, did not further improve iron status in non anemic iron deficient females compared to 6-weeks daily supplementation of 50 mg elemental Iron. It is obvious that these results cannot be considered to anemic subject

Editorial: Genetics of reproduction for livestock species

Livestock farming provides a major source of animal protein and occupation opportunities for a large proportion of the world's population, and its profitability could be effectively increased by improvement of either feed efficiency (Zamani, 2017) or reproductive performance (Abdoli et al., 2016). Therefore, genetic improvement of reproductive efficiency is an important objective for animal production industries. Reproduction is a complex biological process with low to medium heritability, which indicates significant influences of environmental and non-additive genetic effects on reproductive performance (Zamani and Abdoli, 2019). Because of the low heritability of reproduction traits, classic selection methods are generally inefficient to achieve rapid genetic progression of reproduction performance in livestock species (Abdoli et al., 2019). However, the use of genetic markers may efficiently enhance the selection response of reproduction traits (Abdoli et al., 2016). Regarding the polygenic nature of reproduction traits, the determination of genetic markers and genetic pathways involved in reproduction efficiency needs intensive molecular genetic studies and use of high-throughput technologies, including genome-wide association studies, whole-genome sequencing, and whole transcriptome analysis

Efficient algorithms for using genotypic data

The aim of this thesis is to explore the specific structure in livestock populations to unravel hidden information such as recombination events and parental origin of markers in the genomic data. This information then can be used to improve the accuracy of prediction of breeding values which is one of the main aims of animal breeding. In the first experimental chapter an efficient method for detecting opposing homozygotes was proposed. This method makes the detection of opposing homozygote for thousands of individuals and millions of markers feasible. An opposing homozygote matrix can be utilised to identify Mendelian inconsistency and to fix pedigree errors. The second experimental chapter used opposing homozygotes between individuals in a half-sib family to identify recombination events in the sire, to impute sire haplotype and to reconstruct haplotype of offspring. The algorithm was compared with other frequently used methods, using both simulated and real data. The accuracy of detecting recombination events and of haplotype reconstruction was higher with this algorithm than with other algorithms, especially when there were genotyping errors in the dataset. For example, the accuracy of haplotype reconstruction was around 0.97 for a half-sib family size of 4 and the accuracy of sire imputation was 0.75 and 1.00 for a half-sib family size of 4 and 40, respectively. In the third experimental chapter hsphase was developed which implements the algorithms used in the first two chapters into an efficient R package. In addition, an algorithm for grouping half-sib families utilising the opposing homozygote matrix was developed and verified with real datasets. The results show that the algorithm can group the half-sib families accurately, however the accuracy was depended on sample size and genetic diversity in the population. The package includes several diagnostic functions to visualise and check half-sib's pedigree, parentage assignments, and phased haplotypes of offspring in a half-sib family. The fourth experimental chapter utilised the half-sib population structure to fix switch errors. The switch error is a common problem in many haplotype reconstruction algorithms where the haplotype phase is locally correct but paternal and maternal strand are not consistently and correctly assigned across the longer segments (or across the entire genome). The algorithm partitions the genome into segments and creates a group matrix which is used to identify the switch points. Then the switches are fixed with a second algorithm. The results showed that this algorithm can fix the switch problems efficiently and increase the accuracy of genome-wide phasing. In chapter five relationship matrices generated from haplotype segments were used to improve the accuracy of predicting breeding values. The haplotypes were partitioned in three ways and with various size. The new relationship matrices were evaluated with three sets of real data and with simulated data. In all cases the accuracy of prediction and log-likelihood were significantly increased although the amount of increase was trait dependent

Runs of homozygosity and cross-generational inbreeding of Iranian fat-tailed sheep

The Lori-Bakhtiari fat-tailed sheep is one of the most important heavyweight native breeds of Iran. The breed is robust and well-adapted to semi-arid regions and an important resource for smallholder farms. An established nucleus-based breeding scheme is used to improve their production traits but there is an indication of inbreeding depression and loss of genetic diversity due to selection. Here, we estimated the inbreeding levels and the distribution of runs of homozygosity (ROH) islands in 122 multi-generational female Lori-Bakhtiari from different half-sib families selected from a breeding station that were genotyped on the 50k array. A total of 2404 ROH islands were identified. On average, there were 19.70 ± 1.4 ROH per individual ranging between 6 and 41. The mean length of the ROH was 4.1 ± 0.14 Mb. There were 1999 short ROH of length 1-6 Mb and another 300 in the 6-12 Mb range. Additionally long ROH indicative of inbreeding were found in the ranges of 12-24 Mb (95) and 24-48 Mb (10). The average inbreeding coefficient (FROH) was 0.031 ± 0.003 with estimates varying from 0.006 to 0.083. Across generations, FROH increased from 0.019 ± 0.012 to 0.036 ± 0.007. Signatures of selection were identified on chromosomes 2, 6, and 10, encompassing 55 genes and 23 QTL associated with production traits. Inbreeding coefficients are currently within acceptable levels but across generations, inbreeding is increasing due to selection. The breeding program needs to actively monitor future inbreeding rates and ensure that the breed maintains or improves on its current levels of environmental adaptation