The objective of this work was to estimate genetic parameters for the Italian population of river buffaloes. Lactation records (10,663) for milk, fat, protein and mozzarella cheese production of river buffalo cows were analyzed by fitting a multiple trait animal model using restricted maximum likelihood. The number of cows with records was 3873 with 6842 animals in the relationship matrix. mozzarella cheese production per lactation was computed by considering milk yield, and fat and protein percentages. The average lactational yields of milk, fat, protein and calculated mozzarella (kg) and fat and protein percentages were 2286.86492. 1, 196.9645.6, 104.7621.7, 589.16125.4, 8.5960.85 and 4.5560.28, respectively. Heritability estimates for milk, fat, protein and mozzarella yields and fat and protein percentages were 0.14, 0.11, 0.14, 0.13, 0.17 and 0.10, respectively. Though estimates of heritability are lower than for the same traits in dairy cattle, estimates of phenotypic and genetic correlations between all traits show the possibility of developing a selection scheme to improve characteristics of milk for production of mozzarella cheese, the most important product of Italian buffaloes.

Reproductive traits from 7642 ewes were recorded from 1975 to 1983. The ewes were of five breeds (Dorset (D), Finnsheep (F), Rambouillet (R), Suffolk (S) and Targhee (T)) and two composite lines [C1 (1=2F þ 1=4R þ 1=4D) and C2 (1=2F þ 1=4S þ 1=4T)]. Genetic parameters were estimated for six basic and seven composite traits. The basic traits were conception rate (CR), total number of lamb born (NLB), number of lambs born alive (NLBA), number of lambs alive at weaning (NLAW), litter mean weight per lamb born (LMWLB) and litter mean weight per lamb weaned (LMWLW). The composite traits were ratio of lambs surviving to weaning relative to NLB (LSW ¼ NLAW=NLB), number of lambs born per ewe exposed (NLBEE ¼ CR Â NLB), number of lambs weaned per ewe exposed (NLWEE ¼ CR Â NLAW), total litter weight at birth (TLWB ¼ NLB Â LMWLB), total litter weight at weaning (TLWW ¼ NLAW Â LMWLW), total litter weight at birth per ewe exposed (TLWBEE ¼ CR Â NLB Â LMWLB) and total litter weight at weaning per ewe exposed (TLWWEE ¼ CR Â NLAW Â LMWLW). Year, age of ewe, breed of ewe, hormone treatment and season of breeding were used as fixed effects. Direct and maternal genetic effects, permanent environmental effects of ewe and mate of ewe were considered to be random effects. A derivative-free algorithm was used to obtain REML estimates of genetic and environmental parameters. Estimates of heritabilities for animal genetic and permanent environmental and maternal genetic effects were mainly small due to the typical high influence of environmental factors on reproductive traits and to non-normal distributions of traits. Mate of ewe effects were not important for any trait. Important genetic correlations were found between some traits. Some estimates of genetic correlations do not seem to have a biological explanation. Nevertheless, these estimates of genetic correlations among traits may provide a basis for deriving selection indexes for reproductive traits. #

Background Robotic platforms have recently acquired progressive importance in different surgical fields, such as urology, gynecology, and general surgery. Through the years, new surgical robots have become available as singleport robotic platform. The study is aimed to value the single-port robotic platform characteristics in different surgical specialties. Methods The terms ''LESS'' OR ''single port'' OR ''single site'' AND ''robot'' OR ''robotic'' were systematically used to search the PubMed and Scopus databases. A total of 57 studies were considered eligible for the present review. The articles included were divided according to the surgical field in which the study was conducted: General surgery (29 articles), Gynecology (18 articles), Urology (10 articles). Results Most part of the articles showed the feasibility of robotic single-port surgical procedures and described advantages in terms of cosmetic, hospital stay, and in some series even cost reduction. A meta-analysis was conducted, showing a significant increment of complications using RSP if compared with SLPS and a trend (P = 0.008) when RSP was compared with LESS. The comparison of different techniques in terms of conversion to laparotomy did not show any significant difference. Conclusion Robotic single port potentially furnishes an important surgical and post-operatory improvement; however, some limits still prolong the surgical time and complication rate.

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