Demography and Genealogical Analysis of Massese Sheep, a Native Breed of Tuscany

This study investigates the genealogical and demographic trends of the Massese sheep breed in Tuscany from 2001 to 2021. The Herd Book kept by the Italian Sheep and Goat Breeders Association (Asso.Na.Pa) provided the data. The descriptive statistics were analyzed using JMP software. The pedigree parameters of a total of 311,056 animals (whole population-WP) were analyzed using CFC, ENDOG, and Pedigree viewer software. A total of 24,586 animals born in the period 2007-2021 represented the Reference Population (RP), and 18,554 animals the Base Population (BP). The demographic results showed an inconsistent trend of offspring registration. This study showed a short period of productivity for both ewes and rams, with means of 1.47 and 19.2 registered newborn ewes and rams, respectively. The genealogical analysis revealed incomplete data, highlighting inaccurate assessments of the relationships among the animals, and inbreeding with large differences among provinces. The average inbreeding coefficient in the WP was 1.16%, and it was 2.26% in the RP. The total number of inbreds was 2790 in the WP, with an average FPED of 13.56%, and 2713 in the RP, with an average FPED of 12.82%. The use of pedigree data is a key and economical approach to calculating inbreeding and relationship coefficients. It is the primary step in genetic management, playing a crucial role in the preservation of a breed. The regular updating of genealogical data is the first step to ensuring the conservation of animal genetic resources, and this study is compromised by the lack of such updates

Derivation of multivariate indices of milk composition, coagulation properties, and individual cheese yield in dairy sheep

Milk composition and its technological properties are traits of interest for the dairy sheep industry because almost all milk produced is processed into cheese. However, several variables define milk technological properties and a complex correlation pattern exists among them. In the present work, we measured milk composition, coagulation properties, and individual cheese yields in a sample of 991 Sarda breed ewes in 47 flocks. The work aimed to study the correlation pattern among measured variables and to obtain new synthetic indicators of milk composition and cheese-making properties. Multivariate factor analysis was carried out on individual measures of milk coagulation parameters; cheese yield; fat, protein, and lactose percentages; somatic cell score; casein percentage; NaCl content; pH; and freezing point. Four factors that were able to explain about 76% of the original variance were extracted. They were clearly interpretable: the first was associated with composition and cheese yield, the second with udder health status, the third with coagulation, and the fourth with curd characteristics. Factor scores were then analyzed by using a mixed linear model that included the fixed effect of parity, lambing month, and lactation stage, and the random effect of flock-test date. The patterns of factor scores along lactation stages were coherent with their technical meaning. A relevant effect of flock-test date was detected, especially on the 2 factors related to milk coagulation properties. Results of the present study suggest the existence of a simpler latent structure that regulates relationships between variables defining milk composition and coagulation properties in sheep. Heritability estimates for the 4 extracted factors were from low to moderate, suggesting potential use of these new variables as breeding goals

Sub-Nyquist Field Trial Using Time Frequency Packed DP-QPSK Super-Channel Within Fixed ITU-T Grid

Sub-Nyquist time frequency packing technique was demonstrated for the first time in a super channel field trial transmission over long-haul distances. The technique allows a limited spectral occupancy even with low order modulation formats. The transmission was successfully performed on a deployed Australian link between Sydney and Melbourne which included 995 km of uncompensated SMF with coexistent traffic. 40 and 100 Gb/s co-propagating channels were transmitted together with the super-channel in a 50 GHz ITU-T grid without additional penalty. The super-channel consisted of eight sub-channels with low-level modulation format, i.e. DP-QPSK, guaranteeing better OSNR robustness and reduced complexity with respect to higher order formats. At the receiver side, coherent detection was used together with iterative maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) detection and decoding. A 975 Gb/s DP-QPSK super-channel was successfully transmitted between Sydney and Melbourne within four 50GHz WSS channels (200 GHz). A maximum potential SE of 5.58 bit/s/Hz was achieved with an OSNR=15.8 dB, comparable to the OSNR of the installed 100 Gb/s channels. The system reliability was proven through long term measurements. In addition, by closing the link in a loop back configuration, a potential SE*d product of 9254 bit/s/Hz*km was achieved

First demonstration of multi-vendor and multi-domain EON with S-BVT and control interoperability over Pan-European testbed

The operation of multi-domain and multi-vendor EONs can be achieved by interoperable Sliceable Bandwidth Variable Transponders, a GMPLS / BGP-LS-based control plane and a planning tool. This paper reports the first full demonstration and validation this end-to-end architecture