Environmental and genetic aspects of survival and early liveweight in Western Australian Merino sheep

(Co)variance estimates for birth weight, pre-weaning lamb survival and weaning weight were obtained for Merino lambs derived from 16 bloodlines. Between bloodline variance ratios (± s.e.) amounted to 0.10 ± 0.04 for lamb birth weight, 0.053 ± 0.036 for lamb survival (logit scale) and 0.18 ± 0.07 for lamb weaning weight. Direct additive genetic variances for weaning weight - expressed as a ratio of the total phenotypic variance within bloodlines (h2, direct heritability) - were estimated at 0.18 ± 0.02 for birth weight, 0.094 ± 0.020 (logit scale) for pre-weaning survival and 0.30 ± 0.02 for weaning weight. Corresponding maternal genetic variance ratios (m2) were estimated at 0.15 ± 0.02 for birth weight and 0.08 ± 0.02 for weaning weight. It was not significant in the case of lamb survival. Maternal permanent environmental variance ratios (c2) amounted to 0.08 ± 0.02 for birth weight, 0.044 ± 0.018 for lamb survival (logit scale) and 0.07 ± 0.02 for weaning weight. These results were discussed with reference to sheep production. (South African Journal of Animal Science, 2001, 31(2): 123-130

Appel Botha Cornelitz : the abc of a three hundred year old divorce case

In 1683 Maria Kickers and Jan Cornelitz got married in Cape Town. Today, 330 years later, the living patrilineal descendants of Maria’s four sons, number in excess of 76,000 people. Curiously, none of them carry the surname Cornelitz – in fact, they are all called Botha and include former President P.W. Botha, general Louis Botha and Minister Pik Botha. The reason for this anomaly is also the reason why Jan got divorced from Maria in 1700. According to Maria’s testimonies she did indeed have a long term relationship with Frederik Botha, but in her defence she claimed that her husband was impotent and that he actually encouraged her. Other witnesses, presumably prompted by Jan, gave testimonies that implied that Maria was in fact licentious. We combined haplotyping with the AmpF‘STR1 YfilerTM kit with deep-rooting genealogies to show that Maria’s first son was actually fathered by Ferdinandus Appel and that roughly half the living Bothas (38,000 people) actually descend from Ferdinandus Appel while the remaining three sons all stem from the same father, presumably Frederik Botha, and this implies that Maria’s husband did not father any of her sons.This work was supported by Grant 77256 from the National Research Foundation to JMG.http://www .elsevier.com /locate/fsighb201

Three hundred years of low non-paternity in a human population

When cuckoldry is frequent we can expect fathers to withhold investment in offspring that may not be theirs. Human paternal investment can be substantial and is in line with observations from tens of thousands of conceptions that suggest that cuckoldry is rare in humans. The generality of this claim seems to be in question as the rate of cuckoldry varies across populations and studies have mostly been on Western populations. Two additional factors complicate our conclusions, 1) current estimates of the rate of cuckoldry in humans may not reflect our past behaviour as adultery can be concealed by the use of contraceptives; and 2) it is difficult to obtain samples that are random with respect to their paternity certainty. Studies that combine genealogies with Y-chromosome haplotyping are able to circumvent some of these problems by probing into humans’ historical behaviour. Here we use this approach to investigate 1273 conceptions over a period of 330 years in 24 families of the Afrikaner population in South Africa. We use haplotype frequency and diversity and coalescent simulations to show that the male population did not undergo a severe bottleneck and that paternity exclusion rates are high for this population. The rate of cuckoldry in this Western population was 0.9% (95%CI 0.4 – 1.5%) and we argue that given the current data on historical populations we have to conclude that, at least for Western human populations, cuckoldry rate is probably in the range of 1%.National Research Foundation (NRF) grants 65696, 72737 and 77256 to JMG. JCE was supported by a free-standing NRF scarce skills grant.http://www.nature.com/hdy2016-05-31hb201

Lattice Dynamics and the High Pressure Equation of State of Au

Elastic constants and zone-boundary phonon frequencies of gold are calculated by total energy electronic structure methods to twofold compression. A generalized force constant model is used to interpolate throughout the Brillouin zone and evaluate moments of the phonon distribution. The moments are used to calculate the volume dependence of the Gruneisen parameter in the fcc solid. Using these results with ultrasonic and shock data, we formulate the complete free energy for solid Au. This free energy is given as a set of closed form expressions, which are valid to compressions of at least V/V_0 = 0.65 and temperatures up to melting. Beyond this density, the Hugoniot enters the solid-liquid mixed phase region. Effects of shock melting on the Hugoniot are discussed within an approximate model. We compare with proposed standards for the equation of state to pressures of ~200 GPa. Our result for the room temperature isotherm is in very good agreement with an earlier standard of Heinz and Jeanloz.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

National laboratory-based surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance: a successful tool to support the control of antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands

An important cornerstone in the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a well-designed quantitative system for the surveillance of spread and temporal trends in AMR. Since 2008, the Dutch national AMR surveillance system, based on routine data from medical microbiological laboratories (MMLs), has developed into a successful tool to support the control of AMR in the Netherlands. It provides background information for policy making in public health and healthcare services, supports development of empirical antibiotic therapy guidelines and facilitates in-depth research. In addition, participation of the MMLs in the national AMR surveillance network has contributed to sharing of knowledge and quality improvement. A future improvement will be the implementation of a new semantic standard together with standardised data transfer, which will reduce errors in data handling and enable a more real-time surveillance. Furthermore, the

Merino ewes bred for parasite resistance reduce larval contamination onto pasture during the peri-parturient period

The peri-parturient period is crucial for controlling worms as the acquired immunity of ewes is disrupted, resulting in an increase in faecal worm egg counts. Two hypotheses were tested in this experiment that ewes bred for worm resistance would have lower faecal worm egg counts than unselected control ewes, during late pregnancy and lactation, under similar but separate grazing areas; and also that numbers of infective nematode larvae would be lower on pastures grazed by resistant ewes than pastures grazed by unselected control ewes. Faecal samples were collected from resistant and unselected ewes in late pregnancy and early lactation, during the winter rainfall season, and analysed for numbers of Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Teladorsagia circumcincta. Pasture samples were taken 1 week before and 7 weeks after lambing started and analysed for infective larvae. In all sheep, worm egg counts rose 2 weeks prior to lambing and continued into lactation. Worm egg counts were significantly lower in the resistant ewes from 1 week before lambing to 2 weeks after lambing. There were no differences in egg counts between single- and twin-bearing ewes in the resistant line. However, twin-bearing control ewes had significantly higher egg counts than single-bearing control ewes. Following lactation, plots grazed by resistant ewes had substantially less contamination with T. colubriformis larvae, but there were no differences in numbers of T. circumcincta larvae. Our results demonstrate that sheep bred for worm resistance has lower worm burdens during the peri-parturient phase and that lambs born to resistant ewes face a lower larval challenge during their introduction to grazing. In our environment, selection for low worm egg counts has produced sheep highly resistant to T. colubriformis, but has had less impact on resistance towards T. circumcincta

Genetic and phenotypic relationships of reproduction with live weight and wool traits in a Mediterranean environment

An additive genetic variance ratio (h2) for total weight of lamb weaned per breeding ewe over three reproduction opportunities (TWW3) was estimated in a medium wool resource flock. TWW3 was highly variable, with a coefficient of variation of 50 %. The between bloodline variance ratio for TWW3 was significant (P < 0.05), but failed to exceed 5 % of the across bloodline phenotypic variation. Within bloodline h2 (± s.e.) was estimated at 0.154 ± 0.040 for TWW3. Within bloodline genetic correlations of TWW3 amounted to respectively 0.58 ± 0.11, 0.26 ± 0.11, -0.24 ± 0.11 and 0.17 ± 0.10 with hogget live weight, clean fleece weight, clean fleece weight/kg live weight and fibre diameter. It was concluded that TWW3 would respond to selection in Western Australian Merinos. Genetic correlations with hogget live weight and fleece weight were favourable

Lifetime meat production from six different F1 crossbred ewes

The efficiency of meat production with regard to kilogram of lamb weaned per kilogram metabolic mass of ewes at mating of six different F1 crossbred populations, viz. Finnish Landrace x Merino (FL x M), BorderLeicester x Merino (BL x M), Bleu de Maine x Merino (BdM x M), Texel x Merino (T x M), Cheviot x Merino (C x M) and Merino Landsheep x Merino (ML x M), with their flock structures in equilibrium, were evaluated with each other over their lifetime. The FL x M was the most efficient cross followed by the T x M, BL x M, C x M, BdM x M and ML x M. Results indicate that size and other individual components of productivity are not reliable indicators of total production or efficiency of production.Die doeltreffendheid van vleisproduksie ten opsigte van kilogram lam gespeen per kilogram metaboliese massa van ooie by paring, van ses verskillende F1-kruispopulasies, nl. Finse Landras x Merino (FL x M), Border Leicester x Merino (BL x M), Bleu de Maine x Merino (BdM x M), Texel x Merino (T x M), Cheviot x Merino (C x M) en Merino Landskaap x Merino (ML x M), met hul kuddestrukture in ekwilibrium, is oor hul leeftyd met mekaar vergelyk. Die FL x M was die doeltreffendste kruising gevolg deur die T x M, BL x M, C x M, BdM x M en ML x M. Die resultate dui aan dat grootte en individuele komponente van produktiwiteit nie 'n getroue weergawe van totale produksie of doeltreffendheid van produksie is nie.Keywords: Crossbreeding, growth, reproduction, sheep, survival, total production