Allelic diversity of butyrophilin (BTN1A1) gene in Indian bovines

Indian milch bovines comprises of 58.56% of total livestock population (512.05 million) in the country and primarily includes native and crossbred cattle (37.28%) and water buffaloes (21.28%). Milk and milk products are essential food items of Indian diet especially in children, old and senile. Milk fat is an important constituent of milk and has an economic value and its percentage in milk varies betweem species and breeds within species. Butyrophilin (BTN1A1) a membrane protein regulates secretion of lipids and size of a fat globule in milk. Present study was conducted in 538 bovines of 11 breeds/populations adapted to different parts of India, with an aim to screen and determine the major allele of BTN1A1 gene using PCR-RFLP based test. Results indicate that exon 8 of BTN1A1 gene is polymorphic in Tharparkar, Sahiwal, Jhari and Belahi populations of native cattle and Holstein Friesian and Jersey crossbreds where as the same exon was monomorphic in Murrah, Chilika, Gojri, Chhattisgarhi and Bargur populations of water buffalo. We conclude that variations in BTN1A1 gene can serve as an excellent genetic marker while selecting cows for higher milk fat and can be applied while formulating their breeding plans

Phenotypic characterization, management and performance of Belahi cattle

Belahi cattle are medium sized dual utility migratory breed maintained and primarily conserved by Gujjar community in India. The average first lactation milk yield recorded was about 1,071 kg with average daily milk yield and peak yield of 3.45 and 5.5 kg, respectively which is higher than the national average of indigenous cattle. Milk constitutes traits were estimated in pooled milk as 14.38% total solids, 5.25% fat, 3.45% protein and 5.20% lactose, indicating good quality of the milk. However, planned efforts for their genetic improvement are needed to improve gains. Our findings suggests that Belahi cattle has a good milk potential on low input, dual purpose utility, has high socioeconomic relevance and can immensely contribute to the livelihood security of Gujjar pastoralists of the sub Himalayan region. We recommend that these herds should be associated with Progeny Testing program/Open Nucleus Breeding System to explore their full milking potential. Further we recommend, long pending, strong policy support for such migratory groups, as they immensely contribute in economy of the state and in conservation of indigenous cattle genetic resources

Leptin gene polymorphism in association with lactation milk yield in Murrah buffaloes

PCR amplification of exon-2 of leptin gene yielded an amplified product of 210 bp in Murrah buffaloes. RFLP of leptin gene done with Aci1 restriction enzyme revealed 3 types of genotypes CC, TC and TT in Murrah buffaloes of NDRI herd with a frequency of 0.26 , 0.73 and 0.013% respectively. Results suggested that CC genotype of leptin gene in Murrah buffaloes is significantly associated with 305 days milk yield. Overall study suggested the scope of considering genetic information of leptin gene in breeding and management strategies for the improvement of Murrah buffaloes of NDRI herd

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

RF loss profile measurement for a high gain, broadband helix TWT

129-132Helix type structure is widely used as slow wave structure in the travelling wave tube (TWT) due to its natural wide bandwidth. Reflections present in the structure may cause oscillations and hence instability in the device. In order to minimize the reflections, a coating of lossy material is done on the helix support rods in a TWT. The loss introduced by such coating has significant effects on the characteristics of the device. In the conventional methods the loss due to this coating (also known as the loss profiles) can be measured only on a single rod before fabrication of the slow wave structure (SWS) assembly. In the present work a new and convenient method has been developed for the measurement of loss profiles of a fabricated SWS assembly. Using the new method an experimental study has been made on a high gain TWT that is made in two sections with sever in between. The loss profiles along the axis of helical SWS have been measured at the sever end. This measurement is found to be very helpful to ensure the accuracy of the final fabricated assembly

Nickel and iron as attenuator materials for helix TWT

345-347Coating of lossy material is done on the helix support rods to absorb reflections in a helix travelling wave tube. Carbon is a very commonly-used material used for this type of coating, but other materials may also be employed for this purpose. In the present work coatings of carbon, nickel and iron have been done and evaluated for the attenuation performance at microwave frequencies. Three alumina rods have been coated with different methods to characterize them for attenuation. One alumina rod has been coated with carbon using the pyrolytic deposition method, while two others have been coated with iron and nickel using the electro-deposition method. An experimental set-up involving a narrow-height waveguide with a hole was used to measure the attenuation of the coated rods at 6.0 GHz frequency

Influence of FASN gene polymorphism on milk production and its composition traits in Murrah buffaloes

In present study the effect of genetic polymorphism of Fatty acid synthase (FASN) gene on eight traits related to milk production and its composition in 162 Murrah buffaloes was studied. The traits studied includes 305 days milk yield, lactation fat average (LFA), 305 days fat yield (305LFY), lactation solid not fat average (LSA), 305 days solid not fat yield (305LSY), lactation total solid average (LTSA), 305 days total solid yield (305LTSY) and peak yield (PY). Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) was used to identify the SNP in a 472 bp PCR amplified product of exon-40 in FASN gene. It was found to be polymorphic with Guanine to Adenine transition and three genotypes namely AA, AG and GG were observed. Allele A was found to be more frequent than G allele. We report for the first time that exon-40 FASN gene is associated with LFA, LTSA and peak yield in Murrah buffaloes. This information can augment future studies to determine the role of bovine FASN gene as a candidate gene marker for a milk fat, total solids and peak milk production

Polymorphism in Exon-40 of FASN Gene in Lesser known Buffalo breeds of India

Present study was aimed to discover the single nucleotide variation present in exon 40 region of the Fatty Acid Synthase (FASN) gene. FASN plays a central role in de novo lipogenesis in mammals and variation in this enzyme may affect economic traits including fatty acid composition of buffalo milk. A total of 80 DNA samples in two riverine buffalo breeds namely, Gojri and Chhattisgarhi were screened using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). FASN gene was found to be polymorphic with an adenine to guanine transition. Three types of genotypes, viz. AA, AG and GG were observed in the studied breeds. Allele A was found to be more frequent than G allele. All the genotypes showed almost the same frequency across the breeds, indicating that there is absence of selection for FASN gene in lesser known buffalo breeds of India. The study will augment the information available and can be applied in future studies to determine the role of bovine FASN gene as a candidate gene marker for a milk-fat content

Estimates of genetic parameters for fat yield in Murrah buffaloes

Aim: The present study was performed to investigate the effect of genetic and non-genetic factors affecting milk fat yield and to estimate genetic parameters of monthly test day fat yields (MTDFY) and lactation 305-day fat yield (L305FY) in Murrah buffaloes. Materials and Methods: The data on total of 10381 MTDFY records comprising the first four lactations of 470 Murrah buffaloes calved from 1993 to 2014 were assessed. These buffaloes were sired by 75 bulls maintained in an organized farm at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. Least squares maximum likelihood program was used to estimate genetic and non-genetic parameters. Heritability estimates were obtained using paternal half-sib correlation method. Genetic and phenotypic correlations among MTDFY, and 305-day fat yield were calculated from the analysis of variance and covariance matrix among sire groups. Results: The overall least squares mean of L305FY was found to be 175.74±4.12 kg. The least squares mean of overall MTDFY ranged from 3.33±0.14 kg (TD-11) to 7.06±0.17 kg (TD-3). The h2 estimate of L305FY was found to be 0.33±0.16 in this study. The estimates of phenotypic and genetic correlations between 305-day fat yield and different MTDFY ranged from 0.32 to 0.48 and 0.51 to 0.99, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, all the genetic and non-genetic factors except age at the first calving group, significantly affected the traits under study. The estimates of phenotypic and genetic correlations of MTDFY with 305-day fat yield was generally higher in the MTDFY-5 of lactation suggesting that this TD yields could be used as the selection criteria for early evaluation and selection of Murrah buffaloes