Detecting Factor Ⅺ Deficiency in Holstein Cattle Using PCR Analysis

[Objective] This study established a method to detect Factor Ⅺ by polymerase chain reaction analysis.[Method]A pair of primers was designed and synthesized according to sequences of FⅪ gene in Holstein calves,published in Genbank. Polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze FⅪ deficiency of 576 Holstein calves in Henan,and the result was verified by DNA sequencing. [Result] We detect 576 cows,which include two carriers and one F Ⅺ deficiency,and the result was consistent with the DNA sequencing. The frequency of the FⅪ mutant allele was 0.3%,the carrier was 0.3%,the prevalence was 0.2%.[Conclusion]A method detecting FⅪ by polymerase chain reaction analysis was established. This method is not only simple and convenient,but also has a high accuracy and low cost,which is more suitable for large-scale FⅪ investigation.

Study on Reproductive Performance of Improved Hybrid from Chinese Holstein Cattle

In order to overcome the problems such as decline in adaptability, low fertility and few utilization years due to continuously increasing coefficient of inbreeding of Chinese Holstein cattle, three dairy-beef dual-purpose cattle varieties （purebred Simmental, Montbeliard and Fleckvieh） were introduced as the male parents to be hybridized with Chinese Holstein cattle, so as to study the improvement effect in the reproduction performance and milk production performance of the hybrid cattle. The results showed that the first-filial generation of Montbeliard had a very significant difference in gestation period from Chinese Holstein cattle （ P 〈0.01）. The parity of Fleckvieh s first-filial generation had a very significant effect on 305 d milk yield （ P 〈0.01）; and for the first-filial generation of Montbeliard, mating times and open days significantly affected 305 d milk yield （ P 〈0.05）, and its total milk yield had a significant difference from Chinese Holstein cattle （ P 〈0.05）. Comprehensively, the reproduction traits of Montbeliard s first-filial generation are better than other two varieties.

Cumulative unsupervised multi-domain adaptation for Holstein cattle re-identification

In dairy farming,ensuring the health of each cow and minimizing economic losses requires individual monitoring,achieved through cow Re-Identification(Re-ID).Computer vision-based Re-ID relies on visually dis-tinguishing features,such as the distinctive coat patterns of breeds like Holstein.However,annotating every cow in each farm is cost-prohibitive.Our objective is to develop Re-ID methods applicable to both labeled and unlabeled farms,accommodating new individuals and diverse environments.Un-supervised Domain Adaptation(UDA)techniques bridge this gap,transferring knowledge from labeled source domains to unlabeled target domains,but have only been mainly designed for pedestrian and vehicle Re-ID applications.Our work introduces Cumulative Unsupervised Multi-Domain Adaptation(CUMDA)to address challenges of lim-ited identity diversity and diverse farm appearances.CUMDA accumulates knowledge from all domains,enhanc-ing specialization in known domains and improving generalization to unseen domains.Our contributions include a CUMDA method adapting to multiple unlabeled target domains while preserving source domain performance,along with extensive cross-dataset experiments on three cattle Re-ID datasets.These experiments demonstrate significant enhancements in source preservation,target domain specialization,and generalization to unseen domains.

Novel SNPs in IL-17F and IL-17A genes associated with somatic cell count in Chinese Holstein and Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle

Background： Bovine mastitis is the most common and costly disease of lactating cattle worldwide. Apart from milk somatic cell count（SCC） and somatic cell score（SCS）, serum cytokines such as interleukin-17（IL-17） and interleukin-4（IL-4） may also be potential indicators for bovine mastitis. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms（SNPs） in bovine IL-17 F and IL-17 A genes on SCC, SCS and serum cytokines in Chinese Holstein and Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle, and to compare the m RNA expression variations of the cows with different genotypes.Results： A total of 464 lactating cows（337 Holstein and 127 Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle） were screened for SNPs identification and the data were analyzed using fixed effects of herd, parity, season and year of calving by general linear model procedure. The results revealed that SNP g.24392436 C ＆gt; T in IL-17 F and SNP g.24345410 A ＆gt; G in IL-17 A showed significant effects on SCC and IL-4 in Holstein（n = 337） and on IL-17 and IL-4 in Sanhe cattle（n = 127）. The homozygous GG genotype of SNP g.24345410 A ＆gt; G had significantly higher m RNA expression compared with the heterozygous AG genotype.Conclusions： The results indicate that IL-17 F and IL-17 A could be powerful candidate genes of mastitis resistance and the significant SNPs might be useful genetic markers against mastitis in both dairy and dual purpose cattle.

Relationship of Somatic Cell Count with Milk Yield and Composition in Chinese Holstein Population

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship of somatic cell count （SCC） with milk yield, fat and protein percentage, fat and protein yield using analysis of variance and correlation analysis in Chinese Holstein population. The 10 524 test-day records of 568 Chinese Holstein Cattle were obtained from 2 commercial herds in Xi＇an region of China during February 2002 to March 2009. Milk yield, fat percentage, fat and protein yield initially increased and then dropped down with parity, whereas protein percentage decreased and SCC increased. Analysis of variance showed highly significant effects of different subclasses SCC on milk yield and composition （P〈 0.01）. Compared with milk yield with SCC ≤ 200 000 cells mL-1, milk yield losses with SCC of 200 000-500 000 cells mL-1, 501000-1 000 000 cells mL-1, ≥ 1 000 000 cells mL-1 were 0.387, 0.961 and 2.351 kg, respectively. The highly significant negative correlation coefficient between somatic cell score （SCS） and milk and protein yield, milk yield and fat and protein percentage, protein percentage and fat yield were -0.084, -0.037, -0.061, -0.168, and -0.088, respectively （P〈 0.01）. The highly significant positive correlation coefficients between SCS and fat yield and fat and protein percentage, milk yield and fat and protein yield, fat percentage and protein percentage and fat yield, protein yield and protein percentage and fat yield were 0.041, 0.177, 0.105, 0.771, 0.865, 0.122, 0.568, 0.318, and 0.695, respectively （P〈 0.01）. There was no significant relationship between fat percentage and protein yield （P 〉 0.05）. The results of the present study first time provide the relevant base-line data for assessing milk production at Xi＇an region of China.

Precise Calculation System of Total Mix Ration for Lactating Cow

[Objective] The paper was to precisely predict nutrient requirements and optimize ration formula, and explore the inherent feature of ration optimization of dairy cow. [Method] Based on cornell net carbohydrate and protein system （CNCPS） with integrating dynamic prediction models on main nutrient requirements of dairy cattle recommended by NRC （2001） and the CNCPS parameter database accumu- lated by Chinese feed database, the ration nutrient requirement dynamic calculation and total mixed ration （TMR） formula optimizing system for Holstein dairy cow was developed using FOXPRO database system and parametric linear programming algo- rithm. [Result] By optimizing a specific cow ration and analyzing its completed nutri- ents, the results showed that this system could entirely consider a lots of nutrient balances, such as concentrate fraction and forage fraction balance, rumen degrad- able protein and rumen undergradable protein balance, crude protein and lactation net energy balance, fibrous substances （ADF, NDF） and non-fiber carbohydrates （NFC） balance, calcium and phosphate balance, electrolytes balance and trace ele- ment balance etc., and could also calculate intestinal amino acid flow in terms of different models. [Conclusion] By using dynamic mathematical equations and comput- erized program, it can be realized for the ration formula design of lactating cow with all-round interoperable but mutual-constraining each other among ration nutrients.