Utilizing 3D Point Cloud Technology with Deep Learning for Automated Measurement and Analysis of Dairy Cows.

This paper introduces an approach to the automated measurement and analysis of dairy cows using 3D point cloud technology. The integration of advanced sensing techniques enables the collection of non-intrusive, precise data, facilitating comprehensive monitoring of key parameters related to the health, well-being, and productivity of dairy cows. The proposed system employs 3D imaging sensors to capture detailed information about various parts of dairy cows, generating accurate, high-resolution point clouds. A robust automated algorithm has been developed to process these point clouds and extract relevant metrics such as dairy cow stature height, rump width, rump angle, and front teat length. Based on the measured data combined with expert assessments of dairy cows, the quality indices of dairy cows are automatically evaluated and extracted. By leveraging this technology, dairy farmers can gain real-time insights into the health status of individual cows and the overall herd. Additionally, the automated analysis facilitates efficient management practices and optimizes feeding strategies and resource allocation. The results of field trials and validation studies demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the automated 3D point cloud approach in dairy farm environments. The errors between manually measured values of dairy cow height, rump angle, and front teat length, and those calculated by the auto-measurement algorithm were within 0.7 cm, with no observed exceedance of errors in comparison to manual measurements. This research contributes to the burgeoning field of precision livestock farming, offering a technological solution that not only enhances productivity but also aligns with contemporary standards for sustainable and ethical animal husbandry practices.

Korean Cattle 3D Reconstruction from Multi-View 3D-Camera System in Real Environment.

The rapid evolution of 3D technology in recent years has brought about significant change in the field of agriculture, including precision livestock management. From 3D geometry information, the weight and characteristics of body parts of Korean cattle can be analyzed to improve cow growth. In this paper, a system of cameras is built to synchronously capture 3D data and then reconstruct a 3D mesh representation. In general, to reconstruct non-rigid objects, a system of cameras is synchronized and calibrated, and then the data of each camera are transformed to global coordinates. However, when reconstructing cattle in a real environment, difficulties including fences and the vibration of cameras can lead to the failure of the process of reconstruction. A new scheme is proposed that automatically removes environmental fences and noise. An optimization method is proposed that interweaves camera pose updates, and the distances between the camera pose and the initial camera position are added as part of the objective function. The difference between the camera's point clouds to the mesh output is reduced from 7.5 mm to 5.5 mm. The experimental results showed that our scheme can automatically generate a high-quality mesh in a real environment. This scheme provides data that can be used for other research on Korean cattle.

Profiling of differentially expressed proteins between fresh and frozen-thawed Duroc boar semen using ProteinChip CM10.

Many studies have been conducted to improve technology for semen cryopreservation in pigs. However, computer-assisted analysis of sperm motility and morphology is insufficient to predict the molecular function of frozen-thawed semen. More accurate expression patterns of boar sperm proteins may be derived using the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) technique. In this study, the iTRAQ-labeling system was coupled with liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis to identify differentially expressed CM10-fractionated proteins between fresh and frozen-thawed boar semen. A total of 76 protein types were identified to be differentially expressed, among which 9 and 67 proteins showed higher and lower expression in frozen-thawed than in fresh sperm samples, respectively. The classified functions of these proteins included oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial inner membrane and matrix, and pyruvate metabolic processes, which are involved in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis; and sperm flagellum and motile cilium, which are involved in sperm tail structure. These results suggest a possible network of biomarkers associated with survival after the cryopreservation of Duroc boar semen.

Identification of Copy Number Variations in Four Horse Breed Populations in South Korea.

In this study, genome-wide CNVs were identified using a total of 469 horses from four horse populations (Jeju horses, Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses). We detected a total of 843 CNVRs throughout all autosomes: 281, 30, 301, and 310 CNVRs for Jeju horses, Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses, respectively. Of the total CNVRs, copy number losses were found to be the most abundant (48.99%), while gains and mixed CNVRs accounted for 41.04% and 9.96% of the total CNVRs, respectively. The length of the CNVRs ranged from 0.39 kb to 2.8 Mb, while approximately 7.2% of the reference horse genome assembly was covered by the total CNVRs. By comparing the CNVRs among the populations, we found a significant portion of the CNVRs (30.13%) overlapped; the highest number of shared CNVRs was between Hanla horses and Jeju riding horses. When compared with the horse CNVRs of previous studies, 26.8% of CNVRs were found to be uniquely detected in this study. The CNVRs were not randomly distributed throughout the genome; in particular, the Equus caballus autosome (ECA) 7 comprised the largest proportion of its genome (16.3%), while ECA 24 comprised the smallest (0.7%). Furthermore, functional analysis was applied to CNVRs that overlapped with genes (genic-CNVRs); these overlapping areas may be potentially associated with the olfactory pathway and nervous system. A racing performance QTL was detected in a CNVR of Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses, and the CNVR value was mixed for three breeds.

Genetic Parameter Estimation and Genome-Wide Association Analysis of Social Genetic Effects on Average Daily Gain in Purebreds and Crossbreds.

Average daily gain (ADG) is an important growth trait in the pig industry. The direct genetic effect (DGE) has been studied mainly to assess the association between genetic information and economic traits. The social genetic effect (SGE) has been shown to affect ADG simultaneously with the DGE because of group housing systems. We conducted this study to elucidate the genetic characteristics and relationships of the DGE and SGE of purebred Korean Duroc and crossbred pigs by single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction and a genome-wide association study. We used the genotype, phenotype, and pedigree data of 1779, 6022, and 7904 animals, respectively. Total heritabilities on ADG were 0.19 ± 0.04 and 0.39 ± 0.08 for purebred and crossbred pigs, respectively. The genetic correlation was the greatest (0.77 ± 0.12) between the SGE of purebred and DGE of crossbred pigs. We found candidate genes located in the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the SGE that were associated with behavior and neurodegenerative diseases, and candidate genes in the QTLs for DGE that were related to body mass, size of muscle fiber, and muscle hypertrophy. These results suggest that the genomic selection of purebred animals could be applied for crossbred performance.

Genome-Wide Assessment of a Korean Composite Pig Breed, Woori-Heukdon.

A Korean synthetic pig breed, Woori-Heukdon (WRH; F3), was developed by crossing parental breeds (Korean native pig [KNP] and Korean Duroc [DUC]) with their crossbred populations (F1 and F2). This study in genome-wide assessed a total of 2,074 pigs which include the crossbred and the parental populations using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip. After quality control of the initial datasets, we performed population structure, genetic diversity, and runs of homozygosity (ROH) analyses. Population structure analyses showed that crossbred populations were genetically influenced by the parental breeds according to their generation stage in the crossbreeding scheme. Moreover, principal component analysis showed the dispersed cluster of WRH, which might reflect introducing a new breeding group into the previous one. Expected heterozygosity values, which were used to assess genetic diversity, were .365, .349, .336, .330, and .211 for WRH, F2, F1, DUC, and KNP, respectively. The inbreeding coefficient based on ROH was the highest in KNP (.409), followed by WRH (.186), DUC (.178), F2 (.107), and F1 (.035). Moreover, the frequency of short ROH decreased according to the crossing stage (from F1 to WRH). Alternatively, the frequency of medium and long ROH increased, which indicated recent inbreeding in F2 and WRH. Furthermore, gene annotation of the ROH islands in WRH that might be inherited from their parental breeds revealed several interesting candidate genes that may be associated with adaptation, meat quality, production, and reproduction traits in pigs.

Genome-wide investigation of a Korean synthetic breed, Woori-Heukdon using the Illumina PorcineSNP60K BeadChip.

BACKGROUND: Woori-Heukdon (KWH) is a Korean synthetic pig breed generated using Chookjin-Duroc (KCD), Chookjin-Chamdon (KCC), and their crossbreds. Currently, there is a severe lack of studies investigating the Korean breed populations including wild boars (KWB) throughout the genome. OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to investigate the genetic characteristics of Korean pig populations at the genome-wide level. METHODS: Using the SNP dataset derived from genotyped and downloaded datasets using the Illumina PorcineSNP60K BeadChip, we compared the genomes of 532 individuals derived from 23 pig breeds to assess the genetic diversity, inbreeding coefficient, genetic differentiation, and population structure. RESULTS: KWB showed the lowest average expected heterozygosity (HE = 0.1904), while KWH showed the highest genetic diversity (HE = 0.02859) among Korean populations. We verified that the genetic composition of KWH, showing USD of 74.8% and KCC of 25.2% in ADMIXTURE analysis. In population structure analyses, KCC was consistently shown to be separated from other pig populations. In addition, we observed gene flow from Western pigs to a part of Chinese populations. CONCLUSION: This study showed that Korean native pigs, KCC have genetic differences in comparison with Chinese and Western pigs; despite some historical records and recent genetic studies, we could not find any clear evidence that KCC was significantly influenced by Chinese or Western breeds in this study. We also verified the theoretical genomic composition of KWH at the molecular level in structure analyses. To our knowledge, this is the first genomic study to investigate the genomic characteristics of KWH and KCC.

Whole-genome resequencing analysis of 20 Micro-pigs.

BACKGROUND: Miniature pigs have been increasingly used as mammalian model animals for biomedical research because of their similarity to human beings in terms of their metabolic features and proportional organ sizes. However, despite their importance, there is a severe lack of genome-wide studies on miniature pigs. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing analysis of 20 Micro-pigs obtained from Medi Kinetics to elucidate their genomic characteristics. RESULTS: Approximately 595 gigabase pairs (Gb) of sequence reads were generated to be mapped to the swine reference genome assembly (Sus scrofa 10.2); on average, the sequence reads covered 99.15% of the reference genome at an average of 9.6-fold coverage. We detected a total of 19,518,548 SNPs, of which 8.7% were found to be novel. With further annotation of all of the SNPs, we retrieved 144,507 nonsynonymous SNPs (nsSNPs); of these, 5968 were found in all 20 individuals used in this study. SIFT prediction for these SNPs identified that 812 nsSNPs in 402 genes were deleterious. Among these 402 genes, we identified some genes that could potentially affect traits of interest in Micro-pigs, such as RHEB and FRAS1. Furthermore, we performed runs of homozygosity analysis to locate potential selection signatures in the genome, detecting several loci that might be involved in phenotypic characteristics in Micro-pigs, such as MSTN, GDF5, and GDF11. CONCLUSION: In this study, we identified numerous nsSNPs that could be used as candidate genetic markers with involvement in traits of interest. Furthermore, we detected putative selection footprints that might be associated with recent selection applied to miniature pigs.

Whole genome sequencing analysis of horse populations inhabiting the Korean Peninsula and Przewalski's horse.

BACKGROUND: The Jeju horse is an indigenous horse breed in Korea. However, there is a severe lack of genomic studies on Korean horse breeds. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to report genomic characteristics of domestic horse populations that inhabit South Korea (Jeju, Jeju crossbred, and Thoroughbred) and a wild horse breed (Przewalski's horse). RESULTS: Using the equine reference genome assembly (EquCab 2.0), more than ~ 6.5 billion sequence reads were successfully mapped, which generated an average of 40.87-fold coverage throughout the genome. Using these data, we detected a total of 12.88 million SNPs, of which 73.7% were found to be novel. All the detected SNPs were deeply annotated to retrieve SNPs in gene regions using the RefSeq and Ensemble gene sets. Approximately 27% of the total SNPs were located within genes, whereas the remaining 73% were found in intergenic regions. Using 129,776 coding SNPs, we retrieved a total of 49,171 nonsynonymous SNPs in 12,351 genes. Furthermore, we identified a total of 10,770 deleterious nonsynonymous SNPs which are predicted to affect protein structure or function. CONCLUSION: We showed numerous genomic variants from domestic and wild horse breeds. These results provide a valuable resource for further studies on functions of SNP-containing genes, and can aid in determining the molecular basis underlying variation in economically important traits of horses.

Genome-wide analysis of Hanwoo and Chikso populations using the BovineSNP50 genotyping array.

Hanwoo and Chikso are classified as Korean native cattle breeds that are currently registered with the Food and Agriculture Organization. However, there is still a lack of genomic studies to compare Hanwoo to Chikso populations. The objective of this study was to perform genome-wide analysis of Hanwoo and Chikso populations, investigating the genetic relationships between these two populations. We genotyped a total of 319 cattle including 214 Hanwoo and 105 Chikso sampled from Gangwon Province Livestock Technology Research Institute, using the Illumina Bovine SNP50K Beadchip. After performing quality control on the initially generated datasets, we assessed linkage disequilibrium patterns for all the possible SNP pairs within 1 Mb apart. Overall, average r2 values in Hanwoo (0.048) were lower than Chikso (0.074) population. The genetic relationship between the populations was further assured by the principal component analysis, exhibiting clear clusters in each of the Hanwoo and Chikso populations, respectively. Overall heterozygosity for Hanwoo (0.359) was slightly higher than Chikso (0.345) and inbreeding coefficient was also a bit higher in Hanwoo (- 0.015) than Chikso (- 0.035). The average FST value was 0.036 between Hanwoo and Chikso, indicating little genetic differentiation between those two breeds. Furthermore, we found potential selection signatures including LRP1B and NTRK2 genes that might be implicated with meat and reproductive traits in cattle. In this study, the results showed that both Hanwoo and Chikso populations were not under severe level of inbreeding. Although the principal component analysis exhibited clear clusters in each of the populations, we did not see any clear evidence that those two populations are highly differentiated each other.

Genome-wide analyses of the Jeju, Thoroughbred, and Jeju crossbred horse populations using the high density SNP array.

The Jeju horse is an indigenous Korean horse breed that is currently registered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, there is severe lack of genomic studies on Jeju horse. This study was conducted to investigate genetic characteristics of horses including Jeju horse, Thoroughbred and Jeju crossbred (Jeju × Thoroughbred) populations. We compared the genomes of three horse populations using the Equine SNP70 Beadchip array. Short-range Linkage disequilibrium was the highest in Thoroughbred, whereas r2 values were lowest in Jeju horse. Expected heterozygosity was the highest in Jeju crossbred (0.351), followed by the Thoroughbred (0.337) and Jeju horse (0.311). The level of inbreeding was slightly higher in Thoroughbred (- 0.009) than in Jeju crossbred (- 0.035) and Jeju horse (- 0.038). FST value was the highest between Jeju horse and Thoroughbred (0.113), whereas Jeju crossbred and Thoroughbred showed the lowest value (0.031). The genetic relationship was further assessed by principal component analysis, suggesting that Jeju crossbred is more genetically similar to Thoroughbred than Jeju horse population. Additionally, we detected potential selection signatures, for example, in loci located on LCORL/NCAPG and PROP1 genes that are known to influence body. Genome-wide analyses of the three horse populations showed that all the breeds had somewhat a low level of inbreeding within each population. In the population structure analysis, we found that Jeju crossbred was genetically closer to Thoroughbred than Jeju horse. Furthermore, we identified several signatures of selection which might be associated with traits of interest. To our current knowledge, this study is the first genomic research, analyzing genetic relationships of Jeju horse, Thoroughbred and Jeju crossbred.