Are subjectively scored linear type traits suitable predictors of the genetic merit for feed intake in grazing Holstein-Friesian dairy cows?

peer-reviewedMeasuring dry matter intake (DMI) in grazing dairy cows using currently available techniques is invasive, time consuming, and expensive. An alternative to directly measuring DMI for use in genetic evaluations is to identify a set of readily available animal features that can be used in a multitrait genetic evaluation for DMI. The objectives of the present study were thus to estimate the genetic correlations between readily available body-related linear type traits and DMI in grazing lactating Holstein-Friesian cows, but importantly also estimate the partial genetic correlations between these linear traits and DMI, after adjusting for differences in genetic merit for body weight. Also of interest was whether the predictive ability derived from the estimated genetic correlations materialized upon validation. After edits, a total of 8,055 test-day records of DMI, body weight, and milk yield from 1,331 Holstein-Friesian cows were available, as were chest width, body depth, and stature from 47,141 first lactation Holstein-Friesian cows. In addition to considering the routinely recorded linear type traits individually, novel composite traits were defined as the product of the linear type traits as an approximation of rumen volume. All linear type traits were moderately heritable, with heritability estimates ranging from 0.27 (standard error = 0.14) to 0.49 (standard error = 0.15); furthermore, all linear type traits were genetically correlated (0.29 to 0.63, standard error 0.14 to 0.12) with DMI. The genetic correlations between the individual linear type traits and DMI, when adjusted for genetic differences in body weight, varied from −0.51 (stature) to 0.48 (chest width). These genetic correlations between DMI and linear type traits suggest linear type traits may be useful predictors of DMI, even when body weight information is available. Nonetheless, estimated genetic merit of DMI derived from a multitrait genetic evaluation of linear type traits did not correlate strongly with actual DMI in a set of validation animals; the benefit was even less if body weight data were also available

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol�which is a marker of cardiovascular risk�changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95 credible interval 3.7 million�4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world. © 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

GINIplus und LISAplus. Design und ausgewählte Ergebnisse zweier deutscher Geburtskohorten zum natürlichen Verlauf atopischer Erkrankungen sowie deren Determinanten.

The increasing prevalence of asthma, hay fever and allergic sensitization in Western Germany after division in 1949 and the rapid increase in East German children after re-unification in 1990 are strong indications for the role of life-style and/or environmental factors for development of atopic diseases. Obviously the perinatal period is crucial for priming the immune system. Therefore, explorations of determinants of atopic diseases need pregnancy or birth cohorts as most appropriate epidemiological study designs. This review presents the design and selected results of the two German birth cohorts GINIplus and LISAplus. GINIplus and LISAplus recruited 5.991 and 3.097 healthy, term newborns from Munich, Wesel, Leipzig and Bad Honnef. Approximatly 55% could be followed for the first 10 years. We analyzed the natural course of atopic diseases and the role of life-style, environmental and genetic factors for disease onset, intermediate phenotypes and for genes involved in detoxification and oxidative stress. The results of these two large birth cohorts contributed substantially to the understanding of atopic diseases and its determinants