Голос Верхней Туры. 2014. № 02

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of heterosis on the lactation curve components of Girolando cattle obtained by fitting different mathematical models. Data consisted of 258,891 test day milk yield records of the first lactation from 37,965 cows of Minas Gerais State (Brazil) between 1998 and 2014. Those cows were from the Holstein breed (H), Gyr breed (G) and six genetic cross-breedings of Holstein Gyr, (1/4H, 3/4G (1/4H); 3/8H, 5/8G (3/8H); 1/2H, 1/ 2G (1/2H), 5/8H, 3/8G (5/8H); 3/4H, 1/4G (3/4H); 7/8H, 1/8G (7/8H)), which is officially named as Girolando breed in Brazil. The Wood’s linear model (WDlin), Wood’s non-linear model (WDnlin), Wilmink’s model (WL) and Ali and Schaeffer’s model (ASH) were used for estimating the peak milk yield (PY), time to peak yield (PT), 305-day milk yield (TMY) and four different persistency measures (P, P2:1, P3:1 and P3:2). Regardless of the fitted model, the highest estimates of PY and TMY were for the H group. The heterosis effect was significant (p < .001) for TMY and all components of the lactation curve, except for P2:1. Girolando cattle presented a heterosis effect of 12.30% and 13.03% for PY and TMY, respectively. The magnitude of heterosis effect was larger for PT (24.18%), whereas the different persistency measures presented the smallest magnitude of heterosis values. The producers may use the different genetic groups to benefit from the heterosis mainly for the time to peak, peak yield and 305-day milk yield

Clinical and genetic characteristics of late-onset Huntington's disease

Background: The frequency of late-onset Huntington's disease (&gt;59 years) is assumed to be low and the clinical course milder. However, previous literature on late-onset disease is scarce and inconclusive. Objective: Our aim is to study clinical characteristics of late-onset compared to common-onset HD patients in a large cohort of HD patients from the Registry database. Methods: Participants with late- and common-onset (30–50 years)were compared for first clinical symptoms, disease progression, CAG repeat size and family history. Participants with a missing CAG repeat size, a repeat size of ≤35 or a UHDRS motor score of ≤5 were excluded. Results: Of 6007 eligible participants, 687 had late-onset (11.4%) and 3216 (53.5%) common-onset HD. Late-onset (n = 577) had significantly more gait and balance problems as first symptom compared to common-onset (n = 2408) (P &lt;.001). Overall motor and cognitive performance (P &lt;.001) were worse, however only disease motor progression was slower (coefficient, −0.58; SE 0.16; P &lt;.001) compared to the common-onset group. Repeat size was significantly lower in the late-onset (n = 40.8; SD 1.6) compared to common-onset (n = 44.4; SD 2.8) (P &lt;.001). Fewer late-onset patients (n = 451) had a positive family history compared to common-onset (n = 2940) (P &lt;.001). Conclusions: Late-onset patients present more frequently with gait and balance problems as first symptom, and disease progression is not milder compared to common-onset HD patients apart from motor progression. The family history is likely to be negative, which might make diagnosing HD more difficult in this population. However, the balance and gait problems might be helpful in diagnosing HD in elderly patients

Reduced Cancer Incidence in Huntington's Disease: Analysis in the Registry Study

Background: People with Huntington's disease (HD) have been observed to have lower rates of cancers. Objective: To investigate the relationship between age of onset of HD, CAG repeat length, and cancer diagnosis. Methods: Data were obtained from the European Huntington's disease network REGISTRY study for 6540 subjects. Population cancer incidence was ascertained from the GLOBOCAN database to obtain standardised incidence ratios of cancers in the REGISTRY subjects. Results: 173/6528 HD REGISTRY subjects had had a cancer diagnosis. The age-standardised incidence rate of all cancers in the REGISTRY HD population was 0.26 (CI 0.22-0.30). Individual cancers showed a lower age-standardised incidence rate compared with the control population with prostate and colorectal cancers showing the lowest rates. There was no effect of CAG length on the likelihood of cancer, but a cancer diagnosis within the last year was associated with a greatly increased rate of HD onset (Hazard Ratio 18.94, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Cancer is less common than expected in the HD population, confirming previous reports. However, this does not appear to be related to CAG length in HTT. A recent diagnosis of cancer increases the risk of HD onset at any age, likely due to increased investigation following a cancer diagnosis