본 연구는 한우 암송아지 비육프로그램 개발을 위하여 약 8개월령 30두(평균 체중 233kg)에게 전 시험기간동안 한우 거세우 육성용 사료(CP 13.65%, TDN 72.7% 건물기 준)를 자유채식 또는, 제한급여(체중의 1.5%, 1.6%/일)를 시킨 후, 24개월령부터 출하 시(32개월령)까지는 자유 채 식시켰다. 본 시험에서 출하 시 체중은 685-702kg 이었으 며, 전 기간 평균 사료 섭취량(7.78–9.05kg/일)과 증체량 (0.58–0.64kg/일)은 자유채식구가 제한급여구보다 많았다 (p<0.05). 한우 미경산 암소의 배최장근 단면적은 평균 99.9cm2였으며, 도체중은 평균 407kg이었다. 조리 감량은 수분함량이 높고 보수력이 낮을수록 많았다(p<0.05). 등심 중 아미노산 함량은 glutamic acid, aspartic acid, lysine, leucine 순으로 높았으며, 지방산 중에는 oleic acid가 55.9 –58.7% 수준으로 자유채식구가 제한급여구보다 높았다 (p<0.05). 따라서 한우암소 비육 프로그램으로서, 한우 거세우 육 성용 TMR을 전 기간(6-32개월령) 동안 자유 채식시키면, 사료효율, 도체 성적 및 등심의 물리·화학적 특성에 있어 서도 우수한 결과를 나타낼 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

There is a growing interest in animal-assisted intervention (AAI) all over the world. AAI is an umbrella term describing various forms of human-animal teams in formal human service, such as animal-assisted activity (AAA), animal-assisted therapy (AAT), and animal-assisted education (AAE). Animals commonly used as partners in AAI are dogs, cats, horses, guinea pigs, farm animals, and dolphins. Research on various topics within the field of AAI has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, but AAI approaches are still struggling to establish credibility as a complementary therapy method for a range of medical and psychological conditions. The aim of this review is to scrutinize the research literature related to AAI. Most studies have shown that AAI can have multiple outcomes, including social, psychological, and physical ones, in a wide range of settings. However, studies have not yet examined whether these effects carry over into other contexts. Moreover, study samples have tended to be small, non-representative, heterogeneous, and conducted without control groups. Further research is, thus, necessary to explore the sustainability and long-term benefits of AAI in a variety of settings and for different populations. Also, there is a need for specific guidelines for the welfare of therapy animals, as well as possible directions for standardized professional competencies.

Newborn piglets are routinely subjected to several treatments shortly after birth, one of which is tail-docking. Tail-docking, which is carried out without an anesthetic when the piglet is 3 to 4 days old, is intended to prevent the severe injuries that can occur when pigs bite each other’s tails. The study was performed in slaughterhouses to determine how much tail-docking prevented tail-biting and how much it caused clinical problems such as amputation neuroma. One thousand pigtails were collected from 3 slaughterhouses in different provinces and tail length and tail-biting injuries were examined. Among them, 659 tail tissues were examined for clinical problems like amputation neuroma. The collected tails were divided into 3 groups according to the length of the tail, which was defined as long (n=136, 75% of the tail remained compared to the referred intact tail length of 30.6±0.6 cm of crossbred Landrace×Yorkshire dam×Duroc sire; LYD), medium (n=694, 50% of the tail remained), and short (n=170, 25% of the tail remained). The results showed that 4.3% of 1000 tails had biting injuries and 58.7% of 659 tails had amputation neuromas. There was no significant association between the tail-biting injury and tail lengths (p=0.953). However, the tail-biting injuries differed significantly by the province (p<0.001), and the frequency of amputation neuromas also appeared more frequently in longer tail lengths (p<0.001). The results indicated that tail-biting behavior was not influenced by tail-docking but might be influenced by the housing system and/or management practices.

This study evaluated whether fevernill, which is primarily composed of acetaminophen, vitamin C, and anhydrous citric acid, is effective in relieving stress caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) vaccination in calves. Three-month-old calves from a farm in Korea were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n = 10 per group: control [untreated], group A [FMDV vaccination], and group B [FMDV vaccination + addition of fevernill 0.2% to feed for five days after vaccination]). Body weights, antibody formation, clinical symptoms, serum parameters were measured in the 14 days following vaccination. Total weight gain and average daily gain during the experiment period were group A (12.00±1.15 kg, 0.86±0.08 kg/day) compared to group B (13.57±0.98 kg, 0.97±0.07 kg/day) was significantly improved (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the formation of antibodies against the FMDV vaccine between group A and group B, though the antibody value of group B tended to be higher than that of group A. The pre-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α value was 74.47±19.26 pg/ml in group A and 59.05±11.88 pg/ml in group B on the 5th day of the experiment, which was significantly lower in group B than in group A (p<0.05). Also, cortisol concentrations were significantly lower in group B than in group A (p<0.05). In conclusion, the feeding of fevernil is judged to be helpful in mitigating the side effects caused by FMD vaccination, and thus it is thought to be able to prevent the decrease in productivity caused by vaccination.

When researchers performed intestinal microbiota analysis using fecal samples, sample preparation processes are not standardized as of now. In particular, contrary to lab conditions, there are various factors hard to be controlled when sampling livestock feces on the farm. In this study, we wanted to know the influences of sample preparation conditions on fecal microbiota. We designed an experiment considering various sample preparation conditions (sample origin: rectum and ground; transporting condition: lysis buffer-treated, dry ice, ice, and room temperature; delayed times to extract DNA: 0, 1, 6, and 24 h) that can occur during microbiota analysis using cattle feces. First, we investigated the influences of sample origin, and microbial diversity (observed OTUs, p<0.001) was significantly higher when fecal samples were obtained from the ground than from the rectum and the principal coordinates analysis plot showed that samples were divided into two groups by origin. When we investigated the influences of transporting and storage conditions, observed OTUs (p<0.05) was significantly higher when samples were transported at room temperature than other conditions, and microbiota was affected by transporting and storage conditions. Finally, we investigated the effects of delayed time before DNA extraction from frozen fecal samples on microbial composition. Although this factor did not have a significant influence on microbial diversity, multidimensional scaling revealed its impact on microbial composition. Our findings will contribute to establishing an optimal procedure for microbiota analysis using farm-housing livestock feces.

This study was conducted to investigate the potential of toy provision for stress reduction, welfare improvement and toy preference in finishing pigs. Toy shape was expected to exert effects on stress related behaviors including fighting, bothering, and feed competition. Three different toy shapes (i.e. square, round, and oval) were given to groups of finishing pigs. A no toy control group was also included. The duration and frequency of abnormal behaviors and use time for toy preference were compared among groups. The duration and frequency of stress related behaviors was higher (p<0.01) among the non-toy-using finishing pigs on 20 minutes and 118 times than 16 minutes and 57 times of toy-using finishing pigs. Toy shape exerted no significant effects, however, toy use displayed a clear ability to reduce stress related behaviors among finishing pigs. Toy use time and shape both displayed no clear effect on the duration of stress related behaviors. These behaviors were most frequently displayed in the afternoons when the finishing pigs become most active, and were not affected by toy shape. Overall, the square shaped toy was used much longer (9.7 hours) and more frequently (566 times) in a 24 hour period by the finishing pigs (p<0.01). In conclusion, providing toys to finishing pigs reduces stress and stress related behaviors. This finding is expected to positively impact welfare and improve finishing pig productivity. Square shaped toys were most preferred by the finishing pigs, therefore adopting toys with square features is recommended.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pigs has been used as a very important tool to produce transgenic for the pharmaceutical protein, xenotransplantation, and disease model and basic research of cloned animals. However, the production efficiency of SCNT embryos is very low in pigs and miniature pigs. The type of donor cell is an important factor influencing the production efficiency of these cloned pigs. Here, we investigated the developmental efficiency of SCNT embryos to blastocysts and full term development using fetal fibroblasts (FF) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to identify a suitable cell type as donor cell. We isolated each MSCs and FF from the femoral region and fetus. Cultured donor cell was injected into matured embryos for cloning. After that, we transferred cloned embryos into surrogate mothers. In term of in vitro development, the SCNT embryos that used MSCs had significantly higher in cleavage rates than those of FF (81.5% vs. 72%) (p<0.05), but the blastocyst formation rates and apoptotic cell ratio was similar (15.1%, 6.18% vs. 20.8%, 9.32%). After embryo transferred to surrogates, nine and nineteen clone piglets were obtained from the MSCs and FF group, respectively, without significant differences in pregnancy and birth rate (50%, 40% vs. 52.3%, 45.4%) (p>0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference in the corpus hemorrhagicum numbers of ovary, according to pregnancy, abortion, and delivery of surrogate mothers between MSCs and FF groups. Therefore, the MSCs and FF are useful donor cells for production of clone piglets through SCNT, and can be used as important basic data for improving the efficiency of production of transgenic clone pigs in the future.

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of pork belly thickness on physicochemical and sensory characteristics after pan frying. Pork belly with three different thickness (5, 10, 20 mm) from three different parts (A:thoracic vertebrae no. 5-9, B:thoracic vertebrae 10-14, C:lumbar vertebrae 1-6) was pan grilled with electronic grill until it reached an internal temperature of 71℃. Cooking loss, shear force, sensory characteristics, volatile compounds of cooked pork belly were determined. Electric nose analysis was performed to support descriptive analysis and consumer sensory analysis. The cooking loss of pork belly with 20 mm thickness from all positions was significantly low (p<0.05). Shear force increased with increase in thickness (p<0.05). Electric nose identified major seven volatile compounds such as acetonitrile, (Z)-4-heptenal, 2-octanol, linalool, carbon disulfide, methylcyclohexane, n-nonanal to discriminate those samples. The part of pork belly significantly affected the intensity of volatile compounds rather than thickness. In discriminate analysis, the overall acceptability of pork belly (A and B parts) with 20 mm thickness was higher than that of pork belly with 5 mm thickness. In addition, the overall acceptability by consumers for pork belly with 20 mm thickness from A, B, and C parts was higher than the overall acceptability for pork belly with 5 mm thickness. This preliminary study suggests that it is more desirable to use pork belly with 20 mm thickness from part A when cooking on a pan gril compared with pork belly of 10 mm or 20 mm thickness from part B or C in the meat markets and restaurant.

The nutrient balances originated from livestock manure in Korea has not being include minor livestock species (e.g., horse, deer, and goat) since their manure excretion unit (MEU), nutrient excretion unit (NEU), and nutrient loading coefficient (NLC) are not known yet. In the present research work, the primary focus had laid therefore on securing domestic MEU for the specified minor livestock species which provides the basis for the computation of NEU and NLC. Moreover, the nutrient potential and economic value of composted manure from minor livestock was assessed on the basis of contents in the inorganic fertilizers such as Urea, (46% N) and Fused superphosphate (20% phosphorus pentoxide). The obtained MEU was found to be 10.52±5.48, 4.07±1.69, and 0.843±0.1 kg/head/day for horse, deer, and goat, respectively. In addition, the measured NLCs of horse, deer, and goat were [N, 0.7; P, 0.9], [N, 0.7; P, 0.6] (Both deer and goat were the same.), respectively. Consequently, the horse, deer, and goat manure have a potential of 3,840.1 ton N/year and 9,390.2 ton P/year as an inorganic fertilizer of urea and fused superphosphate. These findings may facilitate the development of more accurate nutrient budget taking into account both major and minor livestock and improve the manure management measures for land application.

A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementing commonly used effective microorganisms on the chemical properties of swine liquid manure. Effective microorganisms used in this study were Bacillus subtilis (1.3×109 colony-forming unit (CFU)/ml), Enterococcus faecium (1.9×1010 CFU/ml), Aspergillus oryzae (2.0×109 CFU/ml), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (6.4×109 CFU/ml), Rhodobacter sphaeroides (1.2×108 CFU/ml), and Streptomyces griseus (6.2×108 CFU/ml). Swine liquid manure collected and decanted from a swine farm was used in this study. Treatments included control (distilled water supplementation), Treatment 1 (T1) (mixed microbes, 109 CFU/ml), and Treatment 2 (T2) (mixed microbes, 107 CFU/ml). Microbial mix was supplemented every 3.5 days and aerated six times (15 min each) a day to facilitate compositing. Ten ml of sample was collected at 2-, 4-, 6-, and 7-week intervals for the measurement of pH, ammonia-N, volatile fatty acid (VFA), total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium. At seven weeks, samples were further collected to analyze biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Ammonia-N was significantly (p<0.05) decreased in T1 and T2 by 36% and 30%, respectively, compared with control (23%). VFAs including butyrate, iso-butyrate, valerate, iso-valerate, and caproate were not detected in T1 from the four-week aerated sample. The BOD and COD were significantly (p<0.05) decreased in T1 by 96% and 58%, respectively. In conclusion, ammonia-N, VFA, BOD, and COD, known as odor indicators, were decreased in T1 and T2 compared with control, suggesting that effective microorganisms are useful for compositing swine liquid manure

This study aimed to analyze causality of climatic factors that affecting the yield of whole crop barley (WCB) by constructing a network within the natural ecosystem via the structural equation model. The WCB dataset (n=316) consisted of data on the forage information and climatic information. The forage information was collected from numerous experimental reports from New Cultivars of Winter Crops (1993-2012) and included details of fresh and dry matter yield, and the year and location of cultivation. The climatic information included details of the daily mean temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration from the weather information system of the Korea Meteorological Administration. The variables were growing days, accumulated temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration in the season for the period of seeding to harvesting. The data was collected over 3 consecutive seasons—autumn, winter, and the following spring. We created a causality network depicting the effect of climatic factors on production by structural equation modeling. The results highlight: (i) the differences in the longitudinal effects between autumn and next spring, (ii) the factors that directly affect WCB production, and (iii) the indirect effects by certain factors, via two or more paths. For instance, the indirect effect of precipitation on WCB production in the following spring season via its effect on temperature was remarkable. Based on absolute values, the importance of WCB production in decreasing order was: the following spring temperature (0.45), autumn temperature (0.35), wintering (-0.16), and following spring precipitation (0.04). Therefore, we conclude that other climatic factors indirectly affect production through the final pathway, temperature and growing days in the next spring, in the climate-production network for WCB including temperature, growing days, precipitation and sunshine duration.

This in vitro study investigated the enhancement of rumen bacterial adhesion on a substrate to increase the digestibility of rice straw in Hanwoo cattle. The rice straw was pretreated with enzymes, probiotics, or ammonia, and the effects on the enhancement of bacterial adhesion and fiber degradation were analyzed using in vitro rumen fermentation. Enzyme treatment included spraying of cellulase and xylanase at 40 and 120 U per g of rice straw, respectively; Saccharomyces cerevisiae culture of 1.0×107 CFU was sprayed as a probiotic treatment per gram of rice straw; ammonia was sprayed at 0.3% per gram of rice straw. Following enzyme treatment, Fibrobacter succinogenes formed a higher adhesion colony than the control group (7.26±0.03 and 8.43±0.20) after 6h and 12h of in vitro culture (p<0.05), respectively. Attachment of Ruminococcus flavefaciens also increased following enzyme treatment (p<0.05) after 6 and 12 h compared to that of the control (5.18±0.06 and 6.60±0.15); and R. albus attachment showed a significant increase compared to that of the control (5.94±0.15) after 6 h of incubation (p<0.05). Probiotic treatment increased attachment of F. succinogenes in comparison with untreated rice straw after 6 h and 12 h of fermentation (p<0.05); R. flavefaciens attachment showed an increase only after 6 h of culture (p<0.05); R. albus was not affected. Attachment of F. succinogenes, R. flavefaciens, and R. albus increased with ammonia treatment after 6 h and 12 h (p<0.05). Dry matter digestibility was higher after the enzyme treatment (3.45±0.21 and 7.04±0.09) than in the control group(1.85±0.08 and 3.94±0.04) after 6 and 12 h of in vitro culture (p<0.05), respectively. It was also higher than that of untreated rice straw after probiotic and ammonia treatments (p<0.05). There was an increase in the enhancement levels of bacterial adhesion depending on the type of fibrolytic bacteria following enzyme, probiotic, and ammonia treatment. These treatments improved digestibility. This enhancement is considered to be greater following enzyme and ammonia treatments than with probiotics.

This study analyzed the effect of time of trot on hematology and blood chemistry values of the Jeju Pony crossbreed horses that are commonly used for riding (14.1±1.4 years old, Gelding). A total of 28 parameters including vital signs as well as stress hormones such as cortisol and lactic acid levels were examined as the time of the trot exercise progressed. Vital signs such as heart rate (38.0→81.0 times/min) and respiratory rate (11.7→35.7 times/min) increased significantly within 30 minutes of exercise. However, difference in the body temperature was not observed before and after exercise. The hematology including white blood cell count (8.03→9.52×103 cells/μL), red blood cell count (5.94×103→7.23–7.32×103 cells/μL), hemoglobin levels (11.82→14.65–14.78 g/dL), and hematocrit levels (25.04→30.27%) significantly increased 30 minutes after the start of the exercise (p<0.05). The blood chemistry value of albumin (3.25→3.47 g/dL) (p<0.05) only showed a significant increase after the exercise. However, the other blood chemistry levels such as, Na+, K+, Ca2+, total CO2, creatine kinase, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, aspartate transaminase, total bilirubin, gamma–glutamyl transpeptidase, and total plasma protein did not change. Also, cortisol and lactic acid levels did not show significant difference. The middle-aged Jeju pony crossbreed horses were not stressed by the 30-minute exercise; therefore, it can be concluded that there is no problem regarding the safety of both the rider and the animal.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of administering dietary tomato powder (TP; 1, 5, and 10%) to mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity for 12 weeks. The TP used in this study was prepared using unmarketable tomatoes. Male C57BL/6J mice (n=60) were randomly divided into five groups, namely, CON, mice fed a basal diet (10% fat); HFD, mice fed HFD (60% fat); HFD+TP1, mice fed HFD (60% fat) supplemented with 1% TP; HFD+TP5, mice fed HFD (60% fat) supplemented with 5% TP; HFD+TP10, mice fed HFD (60% fat) supplemented with 10% TP. The HFD+TP10 group showed lower final body weight (34.23 g) than the HFD group (39.41 g), along with decreased epididymal fat weight (p<0.05). In addition, the HFD+TP10 group showed significantly lower serum cholesterol and triglyceride contents (136.32 and 33.20 mg/dL, respectively) that the HFD group (175.68 and 59.52 mg/dL, respectively). Increased serum leptin and insulin levels (66.36 and 1.80 ng/mL, respectively) in mice with HFD-induced obesity could be rescued in mice fed HFD supplemented with 10% TP (35.94 and 1.23 ng/mL, respectively). Additionally, the epididymal fat content and hepatic steatosis area showed a dose-dependent decrease with increase in dietary TP supplementation. The anti-obesity effect of 10% TP was linked to reduced serum trimethylamine-N-oxide levels. These results suggested that 10% TP was effective at inhibiting the accumulation of fat in the serum and tissue, and ameliorating lipid metabolism disorders observed in HFD-fed mice. In addition, such utilization of unmarketable tomato to inhibit obesity-associated pathologies is expected to add value and increase profits in the functional food industry.

This study investigated various levels of sodium nitrite and probiotics (SNPro) combination as an alternative to zinc oxide on the growth performance, immune response, intestinal microflora, and morphology of weaned pigs. One hundred and ninety-two weaned pigs (Landrace×Yorkshire×Duroc) with an average body weight of 6.51±0.15 kg were randomly assigned to four treatments(n=6) on the basis of their initial body weight. Experimental period was divided into phase 1 and 2 (each 14 days). The dietary treatments were: 1) Basal diet (control), 2) SNPro1 (control+0.01% SNPro), 3) SNPro2 (control+0.02% SNPro), 4) SNPro3 (control+0.03% SNPro). The average daily gain when SNPro was added to the diet was 288, 309, 319, 324 g in phase 1, 355, 387, 410, 407 g in phase 2 and 321, 348, 364, 366 g in the overall. The concentration of interleukin-8 and interleukin-10 in serum when SNPro was added to the diet were 15, 13.5, 13, 12.8 ng/ml and 165, 162, 155, 145 ng/ml (p<0.05) but toll-like receptor 4 and immunoglobulin G levels in serum were no significantly different. The colonization of Escherichia coli in the ileum and Salmonella spp. in the caecum were significantly decreased as SNPro level increased (p<0.05). However, the population of Lactobacillus spp. did not differ among the groups. Although villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio were not significantly affected by the treatments, crypt depth in the jejunum was 599, 586, 615, 599 ㎛ as SNPro level increased (p<0.05). In conclusion, SNPro had beneficial effects on growth performance, immune response, intestinal microflora and morphology weaned pigs. Therefore, SNPro not only can be considered as an alternative for the pharmacological level of zinc oxide in weaning pigs but also ideal dietary SNPro level was 0.02%.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary protein level and supplementation of protease on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gut microflora, intestinal morphology and fecal noxious gas emission in weanling pigs. A total of 240 weaned pigs (Landrace×Yorkshire×Duroc, 5.82±0.3 kg) were used during 4 weeks in 2 phases (days 0-14, phase 1; and days 15-28, phase 2) feeding program based on age and initial body weight. Pigs were allocated to 2×2 factorial arrangement, including 2 protein levels (HP, high protein; LP, low protein) and 2 protease levels (with or without protease). The average daily gain in the LP treatment (357 g/d) was increased rather than the HP treatment (339 g/d). A greater avarage daily gain was observed in dietary suppiemented protease treatment (358 vs 339 g/d). Average feed intake was greater in the LP treatment (544 g/d) rather than the HP treatment (530 g/d). A greater average daily feed intake was observed in dietary supplemented protease treatment (552 vs 523 g/d). Dry matter and crude protein digestibility were increased in dietary supplemented protease treatment (82.62% and 76.08%, respectively) rather than non-supplemented treatment (81.74% and 75.13%, respectively). Ileal Lactobacillus spp. count increased in dietary supplemented protease treatment (7.42 vs 7.32 log10CFU/g). Emission of H2S was decreased in the LP treatment (4.41 ppm) rather than HP treatment (4.78 ppm). Emission of NH3 was decreased in dietary supplemented protease treatment (10.43 ppm vs 11.76 ppm). In conclusion, the decrease of dietary protein level and supplementation of protease had beneficial effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gut microflora, and noxious gas emission in weanling pigs.

This study was conducted to assess the effect of acidification of pig slurry on nitrogen (N) mineralization and its environmental impacts during pig slurry fermentation. Different inorganic and organic acids were used to acidify pig slurry. Four treatments including non-acidified pig slurry (control), pig slurry acidified with sulfuric acid, lactic acid, and citric acid were allocated with three replications. The total N content in the acidified pig slurry was higher than non-acidified pig slurry after fermentation. Acidification tended to increase total N content in pig slurry. Ammonium N (NH4 +-N) released from pig slurry was obviously increased at 7 days after incubation, representing 61.4%, 36.8%, and 37.4% increase in the acidified pig slurry with sulfuric acid, lactic acid, and citric acid, respectively. Nitrate N (NO3 --N) in the acidified pig slurry with sulfuric acid was the highest throughout the experiment period, but non-significant effect of organic acid. A large portion of ammonia (NH3) emission occurred within 10 days, corresponding to more than 55% of total NH3 emission. Total cumulative NH3 emission during the experimental period was lower 91% (2.9 mg N kg-1), 78% (7.3 mg N kg-1), and 81% (6.2 mg N kg-1) in the acidified pig slurry with sulfuric acid, lactic acid, and citric acid, respectively, than non-acidified pig slurry (32.7 mg N kg-1). These results suggest that acidification of pig slurry (particularly with sulfuric acid) can be faced as a good strategy to reduce NH3 emission without depressing the mineralization process.

This study aimed to determine the trend in dry matter yield (DMY) of a new sorghum-sudangrass hybrid (SSH) in the central inland regions of Korea. The metadata (n=388) were collected from various reports of the experiments examining the adaptability of this new variety conducted by the Rural Development Administration (1988–2013). To determine the trend, the parameters of autoregressive (AR) and moving average (MA) were estimated from correlogram of Autocorrelation function (ACF) and partial ACF (PACF) using time series modeling. The results showed that the trend increased slightly year by year. Furthermore, ARIMA (1, 1, 0) was found to be the optimal model to describe the historical trend. This means that the trend in the DMY of the SSH was associated with changes over the past two years but not with changes from three years ago. Although climatic variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and sunshine were also considered as environmental factors for the annual trends, no clear association was observed between DMY and climates. Therefore, more precise processing and detailed definition of climate considering specific growth stages are required to validate this association. In particular, research on the impact of heavy rainfall and typhoons, which are expected to cause damage in the short term, on DMY trends is ongoing, and the model confirmed in this study is expected to play an important role in studying this aspect. Furthermore, we plan to add the environmental factors such as soil and cultivation management as well as climate to our future studies.

Diets different in crude protein (CP) and undegraded intake protein (UIP) contents were offered to sheep in a metabolism study to describe their effects on nutrient digestibility and nitrogen (N) metabolism. Six Corriedale sheep (body weight=56.2±2.3 kg) were divided in random within a Latin square design (replicated) to 1 of 3 diets: 1) a low-CP diet (LP; 12.2% CP with 35.1% UIP), 2) high CP with low UIP diet (HPLU; 14.9% CP with 33.7% UIP), and 3) high CP with high UIP diet (HPHU; 15.5% CP with 45.8% UIP). High-protein dried distillers grain and soybean meal were the main CP sources for the adjustment of UIP:DIP in the diets. No significant differences were found in feed consumption and nutrient digestibility; however, a greater proportion of CP was digested in sheep fed the HPLU diet (69.4%; P=0.04). Although N intake was greater in sheep receiving HPLU and HPHU diets, loss of N through fecal or urinary route was not different among sheep, which resulted in the highest (12.7 g/d) and lowest N retention (7.40 g/d) in HPHU- and LP-fed sheep, respectively. In conclusion, although CP or UIP content had marginal effects on feed consumption and whole-tract digestibility of the majority of nutrients, with the increased CP and UIP levels in the diet, the efficiency of N utilization was improved with regard to increased N retention with minimal differences in N excretion, which is important from an economic and environmental standpoint.

This study evaluated genetic parameters of direct and maternal effects for calving ease in Hanwoo. A total of 2,102 records for calving ease were collected from 2018 to 2020 from the Hanwoo Genetic Improvement Center in Korea. The calving ease score was rated from 1 to 4 (1=unassisted delivery, 2=assisted easy calving, 3=assisted difficult calving, 4=mechanical or caesarean section) as categorical data, and the data were converted using a truncated normal distribution for linear model analysis. To evaluate the genetic parameters, the birth year-season of calving, the sex of the calf, parity, and the age of the dam at calving were considered as fixed effects, and genetic and maternal effects were considered random effects. The genetic parameters were evaluated using the program BLUPF90. The calving ease scores for male calves, first parity cows, and currently calving cows were much higher than for females, later parities, and past calving cows. The direct genetic variance (0.0164) was higher than the maternal genetic variance (0.0018), and the estimated heritabilities of the direct and maternal effects were 0.055 and 0.006, respectively. The parameters determined here should help with the genetic evaluation of calving ease in Hanwoo.