Body weight estimation from body measures in Cornigliese sheep breed

The aim of this research is to propose equations to estimate body weight (BW) from body measures (BMs) in the Cornigliese sheep, an endangered breed reared in Italy for meat purpose. BW and BMs were submitted to correlation and multiple regression analyses. Two datasets were used: (i) 303 animals (178 females, 125 males, BW 4.00–117.80 kg), on which BW, height at withers (HW), chest circumference (ChC) and body length (BL) were measured; (ii) 156 animals (109 females, 47 males, BW 5.15–117.80 kg) out of 303 on which croup height (HCr), chest width (ChW), chest depth (ChD) and croup width (CrW) were also considered. On each dataset, two regression models were applied, one containing all variables (models 1 and 3, respectively, for datasets 1 and 2) and the other one comprising groups of variables, selected by means of the stepwise procedure (models 2 and 4, respectively, for datasets 1 and 2). BW resulted correlated with all BMs (from 0.852 for ChW to 0.950 for ChC; p < .001). Models 1 and 3 fitted the data better than models 2 and 4, both for all animals and for females and males separately. We concluded that BW could be predicted from BMs also in Cornigliese sheep breed. The best fits were obtained when the highest number of measures was included in the model (models 1 and 3). Nevertheless, models 2 and 4 could be used more easily in extensive sheep breeding than models 1 and 3, since they require less parameters.Highlights The estimation of body weight is important in a meat type sheep breed for choosing the optimal slaughter time. A reduction of work for farmer is positive, mainly in field conditions of extensive rearing, where scales are not easily available. Body weight could be predicted from body measures in Cornigliese sheep breed with good precision and accuracy

Beyond fertility preservation: role of the oncofertility unit in the reproductive and gynecological follow-up of young cancer patients

Are there reasons that motivate young cancer survivors to ask for follow-up visits at an oncofertility unit

State of the art on oocyte cryopreservation in female cancer patients: A critical review of the literature

During the last decades, important advances in therapeutic options have led to increased survival rates in cancer patients; however, cancer treatments are associated with several potential adverse effects including infertility in those diagnosed during their reproductive years. A proper discussion about fertility preservation options before the use of therapies with potential gonadotoxicity (i.e. oncofertility counseling) is standard of care and should be offered to all patients of childbearing age. Temporary ovarian suppression with LH-RH analogs, oocyte and embryo cryopreservation are standard strategies for fertility preservation in female cancer patients. Oocyte cryopreservation should be preferred to embryo cryopreservation when this latter is prohibited by law, avoided for ethical or religious issues and in single women refusing sperm donation. Despite the increasing use of this strategy, data are still lacking about the efficacy and safety of the procedure in female cancer patients, with most of the evidence on this regard deriving from infertile non-oncologic women. This article aims at critically review the available evidence about the success of oocyte cryopreservation in female cancer patients with the final goal to further improve the oncofertility counseling of these women

Inferring cognitive heterogeneity from aggregate choices

Theories of bounded rationality often assume a rich dataset of choices from many overlapping menus, limiting their practical applicability. In contrast, we study the problem of identifying the distribution of cognitive characteristics in a population of agents from a minimal dataset that consists of aggregate choice shares from a single menu, and includes no observable covariates of any kind. With homogeneous preferences, we find that “consideration capacity” and “consideration probability” distributions can both be recovered effectively if the menu is sufficiently large. This remains true generically when tastes are heterogeneous with a known distribution. When the taste distribution is unknown, we show that joint choice share data from three “occasions” are generically sufficient for full identification of the cognitive distribution, and also provide substantial information about tastes

Carcass and meat parameters in Cornigliese sheep breed as affected by sex and age-class

A total of 72 animals from Cornigliese sheep breed were reared under homogeneous conditions, with the aim to assess the effect of sex (males, females) and age-class (heavy lambs, adults) on carcass and meat parameters. A model with fixed effects of herd, sex, slaughtering session, age-class and interaction (sex*age-class) was used; for slaughter data, the carcass weight was used as a covariate. The age-class effect was significant for most of the carcass measurements, indicating a late development in animals. Also, slaughter performance was significantly affected by age-class, with higher values (p<0.05) of hot carcass yield shown by heavy lambs than by adults. Carcass compactness index was lower in heavy lambs than in adults (p<0.001), and the lowest value (0.283; p<0.05) appeared in female heavy lambs. The percentage of fat trimmings in carcass and the tissue composition of sample cut were influenced by a significant interaction between age-class and sex (p<0.05): in males the age-class never affected the tissue composition of sample cut, as in females the muscle and fat percentages increased with age while the bone percentage decreased. The fat content of loin meat increased with age in females (p < 0.05) and decreased in males (p < 0.05). The poly-unsaturated fatty acids (FA) content of loin meat was higher in males than in females (p < 0.001), with saturated FA and mono-unsaturated FA revealing significant interactions between age-class and sex (p < 0.05). In conclusion, future implementation of genetic selection, oriented towards the improvement of meat production characteristics that are potentially present in the breed, is important

Inferring cognitive heterogeneity from aggregate choices

One potentially important drawback of existing theories of limited attention is that they typically assume a rich dataset of choices from many menus. We study the problem of identifying the distribution of cognitive characteristics in a population of agents when only aggregate choice behavior from a single menu is observable. We show how both “consideration probability” and “consideration capacity” distributions can be substantially identified by aggregate choice shares. We also suggest how to embed the attention models in an econometric specification of the inference problem. Finally, we sucessfully use our results to recover the true parameters in Monte Carlo simulations of both models

Application of different growth models to "Nero di Parma" pigs

The growth curves of 280 "Nero di Parma" pigs from birth to maturity were calculated by applying nine different models (regressions from 1st to 4th degree and nonlinear regressions following the Brody, Logistic, Janoschek, Bertalannfy and Gompertz models) to 1109 individual records of body weight (BW) from two different data sets. The goodness of fit of experimental data was calculated by means of Residual Variance, Akaike Information Criterion, Residual Standard Deviation and R2. The best fit was obtained by Gompertz equation, as follows: BW(kg)= 240.2±2.4 * esp (-exp (-0.0069±0.0001*(age(d)–213.5±3.1))). Regardless to the model, all correlations between actual and estimated BW were highly significant (P<0.001): the highest correlation (0.980) was obtained by the application of the Gompertz equation. In conclusion the growth of "Nero di Parma" pigs can be well described by applying the Gompertz model to field data

Effect of sex and season of birth on Gompertz growth curve parameters in "Nero di Parma" pigs

The growth curves of “Nero di Parma” pigs were studied by applying the Gompertz equation to 1069 body weight (BW) records from 285 pigs (156 females, 129 castrated males) born in 11 outdoor and 5 indoor herds; pigs were fed commercial complete feeds offered ad libitum and, on a limited basis in the outdoor system, diets were integrated with pasture. The parameters of the Gompertz equation were compared with reference to sex and season of birth. Mature BW for castrated males (229.0 kg) was 3.5% greater than that for females (221.3 kg) (P180 kg)

Exploring genetic diversity in an Italian horse native breed to develop strategies for preservation and management

Genetic diversity is a key factor for both adaptation and response to selection. The loss of genetic diversity causes a decrease in individual fitness, and it has a dramatically negative effect on population lifespan in the long term. This study aimed at exploring the genetic diversity at pedigree level of the Bardigiano horse breed, which is a native breed from Italy shaped for living in rural areas. In 1977, the Bardigiano studbook was founded to preserve the breed and for improving its use for riding and draft purposes. Pedigree data contained 9,469 horses, of which 3,416 were alive. Demographic and genetic parameters were estimated on subpopulations to evaluate potential genetic diversity differences among breeding and nonbreeding animals, and animals showing different breeding values (EBVs) for an index combining 18 conformation traits. Throughout the studied period, inbreeding steadily increased, reaching in the last birth year cohort a mean value equal to 0.10. The rate of inbreeding per generation, assuming a mean generation interval of 8.74 years, was equal to 1.64%. Moreover, significant differences on both average relatedness and inbreeding among horses with high and low EBVs were shown. Our study unravelled the state of genetic diversity in the Bardigiano breed, highlighting that breeding strategies for optimizing the contribution of breeding animals in the coming generations are needed to ensure long‐term survival of the Bardigiano horse breed