Search Results (148)

Raramuri Criollo (RC) cattle from Mexico have special genetic and resilience characteristics which have positioned them as an important alternative for future meat production under arid conditions. Despite the remarkable hardiness of RC cattle, their meat has been anecdotally catalogued as lean, tough and unattractive for consumption. However, abundant information about RC meat quality has not been documented to date. This study evaluated technological characteristics and tenderness of Longissimus lumborum muscle from Raramuri Criollo cattle compared to a commercial Hereford × Angus (H × A) crossbreed during dry ageing. pH, water-holding capacity (WHC), Warner–Bratzler shear force (SF), and instrumental colour were analyzed at 0, 15 and 30 d of ageing. pH values remained within the normal physiological range (5.4–5.5) for high-quality beef in both genetic groups. WHC showed significant differences among days of ageing, but not by racial group (p > 0.05). Additionally, RC beef demonstrated higher chromatic stability than H × A meat during ageing. Meat from H × A animals exhibited faster early tenderization, while RC beef showed a more gradual and sustained reduction in SF, with RC reaching lower SF than meat from crossbred animals by d 30 of ageing. From day 0 to day 15 SF decreased by 9.48 N and 12.16 N for RC and H × A meat, respectively, while from day 16 to day 30 the SF showed decreases of 4.73 and 2.11 N for RC and H × A meat respectively. In conclusion, RC meat is as tender as H × A after 30 d ageing without deterioration in its technological properties. These findings highlight the potential of RC to produce competitive tender meat, supporting valorisation of indigenous cattle genetic resources as a viable strategy for sustainable beef production in arid environments. Full article

Datasets from 849 dogs ≤ 3 years of age were analysed retrospectively, considering breed, sex, anatomic sites, multiplicity, tumour diameter, grading, and immunohistochemistry by using IBM^® SPSS Statistics (version 29.0.2.0). Danish–Swedish farm dogs (OR: 8.11, 95% CI 3.33–19.77, p < 0.001) and English Setters (OR: 6.68, 95% CI 3.20–13.97, p < 0.001) showed the highest odds ratios (ORs) compared to crossbreeds. German Shepherd Dogs showed lower ORs (OR: 0.05, 95% CI 0.007–0.364, p < 0.01). The most common sites affected in the young dogs were the trunk (39.2%), hind limbs (24.9%), head (10.1%), fore limbs (7.4%), and pinnae (5%). Patnaik grading revealed 330 grade I (35.7%), 580 grade II (62.8%), and 14 grade III MCTs (1.5%). Kiupel “low grade” was found in 903 MCTs (97%), and 21 MCTs were “high grade” (3%). The prevalence of grade I MCTs was higher in Boxers (48.0%, p < 0.05) and Pugs (67.9%, p < 0.01). Pinnal MCTs were mostly grade I (58.3%, p < 0.01). In 6% (n = 51), multilocalised MCTs were found, and Golden Retrievers (12.5%, p = 0.02) and Pugs (21.4%, p = 0.005) were more affected than crossbreeds. Out of 87 dogs, 20 showed a Ki-67 count above the cut-off as well as KIT staining pattern II. The findings warrant heightened vigilance in evaluating cutaneous lesions in young dogs and highlight similarities and differences compared to the general dog population. Analysis of survival data is required to evaluate how the findings translate into a clinical setting. Full article

Meat from cull dairy cows is often used for human consumption; it is well known that tenderness adds value to the market, and dairy cattle meat is usually undervalued. In Mexico, most meat production comes from young bulls, mainly Bos indicus and commercial crossbreeds, whose meat tends to be tough rather than tender. The present study evaluated the association of G530A (CAPN1) and C357G (CAST) polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP) with meat tenderness using the Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF) method. Additionally, the color, pH, and marbling of meat cuts from culled Holstein cows were determined at 72 h postmortem. CAPN1 G530A genotype frequencies were GG (50%), AG (46%), and AA (4%), and for CAST C357G, they were CC (36%), CG (42%), and GG (22%); for both SNPs, the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was observed. Genotypes for CAPN1G530A and CAST C357G did not have a significant effect on WBSF (p > 0.05). Shear force (kg) for CAPN1 G530A genotypes was 4.02 ± 0.14 (GG), 3.99 ± 0.13 (AG) and 4.43 ± 0 (AA); and for CAST C357G genotypes, it was 4.0 ± 0.17 (CC), 4.09 ± 0.13 (CG) and 3.98 ± 0.11 (GG); the polymorphisms did not affect significantly WBSF, suggesting the limited applicability of these SNPs for meat tenderness in dairy cattle. However, due to the small sample size (n = 50) and especially the low number of CAPN1 AA homozygotes (n = 2), this study should be regarded as a proof-of-concept pilot investigation. The results warrant validation in larger cohorts. Full article

Complex farming environments, breed variation, and the high cost of manual annotation remain major obstacles to robust pig detection, while cross-breed detection under few-shot conditions has been insufficiently explored in previous studies. To address this gap, we propose a few-shot pig detection framework that combines an improved YOLOv7 detector with CycleGAN-based pseudo-sample generation. The detector was enhanced through anchor optimization, Efficient Channel Attention (ECA), and Log-Sum-Exp (LSE) pooling to improve localization and feature discrimination in dense pigsty scenes. In addition, an optimized CycleGAN with perceptual loss was used to generate synthetic Duroc-like pig images to enrich the limited target-domain training set. The framework was evaluated using a two-dataset design: a White Pig Base Dataset was used to establish the source-domain detector and validate the architectural improvements, whereas a Duroc Pig Few-Shot Dataset was used to assess cross-breed adaptation under a 10-shot setting. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieved 98.16% mAP on the White pig dataset and 85.52% mAP on the Duroc Few-Shot Dataset. On the Duroc Few-Shot Dataset, the final framework outperformed Faster R-CNN, CenterNet, and YOLOv8, and also surpassed DCGAN- and SRGAN-based augmentation strategies. These results indicate that the proposed method provides an effective and practical solution for cross-breed few-shot pig detection, with potential value for intelligent livestock monitoring under annotation-limited conditions. Full article

The sustainability of livestock farming is becoming a key consideration in the European pork industry, particularly regarding the balance between intensive and extensive farming practices. This study focuses on the Iberian pig breed, assessing the pure breed and the Iberian × Duroc crossbreed and three production systems: intensive indoor fattening, outdoor intensive fattening, and free-range fattening, with an emphasis on their impact on both sustainability and pork quality. The quick-scan sustainability assessment tool developed within the H2020 project mEATquality was used to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic performance of each system. The results revealed that the free-range system performed best in environmental and economic sustainability, while the intensive indoor system showed higher economic stability. Significant differences in meat quality were observed based on the production system, including pH, fat and protein content, colour, texture, and fatty acid profiles. Notably, the free-range system produced pork with higher levels of MUFA and omega-3 fatty acids while intensive indoor showed a more favourable texture, while the intensive systems were associated with paler meat and higher SFA content. Indeed, the results highlighted a significant interaction between the production system × breed, indicating that the 100% Iberian is better adapted to the extensive systems. This study highlights the importance of integrating sustainability assessments with meat quality parameters to identify production methods that are both environmentally responsible and capable of meeting the consumer demand for high-quality pork. Full article

Lactation is a dynamic process characterised by a production peak at 6–8 weeks, followed by a steady decline. To understand the molecular drivers of these phases and the influence of production systems, this study aims to provide a transcriptomic characterisation of bovine milk somatic cells (BMSCs) in Holstein (HO), Simmental (SM), Simmental × Holstein crossbreed (SM × HO), and Podolica (POD) cows at 60 and 120 days in milk (DIM). Total RNA was sequenced at high coverage, and differential expression and functional enrichment analyses were performed. While a core set of milk protein and fatty acid genes was identified, breed-specific analysis showed SM × HO had the highest variation (677 differentially expressed genes, DEGs). Genes upregulated at 120 DIM involved mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation, while downregulated genes were associated with nuclear transcriptional regulation. At 60 DIM, SM × HO vs. HO showed 66 DEGs, with upregulated genes linked to chromatin remodelling and immune regulation. Comparing production systems, 28 DEGs between POD and HO/SM highlighted differences in mitochondrial activity and transcriptional regulation. This study bridges a knowledge gap by profiling the milk transcriptome of unexplored cattle breeds, providing novel insights into the molecular regulation of lactation. Full article

To comply with new pastoral regulations in Benin, herders are increasingly adopting sedentary cattle systems, which may pose environmental risks if poorly managed. This study assessed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from three sedentary cattle farm types: zebu (SZF), taurine (STF), and crossbreed (SCF), across two vegetation zones: Sudanian (SZ) and Guineo-Congolian (GCZ) using the GLEAM-i model, online version. Irrespective of the farm type, the animals were exclusively fed on natural pasture. A total of 12 cattle herds were surveyed to collect input data (herd structure, demographic parameters, milk production and composition, and weight data) for the GLEAM-i. The fat and protein content of the milk (determined using a milkotester device), the live weight, and weight at slaughter of animals were entered into the GLEAM-i, which automatically determines the emission intensity values per kg of protein produced. The results revealed that CH₄ was the main GHG emitted (88%), followed by CO₂ (6–7%) and N₂O (6%). The highest and lowest total GHG emissions (kgCO₂-eq/year) were recorded in SZF (188,497) and STF (52,003) farms, respectively. With regard to emission intensity (kgCO₂-eq/kg protein), this varied from 506.59 to 3043.73 for meat and from 588.86 to 3043.73 for milk. Overall, preliminary trends suggest lower emission intensities for taurine in the GCZ and for zebu in the SZ. However, these results would be more meaningful and more accurate if emission values were directly measured from individual animals using the GreenFeed Technology under current production conditions, using various pasture resources and controlled allocation. These would allow us to make firm recommendations for breeding strategies to reduce GHG emissions in Benin’s extensive livestock production system. Full article

Small ruminants, such as newborn lambs, rely on timely colostrum intake to acquire passive immunity through the absorption of immunoglobulin (Ig). Evaluating Ig transfer is important for ensuring lamb health and survival. However, current methods such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and radial immunodiffusion (RID) are widely used but remain costly and require specialized facilities. The immunocrit assay has been proposed as a lower-cost alternative for evaluating serum Ig concentrations. This study aimed to evaluate the immunocrit method in lambs by comparing it with ELISA, RID, and total serum protein. Serum was collected from 135 Katahdin-Easycare lambs 24–36 h after birth. Samples were analyzed using sheep immunoglobulin G ELISA, Sheep immunoglobulin G RID, serum protein, and the immunocrit method. Pearson’s correlation was used to assess linear relationships between the methods, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate test accuracy, with RID as the gold standard (15 mg/mL cutoff). The immunocrit showed a high correlation with RID (r = 0.870), moderate correlation with serum protein (r = 0.725), and good correlation with ELISA (r = 0.607). The ROC analysis showed that the immunocrit had a sensitivity of 100% at a cutoff of 4.34%. These results indicate that the immunocrit method provides comparable accuracy to RID and serum protein, and could serve as a reliable, practical, and inexpensive tool for on-farm evaluation of passive transfer in Katahdin-Easycare crossbred lambs between 24 and 36 h after birth. Full article

Most animal welfare (AW) assessment protocols have been developed for intensive production systems and European cattle, raising concerns about their applicability in the tropics. To compare the results obtained by using the welfare quality (WQ) assessment for fattening cattle in the dry tropics, relevant modifications were implemented in 20 cattle production units (PUs) during the dry (DS) and rainy (RS) seasons. Regarding the principle of good feeding, only during the RS, between 20% and 25% of the farms maintained their animals in the acceptable and good categories, compared to the DS, where all PUs were classified as unacceptable (p < 0.04). Under the “Appropriate Behavior” principle, only 15% and 60% of the PUs maintained their animals at good and acceptable levels, respectively, in the RS, but not in the DS (p < 0.001). Conversely, during the DS, better scores were obtained for the measures and criteria in the Good housing group, with 45%, 50%, and 5% of PU classified as acceptable, good, and excellent, respectively, while for the RS, only 15%, 30%, and 5% reached these levels (p < 0.01). Meanwhile, under the “Good Health” principle, better animal health scores were observed during the RS, with 20%, 30%, and 50% of farms classified as acceptable, good, and excellent, compared to the DS, where only 70% and 10% of farms maintained their animals at good and excellent levels (p < 0.01). It is concluded that better animal welfare (AW) indicators were recorded during the RS, and the adjustments we applied to the conventional WQ protocol comprised a modification for the criterion that included the prolonged absence of thirst as well as adding six new indicators (measures) to the principles of housing, health, and behavior, which are considered essential for evaluating AW in cattle that are managed under extensive conditions by season. Full article

Accurate and non-contact identification of individual sheep is important for intelligent livestock management, but remains challenging due to subtle inter-individual differences, breed-dependent facial morphology, and complex farm environments. This study proposes a lightweight sheep face detection and keypoint recognition framework based on an improved YOLO11 architecture, termed SAMS-KLA-YOLO11. The model incorporates a Sheep Adaptive Multi-Scale Convolution (SAMSConv) module to enhance feature extraction across breed-dependent facial scales, a Keypoint-Aware Lightweight Attention (KLAttention) mechanism to emphasize biologically discriminative facial landmarks, and the Efficient IoU (EIoU) loss to stabilize bounding box regression. A dataset of 3860 images from 68 individuals belonging to three breeds (Hu, Dorper, and Dorper × Hu crossbreeds) was collected under unconstrained farm conditions and annotated with five facial keypoints. On this dataset, the proposed model achieves higher precision, recall, and mAP than several mainstream YOLO-based baselines, while reducing FLOPs and parameter count compared with the original YOLO11. Additional ablation experiments confirm that each proposed module provides complementary benefits, and OKS-based evaluation shows accurate facial keypoint localization. All results are obtained on a single, site-specific dataset without external validation or on-device deployment benchmarks, so the findings should be viewed as an initial step toward practical sheep face recognition rather than definitive evidence of large-scale deployment readiness. Full article

An elevated somatic cell count (SCC) affects the physicochemical characteristics of milk, altering its renneting ability and ultimately impacting the yield and quality of the cheese produced. This study aims to analyse the variations in the composition of Latvian goat milk and its technological properties in relation to SCC. Individual goat milk samples (n = 240) were collected from one of the largest goat farms in Latvia during 2019 and 2020. Latvian, Saanen, and cross-breed goat milk samples from different lactations were tested for their chemical composition (fat, protein, lactose, dry matter, and SCC), fat-to-protein ratio, freezing point, and curd firmness. Samples were collected during different lactation periods in order to analyse the seasonal effect on milk quality. The results demonstrated that milk samples from goats with lower SCCs (Group I) exhibited the highest fat (3.34%), lactose (4.56%), and dry matter (11.28%) concentrations and fat-to-protein ratios (1.02). Curd firmness decreased progressively from Group I to Group IV, fluctuating between Latvian Native (1.96–1.47 N), Saanen (1.91–1.59 N), and cross-breed (1.66–1.58 N) goat milk samples. A significantly lower (p = 0.030) curd firmness (1.56 N) was determined in the Group IV goat milk samples. Seasonal fluctuations in milk composition were observed in relation to curd firmness, which peaked in late lactation milk (3.85 N), although minor fluctuations were observed in protein concentrations (3.23% to 3.30%) across the sampling periods (2019 and 2020). These findings highlight the necessity of SCC monitoring in Latvian goat milk to ensure appropriate quality for milk processing. Full article

This study investigates the impact of cattle breed on key quality attributes—color, marbling, and tenderness—central to consumer choice. Six different bovine breeds were taken into consideration: German Red Pied, Piemontese, Chianina, Angus, Holstein, and a Polish crossbreed. The muscle taken into consideration was the Longissimus thoracis et lumborum. Colorimetric assessments, marbling evaluations, fatty acid profiling, and tenderness measurements were conducted on meat cuts from each breed. The results revealed that Chianina, Holstein, and the Polish crossbreed exhibited distinct color characteristics, with Chianina displaying notably brighter meat. Angus emerged as the most marbled breed, while Chianina and Piemontese showed lower marbling. Total lipid content was correlated with visible marbling. Tenderness assessments identified Angus and Holstein as the most tender breeds. The study’s findings contribute to a proposed grading scale for color, marbling, and tenderness, offering potential labeling infographics to assist consumers in making informed choices based on individual preferences and needs. These insights underscore the importance of breed-specific information on labels to enhance consumer understanding and facilitate more informed purchasing decisions. Full article

Artificial crossbreeding is a critical strategy in the restoration of endangered freshwater fishes with small, fragmented populations, where natural spawning alone cannot reverse genetic erosion. This study examined the genetic diversity and fitness traits of crosses between genetically distant (HGD) and closely related (LGD) broodstock individuals of Pseudopungtungia nigra, an endangered Korean freshwater fish. Using ten microsatellite loci, we evaluated genetic diversity, population structure, and early survival performance among crossbreeds and their broodstock. Both HGD and LGD progenies showed deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and exhibited higher observed heterozygosity than expected, indicating the influence of artificial selection. The broodstock and both crossbred groups displayed bottleneck signals, while LD-based effective population size was infinite for the broodstock and HGD but finite for LGD, suggesting estimation bias because the parameter was undeterminable due to small sample size (each group, n = 28–30). STRUCTURE and DAPC analyses revealed that HGD_20 was most genetically similar to the broodstock population, while LGD and HGD_19 formed distinct clusters. Hatching rate was 1.5-fold higher in HGD compared with LGD (p < 0.05), although survival did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). These results highlight that crossbreeding based on genetic distance can enhance genetic diversity and hatching performance without causing excessive genetic divergence from the parental population, offering a practical model for the genetic management of endangered fish restoration. Full article

The quality and flavor of chicken meat are fundamentally determined by muscle metabolite composition, which reflects the regulatory effects of genetic background on metabolic pathways and muscle development. In this study, we profiled the meat quality of breast muscle across 3 crossbreeding combinations (D×HD, HD×D, and D×LD) between the Yunong D line and Houdan chickens to elucidate the metabolic mechanisms underlying flavor variation. Eighteen representative breast muscle samples were analyzed using common physicochemical indexes, untargeted metabolomics based on Gas Chromatography-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS) and Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Quadrupole Exactive Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-QE-MS). Differential metabolites were identified through Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA). Multivariate analysis revealed distinct metabolic signatures among crossbreeding combinations, with HD×D exhibiting the most favorable tenderness, color, and water-holding capacity. A total of nine differential metabolites (5 upregulated and 4 downregulated) were identified between D×HD and HD×D, and thirty-eight metabolites (18 upregulated and 27 downregulated) between D×HD and D×LD. The identified metabolites were predominantly associated with amino acid metabolism, lipid biosynthesis, nucleotide turnover, and energy metabolism. Among these, arachidonic acid, taurine, L-alanine, and citric acid exhibited marked intergroup differences. Enrichment analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) indicated significant involvement of pathways such as amino acid biosynthesis, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, and ABC transporters in flavor formation. Hierarchical clustering and Pearson correlation analyses further delineated synergistic or antagonistic interactions among key metabolites, suggesting the existence of intricate regulatory mechanisms. These findings reveal critical metabolites and metabolic pathways associated with flavor attributes, offering both a theoretical framework and potential molecular targets for enhancing poultry meat quality through breeding strategies. Full article

Climate change poses serious challenges to Mediterranean crops such as the olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea), underscoring the need for cultivars with improved drought tolerance and disease resistance. This study investigates variability in leaf and wood traits among Moroccan and introduced olive cultivars and their crossbreed genotypes grown under similar conditions. Specifically, we assessed (1) variation in key functional traits, (2) the effects of crossbreeding combinations, and (3) trait syndromes shaped by selection. Results showed substantial intraspecific variation in leaf traits, including specific leaf area (SLA), specific leaf water content (SLWC), stomatal size (SS), and density (SD), indicating diverse strategies for resource use and plasticity. Crossbreed genotypes generally displayed higher SLWC and lower SLA, reflecting adaptation to water stress. Wood traits, particularly vessel size (SVS) and number (NVS), also varied, revealing trade-offs between hydraulic efficiency and safety. Notably, an increase in vessel size and hydraulic conductivity was correlated with oil content (OC%), while OC% increased with higher vessel and stomatal densities. Larger stomata increased conductance and fruit growth, while lower SLA was linked to higher yield. Multivariate analysis distinguished two genotype groups, consistent with parental combinations. Overall, crossbreeding generated novel functional diversity that may enhance adaptive potential. These findings highlight the value of integrating functional and anatomical traits into olive breeding programs to improve resilience and productivity under climate change. Full article