Performance of Beef Heifers of Various Genetic Groups, Supplemented or Not, in Coastcross Pastures

The objective of this study was to determine whether the performance of beef heifers of different genetic groups was affected by breed x nutritional environment interactions. Sixty four weaned heifers, 16 per genetic group: ½ Angus + ½ Nellore (AN), ½ Canchim + ½ Nellore (CN), ½ Simmental + ½ Nellore (SN) and pure Nellore (NE), were used with or without 3.0 kg of concentrate.animal-1 .day-1 in a fertilized coastcross pasture under rotational grazing system. There were effects of genetic group and supplementation (P\u3c 0.05) on the weight and age at first estrus, but there was no interaction between them. In a rotational grazing system with 4000 kg of available dry matter per hectare with 13% of crude protein, the crossbred AN, supplemented or not, was more precocious (111 days) than Nellore heifers, showing the first estrus at 356 days of age and 324 kg of live weight

Herbage Mass, Forage Accumulation and Nutritive Value of \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria decumbens\u3c/em\u3e in a Silvopastoral System

The use of silvopastoral systems has been suggested to ensure sustainability in animal production systems because of their potential to increase soil fertility, improve forage quality, promote animal thermal comfort and provide income diversification for the producer (Paciullo et al. 2011). Nevertheless, the shade provided by trees may affect plant growth and nutritive value of forage (Sousa et al. 2010). This study aimed to assess the impact of shading on the allocation pattern of dry matter and on herbage nutritive value, under various shading regimes, in a silvopastoral system, during both the dry and rainy seasons

Performance of Nellore Cattle under Two Grazing Management Systems

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of grazing intensification on birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW, standartized to 205 days), average daily gain from birth to weaning (ADG), and gestation length (GL) of calves, cow weight at calving (CWC) and at weaning (CWW), cow condition score at calving (CCC) and at weaning (CCW), and BW/CWC (BWR), WW/CWC (WWRC) and WW/CWW (WWRW) ratios. One hundred and sixty eight Nellore calves born in 1998 and 1999, out of dams maintained in two grazing management systems were evaluated: an extensive 1.0 animal unity (AU). ha-1 system on unfertilized Brachiaria decumbens pasture (SR); and an intensive rotational 5.0 AU. ha-1 system on fertilized Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu and cow-calf feed supplementation during dry season (SI). Analyses of variance showed a significant (P\u3c .01) system effect on CWW and CCW, independently of year of birth of calf, a significant (P\u3c .05 and P\u3c .01) year of birth x system interaction effect on WW, ADG, BWR, WWRC and WWRW, and no effect at all on BW, CWC, CCC and GL. Results suggest that benefits of intensification were through improving production per hectare and not per animal

Vulvar myiasis during pregnancy.

Myiasis is a parasitic infestation caused by the larvae of several fly species. Diagnosis and treatment are simple. The location of this infestation at the vulvar area is, however, an extremely rare occurrence. The authors present two cases of vulvar myiasis affecting pregnant women. The first case is a 19-year-old pregnant girl with vulvar myiasis and concomitant syphilis, vaginal trichomoniasis and genital candidiasis. The patient was also HIV-positive. The second case is a 17-year-old pregnant girl with vulvar myiasis associated with extensive vulvar condyloma acuminatum lesions

Growth hormone 1 gene (GH1) polymorphisms as possible markers of the production potential of beef cattle using the Brazilian Canchim breed as a model

The growth hormone 1 gene (GH1) is a candidate gene for body weight and weight gain in cattle since it plays a fundamental role in growth regulation. We investigated the GH1 gene AluI and DdeI restriction enzyme polymorphisms, located 149 bp apart in the cattle genome, as possible markers of the production potential of Canchim crossbreed cattle, a 5/8 Charolais (Bos taurus) and 3/8 Nelore (Bos indicus) breed developed in Brazil, by evaluating the birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and plasma insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) concentration of 7 month to 10 months old Canchim calves (n = 204) of known genealogy and which had been genotyped for the AluI and DdeI markers. Our results showed significant effect (p < 0.05) between the homozygous DdeI+/DdeI+ polymorphism and the estimated breeding value for weaning weight (ESB-WW), while the AluI leucine homozygous (L/L) and leucine/valine (L/V) heterozygous polymorphisms showed no significant effect on the traits studied. The restriction sites of the two enzymes led to the formation of haplotypes which also exerted a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the ESB-WW, with the largest difference being 8.5 kg in favor of the homozygous L plus DdeI+/L plus DdeI+ genotype over the heterozygous L plus DdeI-/V plus DdeI+ genotype