Levels of hormones and cytokines associated with growth in Honamli and native hair goats.

This study was designed to assess alterations of hormone and cytokine levels associated with growth period during puberty in Honamli goats which were identified as a new goat breed and had one of the highest meat production potential among the other goat breeds in Turkey. Honamli goats are originated from native hair goats, so parallel studies of sampling and analyzing were conducted also in native hair goats which have moderate meat production. Blood serum samples of Honamli (n=90) and native hair goats (n=90) were obtained from the pure herds in Korkuteli and Ka districts of Anatolia. Concentrations of growth hormone (GH), myostatin (MSTN), insulin-like growth factor (IGF), growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH), growth hormone releasing peptide (GHRP), leptin, transforming growth factor-betal (TGF-ß1) and vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) levels were measured by ELISA in each breed in the age groups of 4, 8 and 12 months. The present results indicate interesting correlations among the age groups and all the examined hormone and cytokine parameters exhibited significant (P<0.05 and P<0.001) differences. The parameters investigated were usually begun to increase after 4 months of age in the both breeds and sexes. Therefore, this paper supported the view that the beginning of hormonal alterations of goats could occur at 4th month of age. The results reported here emphasize the primary role played by GH, MSTN, IGF-1, leptin, GHRH, GHRP, TGF-ßi and VEGF in the first year growth period of goats.

The determination of growth performance and some morphological characteristics effective on development curves of German Shepherd puppies during the suckling period.

This study was carried out to establish the body weight, survival rate and some body measurements in German Shepherd puppies during the suckling period. The puppies were each weighed every seven days, and measured at ten different body sites every fourteen the day until weaning. The mean live weight of each puppy was measured as 776 g in the 1st week, 1750 g in the 4th week and 2614 g in the 8th week. The survival rate for the puppies was calculated at 95.2% and 83%, respectively at the end of the 4th and 8th week. Some of the body measurements of the puppies at the age when they were removed from suckling (52nd day) such as head length, head girth, body length, shoulder height, ear length, chest girth, rump height, front wrist girth, tail length and back wrist girth were found to be 14.76, 24.03, 22.97, 25.16, 5.93, 30.64, 24.16, 6.62, 15.51 and 5.99 cm, respectively.