Bull management for efficient reproduction

"Superior herd sires properly managed are the greatest asset in a cow-calf operation. Generally, the herd bull contributes 50 percent of the total genetic variation of your calf crop annually. In most closed herds, however, the past three herd sires contribute 85 to 90 percent of the total genetic variation in the herd. This high percentage is due to selection intensity or replacement rate of cows and bull."--First page.John W. Massey and Homer B. Sewell (Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture)New 8/82/10

Copper Salts in Nutrition

A great deal of work has been done on the distribution of copper in plant and animal matter. It is not the intention of the authors to critically review all of the work of a biological nature concerning this element but only such as applies to the problem at hand. Investigations concerning the presence and role of copper in marine life are numerous. Harless found this metal in combination with protein in the blood of Eledone and Helix Pomatia and concluded that it functioned in a manner similar to that of hemoglobin of higher animals. Fredericq also said that copper plays the same role in the mollusks as iron does in the blood of higher animals. He called the copper protein compound hemocyanin. Since the work of these authors a number of experiments have conclusively demonstrated that hemocyanin functions as a respiratory pigment

Rations for bulls on performance test

1/81/8MHomer B. Sewell and John W. Massey (Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture

Reversible oligonucleotide chain blocking enables bead capture and amplification of T-Cell receptor alpha and beta chain mRNAs

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has proven to be an exceptionally powerful tool for studying genetic variation and differences in gene expression profiles between cell populations. However, these population-wide studies are limited by their inability to detect variation between individual cells within a population, inspiring the development of single-cell techniques such as Drop-seq, which add a unique barcode to the mRNA from each cell prior to sequencing. Current Drop-seq technology enables capture, amplification, and barcoding of the entire mRNA transcriptome of individual cells. NGS can then be used to sequence the 3′-end of each message to build a cell-specific transcriptional landscape. However, current technology does not allow high-throughput capture of information distant from the mRNA poly-A tail. Thus, gene profiling would have much greater utility if beads could be generated having multiple transcript-specific capture sequences. Here we report the use of a reversible chain blocking group to enable synthesis of DNA barcoded beads having capture sequences for the constant domains of the T-cell receptor α and β chain mRNAs. We demonstrate that these beads can be used to capture and pair TCRα and TCRβ sequences from total T-cell RNA, enabling reverse transcription and PCR amplification of these sequences. This is the first example of capture beads having more than one capture sequence, and we envision that this technology will be of high utility for applications such as pairing the antigen receptor chains that give rise to autoimmune diseases or measuring the ratios of mRNA splice variants in cancer stem cells

Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44490/1/10745_2005_Article_BF01531428.pd

A Case-Control Study of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome during an Outbreak in the Southwestern United States

In May 1993, an outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome( HPS) occurred in the south-western United States. A case-control study determined risk factors for HPS. Seventeen case-patients were compared with 3 groups of controls: members of case-patient households( household controls), members of neighboring households( near controls), and members of randomly selected households ≥ 24 km away ( far controls). Investigators trapped more small rodents at case households than at near ( P = .03) or far control households( P = .02). After the number of small rodents was controlled for,case-patients were more likely than household controls to hand plow (odds ratio [OR], 12.3; 95% confidence interval [ CI], 1.1-143.0) or to clean feed storage areas (OR, 33.4; 95% CI, 1.7-666.0). Case-patients were more likely than near controls to plant( OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 1.1-34.0) and more likely than far controls to clean animal sheds( OR, 11.9;95% CI, 1.4-103.0). Peridomestic cleaning, agricultural activities, and an increased number of small rodents at the household were associated with HPS

A Case-Control Study of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome during an Outbreak in the Southwestern United States

In May 1993, an outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome( HPS) occurred in the south-western United States. A case-control study determined risk factors for HPS. Seventeen case-patients were compared with 3 groups of controls: members of case-patient households( household controls), members of neighboring households( near controls), and members of randomly selected households ≥ 24 km away ( far controls). Investigators trapped more small rodents at case households than at near ( P = .03) or far control households( P = .02). After the number of small rodents was controlled for,case-patients were more likely than household controls to hand plow (odds ratio [OR], 12.3; 95% confidence interval [ CI], 1.1-143.0) or to clean feed storage areas (OR, 33.4; 95% CI, 1.7-666.0). Case-patients were more likely than near controls to plant( OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 1.1-34.0) and more likely than far controls to clean animal sheds( OR, 11.9;95% CI, 1.4-103.0). Peridomestic cleaning, agricultural activities, and an increased number of small rodents at the household were associated with HPS