Roberta Ciampolini

Demographic approach on the study of genetic parameters in the dog Braque Français type Pyrénées Italian population

Abstract The complete electronic record of the Braque Français type Pyrénées reared in Italy was downloaded from the ENCI database in order to estimate the genetic variability of the breed. Pedigree records of all active registered animals (reference populationu2009=u2009RP) were considered. The whole population (WPu2009=u2009RP and its genealogy) included 1250 dogs (628 males and 622 females). Seven hundred eighty-three dogs were inbred. To explain 50% of the genetic variability, a total of seven ancestors were sufficient in the RP. The average inbreeding coefficient (F) in the RP was 4.3%, while the average inbreeding of the inbred was 5.19%. F wasu2009<0.05 in 511 dogs (65.3% of inbred), whereas it wasu2009>0.20 in only 13 dogs (1.66% of inbred). F per year ranged from 0.98% for dogs born in 2003 (27 dogs) to 7.05% in 204 dogs born in 2009. Ten traced generations were highlighted. A maximum average inbreeding value (6.62%) was observed in the dogs with 10 traced generations. This research highlighted the good genetic variability of the breed obtained through the efficient management by the Italian Club of Braque Français Type Pyrenees (CIBF), in collaboration with the member breeders and the active cooperation of the French Club. The CIBF has made arrangements with our genetic centre to constantly monitor the genetic variability of the breed in order to prevent excessive increases in inbreeding in the future.

Genetic diversity and similarity between the Amiata Donkey breed and a donkey population native from Lazio

Maternal abilities and piglet vitality were analyzed on 24 Meishan (MS) and 24 Large White (LW) gilts. Females were inseminated with a mixture of semen from both breeds. Three MS and 3 LW boars were used to constitute 3 duos formed by mixing of MS and LW semen in equal proportions. Farrowing events were studied over 5 successive batches. The proportion of purebred and crossbred piglets within the litter varied according to the duo used and the dam breed (p<0.01). The average within-litter percentage of purebred piglets in LW and MS sows was respectively 43% and 50% with use of duo 1, 64% and 23% with duo 2 and 69% and 81% with duo 3. Gestation was shorter in MS than in LW sows (111.6 vs 114.0 days; p<0.05) and litter size tended to be larger in LW than in MS sows (14.6 vs 12.8 total born piglets; p=0.08). Over the three first days of lactation, piglet probability of survival was similar between purebred and crossbred piglets born from LW sows (94.5% vs 95.0%) and higher in purebred than crossbred piglets born from MS sows (96.6% vs 98.7%, p<0.05). In LW sows, crossbred piglets were heavier at birth and more reactive in a novel environment than purebred piglets (1.29 vs 1.21 kg, p<0.10; reactivity score: 1.38 vs 1.03 respectively). In MS sows, purebred piglets had a lower birth weight than crossbred piglets but showed similar vitality (0.86 vs 1.08 kg, p<0.001; reactivity score: 1.00 vs 1.03). Birth process and piglet behavior in early lactation will be analyzed to estimate the interaction between dam breed and piglet genetic type (purebred vs crossbred) on the expression of maternal behavior and piglet vitality (udder activity and survival).Young horses normally live in small year-round stable groups including one stallion, their mothers, a few other mares, their siblings and unrelated peers. On the contrary, most of young domestic horses are generally maintained in same-age and same-sex groups from weaning until training. One has to consider that the absence of adult partners during ontogeny may be a source of behavioral disorders. In a first study, we focused on social conditions at weaning. While it is well known that presence of peers is of high importance to alleviate weaning stress, we investigated here the effects of the introduction of unrelated adult mares in groups of weanlings. Results showed that signs of stress were less pronounced and shorter in time in weanlings housed with adult mares than in weanlings kept in same-age groups (e.g. distress vocalizations: P<0.05; salivary cortisol: P<0.05). Besides, only foals deprived of adult presence exhibited increased aggressiveness towards peers (P<0.05) and abnormal behaviors (P<0.05). In conclusion, the presence of two unrelated adults in groups of weanlings not only alleviated weaning stress, but also favored positive social behavior and limited the emergence of abnormal behaviors. In a second study, we examined the impact of the temporary presence of adult horses on the behavior of 1- and 2-year-old horses. Results showed that young horses reared in homogeneous groups had a reduced behavioral repertoire, no real preferred partner and displayed many agonistic interactions compared to domestic horses reared under more natural conditions. Interestingly, after the introduction of adults, young horses expressed new behaviors (e.g. snapping, lying recumbent), preferential social associations emerged (P<0.05) and positive social behavior increased (P<0.05). Taken together, these results have important implications in terms of husbandry, indicating the importance of keeping young horses with adults.The aim of this work was to characterise the European consumer of pig meat (within ALCASDE project). A total of 822 respondents participated in a survey that was carried out Germany (DE n=132), Spain (ES n=133), France (FR n=139), Italy (IT n=140), Netherlands (NL n=132) and United Kingdom (UK n=146). All of them were selected for consuming pork > 1 time/month and stratified by age and gender, within each country profile. Respondents answered socio-demographic questions and frequency of consumption of different pork products, the most common purchasing place for fresh pork meat, if they were responsible for buying fresh pork at home, if they were responsible for cooking at home, and if they usually eat the pork with the fat. Data was analysed with FREQ procedure of SAS software. In general, over ninety percent of consumers ate fresh pork > 2 times/week (DE 96.2 %; ES 95.5 %; IT 92.9 %; NL 93.9 %; UK 97.3 %) except for FR (34.8 %). The most consumed product was the sausage in DE, dry cured ham in ES and IT; cooked ham in FR, mince meat in NL and sliced bacon in UK. In all the countries, the supermarket was the most common purchasing place of fresh pork with the exception of NL, where it was the traditional market. In general, the percentage of respondents responsible for buying fresh pork in their household was 91.0 %. In all countries, women were more responsible for buying fresh pork than men, and they were mostly between 41-60 years old. Ninety-one percent of respondents were partially responsible for cooking at home. Women were more responsible for cooking at home than men. France was an exception, where 49.6 % women and 50.4 % men cooked at home. Considering all respondents, 44.5 % ate the pork with the fat in all the countries (35.4 % of women and 54.6 % of men). The study showed differences among countries regarding respondents’ traits.

The genetic resistance to gastro-intestinal strongylids in Appenninica sheep: relationship among parasitical load and haematological parameters

Abstract Faecal Egg Count (FEC) is generally considered a simple but effective parameter for estimating resistance to strongylids, due to its phenotypic relationship to the total number of parasites present in the animal. Nevertheless, also haematological indicators have been shown to be useful in measuring gastro-intestinal nematode resistance in sheep, such as Packed Cell Volume (PCV), number of leukocytes, proportion of eosinophils and plasma albumin. The study was conducted in a single herd of Appenninica sheep situated in Tuscany (Italy) with the aim of studying the relationship among parasitic load of gastro-intestinal Strongylids and haematological parameters. Faecal samples from 54 sheep were collected in four different withdrawals (April, May, September and November 2004) and analysed in order to determine parasite EPG (Eggs Per Gram), using the McMaster technique. At the same time as the faecal samples, blood samples were also collected in order to determine PCV, total proteins, complement proteins, plasma albumin, erythrocytes and eosinophils. Considering the low infection level in spring (April and May), it was believed that animals with a positive EPG in this season could already be considered “not resistant”, although a limited infection (EPG<200) might serve as an index of host’s capacity to keep the parasite population under control. Consequently, we defined as “resistant group” (RG) the subjects with an average value in the spring sample equal to zero EPG, “intermediate resistant group” (IRG) the subjects with an average value under 200 EPG and “not resistant group” (NRG) the animals with an average value over 200 EPG. NRG subjects always showed lower values of PCV (an indicator of anaemia) than the other groups. In September, NRG subjects also showed significantly lower values of eosinophils (3.28%) compared to the other groups (6.54 and 6.20%, respectively, for IRG and RG, P<0.01) and higher values of complement (20.06 vs. 12.61 and 12.77, respectively, for IRG and RG, P<0.05). On the contrary, in November, NRG subjects showed lower values of complement (7.78) than the other groups (19.00 and 15.23, respectively, for IRG and IR, P<0.01).

Morphological characteristics of “Bracco Italiano” dog

The Italian Bracco is one of the oldest pointing dog breed, used for hunting ever since the Renaissance time; paintings of the 14th century show hunting sceneries with dogs similar to the present day Bracco. The breed has been officially registered by ENCI (the Italian cynological club) in 1949, when the definitive standard was established. In this work, we report the first results of a study aimed at measuring morphological traits in this breed, as a part of a more comprehensive study whose objective is to identify the characters that have the potential of being genetically improved. R. Ciampolini1, F. Cecchi1, A. Bramante1, F. Casetti2, S. Presciuttini1

Analysis of genetic differentiation of a sheep population by Cluster Analysis on milk serum proteins: preliminary results

Carnitine is a small essential molecule that regulates the substrate flux and energy balance across cell membranes by modulating both the transport of long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria and their subsequent β-oxidation. Although humans are capable to synthesize it endogenously, approximately 75% of body carnitine sources come from diet and particularly from food of animal origin such as meat, poultry, fish and dairy products. Due to its intrinsic interaction with the bioenergetics processes, carnitine plays an important role in diseases associated with metabolic compromise, especially mitochondria-related disorders. It has been reported that administration of carnitine by diet or at pharmacological doses can have significant benefit in several physiopathological situations such as ischemia, myocardial injury and neurodegenerative diseases, but there is no data on the possible protective role of carnitine against other oxidative stress-induced pathologies associated with an altered chromosome stability such as cancer. Therefore, we analysed the potential capability of carnitine to protect mammalian cells from genetic instability induced by H2O2, using Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells as a mammalian cell model having a stable karyotype and the chromosome aberration test as genetic end point. Our results showed that in the absence of carnitine H2O2 induced a high and dose-dependent induction of structural chromosome aberrations in the concentration range 0.1-0.4 mM whereas at the same H2O2 doses, a pre-treatment with 4 mM carnitine produced a strong decrease either of the percent of cells with aberrations or of the aberration frequency. The observed carnitine-mediated prevention of H2O2-induced chromosome aberrations reaches almost the control value in the cultures treated with 0.1 mM of H2O2 thus evidencing a reduction of about 70%. These data, together with preliminary results showing that carnitine is not able to protect cells from the inhibition of cell growth caused by H2O2, suggest that carnitine protects mammalian cells from H2O2–induced clastogenic damage and this effect is reproducible and highly specific.