Identifying breeding goals to develop selection index for buffalo in Egypt using preference survey.

The aim of the study was to identify the breeding goals, derive the relative goal values (RGV), and develop selection index (SI) for buffalo in Egypt. A structured questionnaire survey of milk-producing buffalo holders in 10 Egyptian governorates was carried out to collect data. The total number of surveyed holders was 1797. Buffalo holders were asked to identify the breeding goal groups (BGG). Breeding goal groups were ranked, according to relative importance to farmers, in descending order. The breeding goal traits (BGT) within each BGG were chosen and ranked in descending order. The survey results reflected the importance of milk production traits as the main breeding goal. Traits of milk yield and fat yield were given the greatest attention. In order to estimate the relative goal values (RGV), the subjective determination procedure was used. A principal component analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis (CA) of the principal components were performed. The CA led to the identification of three farmer clusters. Six selection indices were proposed from the PCA. The indices yielded different precision with a maximum of 93% of the holder's preferences variability. The current study revealed that subjective method could be used to identify the RGV. Further studies are needed particularly those related to the production system. Also, measurements of market data and consumers requests and their influence on the selected traits are badly needed.

Evaluation of proteins in sheep colostrum via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and multivariate analysis.

Colostrum is essential to guarantee normal and healthy feeding in newborn ruminants during the first hours. In the present work, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), as a spectrochemical analytical technique, and principal component analysis (PCA) as a multivariate analysis method were used to evaluate colostrum compared to mature milk of sheep to plan the nutritional strategies for newly born lambs. Samples of colostrum have been collected from thirty-three Barki ewes. The sheep were milked every 12 h three times after birth, the fourth sample of mature milk is taken from milking in the 7th day postpartum. The spectrochemical analytical results depicted that the intensities of CN and C2 spectral bands, and C 247.86 nm atomic line (as an indicator for protein content in LIBS spectra) are higher in colostrum than that in milk. This relationship has been confirmed by measuring the total protein in the same samples conventionally. The relation between calcium and protein percentage has also been demonstrated. Moreover, it has been shown that the higher is the CN bands' intensity the lower is the bacteria count in colostrum samples, owing to the high levels of lactoferrin with its antibacterial effect. The qualitative analysis of LIBS data using PCA led to a pronounced discrimination between colostrum and mature milk. The present study demonstrates that it is, in principle, possible to make use of the analytical and chemometric results in dairy farms to evaluate sheep colostrum to manage the nutritional strategies for the lambs.

Green laser irradiation effects on buffalo semen.

The overall objective of this paper is to develop a more sensitive and less costly technique of laser irradiation of spermatozoa at certain wavelengths and exposure times suitable for improvement of buffalo semen quality. A 532 nm continuous wave (CW) DPSS laser light has been used to irradiate buffalo semen for different time intervals. Three semen pools from three different bulls (Bubalus bubalis) were used in the experiment, each pool was divided into six groups : control (not irradiated), and the other five were exposed to laser light for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 minutes with fluencies of 0.076, 0.15, 0.23, 0.31, and 0.38 Joule/cm² respectively at an output power 1mW. The results show that the semen quality parameters increase under the effect of laser irradiation. Maximum improvement in the semen quality has been reached after 4 minutes of exposure. Such results indicate the possibility of adopting laser irradiation as an easy and straightforward technique for in situ improvement of the semen quality to optimize the artificial insemination conditions.