scholarly journals A switch from fish- to plant-protein based feeds will not harm the current breeding program for European whitefish: Evidence from genetic analysis of feed utilisation traits

Author(s):  
Cheryl D. Quinton ◽  
Antti Kause ◽  
Juha Koskela

A selective breeding program is currently under development that aims to enhance farmed European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L.), in order to increase aquafood supply chain productivity and consumer satisfaction in Finland. Critical steps in developing a breeding program are determining the amount of genetic variation in the population, and predicting how selection to change one trait may impact other traits. Diets for carnivorous fish currently contain protein mostly derived from wild fish sources. In order to reduce feed costs and environmental impact, alternative plant proteins have been researched for aquaculture diets. An issue of concern to the whitefish breeding program is the possibility of genotype by environment interaction (GxE), specifically that fish produced by the breeding program with the current diets may not perform well when they are reared with future plant-protein based diets. The aims of this study were (i) to assess whether sufficient genetic variation exists to improve growth, feed intake and feed efficiency on both types of diets through selection, and (ii) to predict whether selection on a fish meal (FM) based diet will lead to favourable correlated changes on a potential future soybean meal (SBM) based diet. Seventy families were created from a series of factorial matings. Twenty-four individuals from each family were tagged and allocated to one of two diet treatments: a FM protein diet or a SBM protein diet. Individual weights were recorded at the beginning and end of the 3-month growth trial. During the trial, daily feed intake was measured 5 times per individual with X-radiography. Genetic parameters of final body weight, daily gain, daily feed intake, and feed efficiency were estimated with multiple-trait animal models. Fish on the FM diet had faster growth, higher final weight, lower feed intake, and accordingly higher feed efficiency than those on the SBM diet. For both diets, daily gain showed the highest heritability (h2=0,20-0,40), feed intake had lower h2 (0,17-0,23), and feed efficiency and body weight had the lowest h2 (0,05-0,07). Each trait appeared to show sufficient genetic variation for selective improvement for both diets. Daily gain and feed intake had high positive correlations (rP and rA>0,86) within both diets. Heritabilities were similar on both diets, and genetic correlations between the same traits recorded in each diet were very high (rA>0,92). This indicates that little GxE exists for these traits, and selection to improve growth and feed utilization on the FM diet will have correlated improvement for the SBM diet. In conclusion, the results of this study are favourable, and indicate that present selection to improve growth, feed intake, and feed efficiency within a FM-based diet will also improve the population for these traits within a SBM-based diet. Therefore, the improved population is likely to continue performing well as aquaculture diets move toward increased SBM protein contents.

2008 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thusith S Samarakone ◽  
Harold W Gonyou

A total of eight 11-wk trials were conducted to evaluate the productivity and aggression at grouping of grower-finisher pigs [initial body weight (BW) = 31.8 ± 5.4 kg (mean ± SD), n = 2304] in two group size treatments (18 and 108 pigs pen-1). Pigs were housed on fully-slatted floors, provided one wet/dry feeder space for every nine pigs, and a floor space allowance of 0.76 m2 pig-1 in both group sizes. The level of aggression at grouping was recorded for 2 h starting 0, 24 and 48 h following grouping into small and large groups. Pigs were weighed on weeks 0, 2, 5, 7 and 11, and average daily gain (ADG) was obtained. Average daily feed intake (ADFI) was recorded during two periods (weeks 2 to 5 and 7 to 11). There was no difference in percentage of time spent on aggression between two group sizes up to 48 h following grouping. ADG for the entire 11-wk trial was affected (2%) by large group size (0.971 and 0.955 kg d-1 for groups of 18 and 108, respectively; P < 0.05). However, the greatest effect on ADG was observed during the first 2 wk following grouping (0.919 and 0.833 kg d-1 for groups of 18 and 108, respectively; P < 0.001). There were no significant effects due to group size on ADFI, feed efficiency, variability in final BW within a pen, carcass traits or mortality and morbidity (P > 0.05). In summary, the overall productivity and aggression at grouping did not differ substantially between group sizes of 18 and 108 pigs pen-1. Key words: Large groups, grower-finisher, pigs, productivity, aggression


2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Friesen ◽  
E. Kiarie ◽  
C. M. Nyachoti

Five corn-soybean-based diets were formulated to contain 0, 15, 20, 25, or 30% raw peas and fed for 35 d to ninety-six 21-d-old pigs. Raw peas were included at the expense of corn and soybean meal. Increasing levels of raw peas depressed daily gain (P = 0.07), feed intake (P = 0.04) from days 21 to 56. Specifically, pigs fed diet with 25% peas had 19 and 25% lower average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI), respectively, than pigs fed the diet with 0% peas. The body weight (BW) was also linearly reduced (P = 0.10) on day 56. However, diets did not affect feed efficiency. Key words: Growth performance, peas, pig


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. 193-193
Author(s):  
Eduardo Colombo ◽  
Reinaldo F Cooke ◽  
Alice Brandão ◽  
Jacob Wiegand ◽  
Kelsey Schubach ◽  
...  

Abstract This experiment evaluated the impacts of bovine appeasing substance (BAS) administration on performance, health, and physiological responses of feedlot cattle during a 45-d receiving period. A total of 342 recently-weaned Angus-influenced steers, originating from 16 cow-calf operations, were obtained from an auction yard on d -1 and road-transported (12 h) to the feedlot. Upon arrival on d 0, body weight (BW) was recorded and steers were ranked by BW and source and assigned to receive BAS (Nutricorp, Araras, SP, Brazil; n = 171) or placebo (diethylene glycol monoethyl ether; CON; n = 171). Treatments (5 mL) were topically applied to the nuchal skin area of each animal. Within treatment, calves were allocated to 1 of 24 drylot pens (12 pens/treatment) and received a free choice total-mixed ration from d 1 to 45. Calves were assessed for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) signs and feed intake was recorded from each pen daily. Steer BW was again recorded on d 1, 7, 17, 31, and 45, whereas blood samples were collected from 5 steers/pen concurrently with each BW assessment. Average daily gain was greater (P = 0.05) in BAS vs. CON calves, although final BW did not differ (P = 0.36) between treatments. No treatment effects were detected for feed intake (P = 0.95), resulting in greater (P = 0.05) feed efficiency in BAS vs. CON steers. No treatment effects were detected (P ≥ 0.37) for plasma concentrations of haptoglobin, whereas plasma cortisol concentrations were greater (P = 0.05) in CON vs. BAS steers on d 7 (treatment × day; P = 0.07). Incidence of BRD was greater (P ≤ 0.05) in BAS vs. CON on d 6 to 10 and d 18 to 21 (treatment × day; P &lt; 0.01), although overall BRD incidence did not differ (P = 0.24) between treatments. The number of antimicrobial treatments required per steer diagnosed with BRD symptoms to recover from sickness was greater (P = 0.04) in CON vs. BAS calves. No treatment differences were detected (P ≥ 0.41) for mortality incidence, or proportion of steers removed from the experiment due to extreme sickness. Results from this experiment indicate BAS administration upon feedlot entry improved average daily gain by enhancing feed efficiency. Administration of BAS facilitated earlier detection of BRD and reduced the need for antimicrobial treatments. Collectively, these results suggest BAS administration as a promising strategy to benefit performance and immunocompetence of feedlot receiving cattle.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 298-299
Author(s):  
Bailey L Basiel ◽  
Chad D Dechow ◽  
Tara L Felix

Abstract Objectives were to compare feedlot performance and carcass traits of F1 beef × Holstein steers and Holstein steers. Angus or Limousin × Holstein crossbred [n = 27; age = 12 ± 3 months; body weight (BW) = 435 ± 8 kg] and Holstein (n = 20; age = 11 ± 2 months; BW = 400 ± 9 kg) steers were fed at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Livestock Evaluation Center for 111 days. Feed intake was recorded using the GrowSafe Feed Intake Monitoring System (Model 4000E, GrowSafe Systems Ltd., Calgary AB, Canada). The diet contained corn silage, dried distillers grains, soybean meal, and cracked corn and was formulated to meet or exceed the requirements of beef cattle (NASEM, 2016). Growth performance variables of interest and carcass measurements were analyzed with the Mixed procedure of SAS (SAS 9.4; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). USDA assigned quality grades (QG) and yield grades (YG) were analyzed the with GLIMMIX procedure of SAS. Breed was a fixed effect in all models. There were no differences (P &gt; 0.05) between breeds in average daily gain or feed efficiency. Crossbreds exceeded Holsteins in initial (P &lt; 0.01) and final BW (P = 0.01), dry matter intake (P = 0.03), hot carcass weight (P &lt; 0.01), backfat (P = 0.03), and ribeye area (REA; P &lt; 0.01). Thirty-five percent (35%) of the Holsteins received a QG of Choice or above while 74% of crossbreds graded USDA Choice or above (P = 0.01). However, 75% of Holsteins were YG 2 or lower while only 45% of crossbreds achieved YG 2 or less (P = 0.05). There was no improvement in efficiency when crossbreds were compared to Holsteins; however, carcasses from crossbreds were more likely to grade USDA Choice or above while yielding greater REA and backfat than Holsteins.


2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 929-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Lucila Sobrinho ◽  
R.H. Branco ◽  
S.F.M. Bonilha ◽  
A.M. Castilhos ◽  
L.A. Figueiredo ◽  
...  

The objective of this work was to evaluate performance, efficiency parameters and phenotypic correlations among measurements of energy efficiency of Nellore cattle selected for post weaning weight and classified according to residual feed intake, calculated by the difference between observed and predicted intake, based on average metabolic body weight and average daily gain. Thus, animals were classified within three groups: high (> mean + 0.5 standard deviation, less efficient); medium (±0.5 standard deviation of the mean); and low (< mean - 0.5 standard deviation, more efficient) residual feed intake. No differences were observed at initial and final body weights, average daily gain and dry matter intake among groups. Animals with low residual feed intake also had greater feed efficiency, feed conversion and partial efficiency of growth and did not differ from the other animals regarding to relative growth rate and Kleiber ratio. Residual feed intake was significantly correlated to feed efficiency (-0.25), feed conversion (0.25), partial efficiency of growth (-0.37) and dry matter intake (0.16) but it did not present significant correlation with body weight (0.04), average daily gain (-0.02), relative growth rate (-0.03) and Kleiber ratio (-0.05). Significant correlations were found between feed conversion and initial body weight (0.34) and average daily gain (-0.46). Partial efficiency of growth presented significant correlation with all other efficiency parameters analyzed. Residual feed intake has high potential in productive efficiency, when compared to the other energy efficiency measurements, being independent of growth and size of the animals.


1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 ◽  
pp. 47-47
Author(s):  
R.M. Herd ◽  
S.C. Bishop

Net feed efficiency refers to variation in feed consumption between animals net of requirements for maintenance and production, and may be measured as residual feed intake (RFI). Because RFI is independent of liveweight (LW) and growth rate, selection for improved net feed efficiency is likely to reduce feed intake with little change in growth. The purpose of this study was to establish whether there exists genetic variation in RFI in young British Hereford bulls, and to determine the phenotypic and genetic correlations of RFI with key production traits.The data consisted of performance measurements on 540 bull progeny of 154 British Hereford sires, collected over ten 200-day postweaning performance tests conducted between 1979 and 1988. The traits analysed were food intake (FI), 200 to 400-day daily gain (ADG), 400-day weight (W400), predicted carcass lean content (LEAN), lean growth rate (LGR), food conversion ratio (FI/ADG) and lean FCR (LFCR; FI/(ADG x LEAN), described by Bishop (1992).


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Budi Moria Sembiring ◽  
Tridjoko Tridjoko ◽  
Haryanti Haryanti

Hatchery and culture technology of Humpback grouper has been developed. However,  sometimes it is still found constraint in sedd production and caused instability of production due to failure by many factors. Breeding program become necessary to provide seed with high quality and good genetic variation. Quantitative characteristic selection is one of breeding program to improve productivity in grouper aquaculture. The aim of this research was to produce good phenotyphic and genotypic quality of Humpback grouper candidate broodstock. Selection of Humpback grouper F1 and F3 was done based on quantitative characteristic (body length and weight) and genotyphic characteristic by using ramdom amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) method.  The results of conventional selection were found candidate broodstock of Humpback grouper F1 and F3 with body weight range from 170-210 g and 160-170 g consecutively.  Heterozygosity values of Humpback grouper analized by RAPD of F1 and F3 were 0.7940 and 0.7749 consecutively and it was not significantly different. This value emphasis that population of this F3 Humpback grouper was still good to grow for broodstock. Keywords: genetic variation, humpback grouper, F1, F3.


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. 347-347
Author(s):  
Pourya Davoudi ◽  
Duy Ngoc Do ◽  
Guoyu Hu ◽  
Siavash Salek Ardestani ◽  
Younes Miar

Abstract Feed cost is the major input cost in the mink industry and thus improvement of feed efficiency through selection for high feed efficient mink is necessary for the mink farmers. The objective of this study was to estimate the heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations for different feed efficiency measures, including final body weight (FBW), daily feed intake (DFI), average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and residual feed intake (RFI). For this purpose, 1,088 American mink from the Canadian Center for Fur Animal Research at Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture were recorded for daily feed intake and body weight from August 1 to November 14 in 2018 and 2019. The univariate models were used to test the significance of sex, birth year and color as fixed effects, and dam as a random effect. Genetic parameters were estimated via bivariate models using ASReml-R version 4. Estimates of heritabilities (±SE) were 0.41±0.10, 0.37±0.11, 0.33±0.14, 0.24±0.09 and 0.22±0.09 for FBW, DFI, ADG, FCR and RFI, respectively. The genetic correlation (±SE) was moderate to high between FCR and RFI (0.68±0.15) and between FCR and ADG (-0.86±0.06). In addition, RFI had low non-significant (P &gt; 0.05) genetic correlations with ADG (0.04 ± 0.26) and BW (0.16 ± 0.24) but significant (P &lt; 0.05) high genetic correlation with DFI (0.74 ± 0.11) indicating that selection for lower RFI will reduce feed intake without adverse effects on the animal size and growth rate. The results suggested that RFI can be implemented in genetic/genomic selection programs to reduce feed intake in the mink production system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1674
Author(s):  
M. J. Zamiri ◽  
R. Mehrabi ◽  
G. R. Kavoosi ◽  
H. Rajaei Sharifabadi

The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes in pre- and post-slaughter muscle samples and residual feed intake (RFI) in Ghezel male lambs born as a result of random mating. The study was based on the hypothesis that random-bred lambs with lower feed (or higher) RFI have lower (or higher) respiratory chain-complex activity in muscle samples. Lambs (n = 30) were fed a diet consisting of 70% concentrate and 30% alfalfa hay during a 70-day period. Individual feed intake and average daily gain were recorded to calculate the RFI, feed-conversion ratio (FCR) and adjusted FCR (aFCR). On the basis of these calculations, the lambs were classified into low and high groups for RFI, with FCR and aFCR (n = 22) being one standard deviation above or below the means; this was corroborated by Student’s t-test (P &lt; 0.01). At the end of the experiment, a 10-g biopsy sample was taken from the posterior side of the left femoral biceps. After 24 h, the lambs were slaughtered, and a sample from the posterior side of the right femoral biceps was dissected for determination of mitochondrial protein and respiratory chain-complex activities (Complexes I–V). The RFI was not correlated with the metabolic bodyweight and average daily gain, but was positively correlated (r = 0.56) with the average daily feed intake (P &lt; 0.01); mean daily feed intake in the low-RFI group was 200 g less than that in the high-RFI group. The FCR and aFCR were not significantly (P &gt; 0.05) correlated with average daily feed intake (r = 0.39 and r = 0.36 respectively), but showed a negative correlation (P &lt; 0.01) with average daily gain (r = –0.73 and r = –0.76 respectively). Although very high negative correlations were recorded between the activities of all five respiratory-chain complexes and RFI in muscle samples obtained before (–0.91 to –0.97) and after (–0.92 to –0.97) slaughter, Complexes I and V showed small negative correlations (–0.40) with FCR or aFCR (P &lt; 0.05). Enzyme activities of the respiratory-chain Complexes I, III and V were not significantly different between the pre- and post-slaughter biopsy samples; however, the enzyme activities of respiratory-chain Complexes II and IV were slightly higher in post-slaughter samples (P &lt; 0.01). These results suggested that it may be possible to use the enzymatic activity of respiratory-chain complexes in muscle biopsy samples for screening of lambs for RFI, providing a useful procedure for genetic selection of lambs for this component of feed efficiency. These encouraging results need to be verified in further experiments using other sheep breeds and a larger number of lambs.


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