New Pork Industry Problems: PSS and PSE

Over the past decade the swine producer has made tremendous strides in producing leaner and more heavily muscled hogs which yield a higher proportion of their carcass weight in lean edible portion. The modern pig has excelled his ancestry in total performance, growth, feed efficiency and muscle producing ability. Because of the advances made in nutrition, breeding, and management, the meat type pig of today is more efficient than ever be fore in conversion of feed protein to muscle protein. In addition, the environment under which many pigs are raised has been changed from the customary pasture and dirt lot to a mechanically operated confinement system. These changes in production have added some new problems to the swine industry

Procedures to Evaluate Market Pigs

For a number of years there has been a growing demand for a uniform system of market hog evaluation. The pork industry wanted a system where the basic figures from production and carcass information could be combined and results obtained for industry comparison. After 2 years of study by the National Pork Producers Council in cooperation with the American Meat Science Association, a new system of market hog evaluation based on percent or pounds of lean muscle in total carcass weight was initiated. The National Pork Producers Council hopes the system will meet the demands of the pork industry for a uniform evaluation system

Lamb Carcass Value

The value of a lamb carcass depends upon two factors: (1) the quality of the lean and (2) the quantity of retail cuts the carcass will yield. Both of these value-determining chracteristics are estimated by the USDA quality and USDA yield grades

U.S.D.A. Quality and Yield Grades for Beef

The market value of a beef carcass at the present time is primarily determined by two factors: (1) the quality of the meat (palatability) and (2) the quantity or amount of lean meat available

Lamb Yield Grades - Symbols of Value

This report provides information regarding the five U.S.D.A. yield grades

Marketing Lambs at Heavier Weights

Marketing lambs at heavier weights may offer some advantages to the sheep industry. The factors favoring production of a heavier weight market lamb are: 1. Decreased slaughter cost per unit of carcass weight. Slaughter costs are about the same for a 100 lb. or a 140 lb. lamb. 2. A lamb chop with a larger loin eye area may have a wider variety of uses. 3. Help alleviate the seasonality of lamb marketing. With a longer feeding period and the use of a variety of management techniques, lamb marketing could be more uniformly distributed throughout the year

The Influence of Frame Size on Growth and Carcass Characteristics of Swine Taken to Heavy Weights

In recent years progressive swine producers have sought a larger framed hog that matures at a heavier weight . In theory, these large framed pigs are leaner and maintain desirable feed/gain to heavier weights and therefore offer the flexibility to be marketed at heavier weights if favorable marketing conditions prevail. The study reported herein was designed to evaluate large and small framed pigs for growth and carcass characteristics when taken to a 300-pound slaughter weight

Enhanced NFκB and AP-1 transcriptional activity associated with antiestrogen resistant breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Signaling pathways that converge on two different transcription factor complexes, NFκB and AP-1, have been identified in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancers resistant to the antiestrogen, tamoxifen. METHODS: Two cell line models of tamoxifen-resistant ER-positive breast cancer, MCF7/HER2 and BT474, showing increased AP-1 and NFκB DNA-binding and transcriptional activities, were studied to compare tamoxifen effects on NFκB and AP-1 regulated reporter genes relative to tamoxifen-sensitive MCF7 cells. The model cell lines were treated with the IKK inhibitor parthenolide (PA) or the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (PS341), alone and in combination with tamoxifen. Expression microarray data available from 54 UCSF node-negative ER-positive breast cancer cases with known clinical outcome were used to search for potential genes signifying upregulated NFκB and AP-1 transcriptional activity in association with tamoxifen resistance. The association of these genes with patient outcome was further evaluated using node-negative ER-positive breast cancer cases identified from three other published data sets (Rotterdam, n = 209; Amsterdam, n = 68; Basel, n = 108), each having different patient age and adjuvant tamoxifen treatment characteristics. RESULTS: Doses of parthenolide and bortezomib capable of sensitizing the two endocrine resistant breast cancer models to tamoxifen were capable of suppressing NFκB and AP-1 regulated gene expression in combination with tamoxifen and also increased ER recruitment of the transcriptional co-repressor, NCoR. Transcript profiles from the UCSF breast cancer cases revealed three NFκB and AP-1 upregulated genes – cyclin D1, uPA and VEGF – capable of dichotomizing node-negative ER-positive cases into early and late relapsing subsets despite adjuvant tamoxfien therapy and most prognostic for younger age cases. Across the four independent sets of node-negative ER-positive breast cancer cases (UCSF, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Basel), high expression of all three NFκB and AP-1 upregulated genes was associated with earliest metastatic relapse. CONCLUSION: Altogether, these findings implicate increased NFκB and AP-1 transcriptional responses with tamoxifen resistant breast cancer and early metastatic relapse, especially in younger patients. These findings also suggest that agents capable of preventing NFκB and AP-1 gene activation may prove useful in restoring the endocrine responsiveness of such high-risk ER-positive breast cancers

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]