BackgroundNelore and Gir are the two most important indicine cattle breeds for production of beef and milk in Brazil. Historical records state that these breeds were introduced in Brazil from the Indian subcontinent, crossed to local taurine cattle in order to quickly increase the population size, and then backcrossed to the original breeds to recover indicine adaptive and productive traits. Previous investigations based on sparse DNA markers detected taurine admixture in these breeds. High-density genome-wide analyses can provide high-resolution information on the genetic composition of current Nelore and Gir populations, estimate more precisely the levels and nature of taurine introgression, and shed light on their history and the strategies that were used to expand these breeds.ResultsWe used the high-density Illumina BovineHD BeadChip with more than 777 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were reduced to 697 115 after quality control filtering to investigate the structure of Nelore and Gir populations and seven other worldwide populations for comparison. Multidimensional scaling and model-based ancestry estimation clearly separated the indicine, European taurine and African taurine ancestries. The average level of taurine introgression in the autosomal genome of Nelore and Gir breeds was less than 1% but was 9% for the Brahman breed. Analyses based on the mitochondrial SNPs present in the Illumina BovineHD BeadChip did not clearly differentiate taurine and indicine haplotype groupings.ConclusionsThe low level of taurine ancestry observed for both Nelore and Gir breeds confirms the historical records of crossbreeding and supports a strong directional selection against taurine haplotypes via backcrossing. Random sampling in production herds across the country and subsequent genotyping would be useful for a more complete view of the admixture levels in the commercial Nelore and Gir populations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12711-015-0109-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with SLE are common, specifically abdominal pain. However, the rate of pancreatic diseases is much lower and does not reach 5% according to published series in Europe and the USA. This association between SLE and pancreatic disease is basically at the expense of episodes of acute pancreatitis. An association with chronic pancreatitis is much more uncommon, and only four articles have been published showing this relationship.Three cases of SLE-associated pancreatitis are described, and disease onset, etiological factors, and clinical progression are analyzed. A review of the literature and a brief discussion about pathophysiological mechanisms and the role of corticosteroids are also included.Key words: Systemic lupus erythematosus. Acute pancreatitis. Chronic pancreatitis. INTRODUCTIONSince the first association between systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and pancreatitis was documented by Reifenstein et al. in 1939 (1), very few reports about the prevalence of pancreatic diseases in this rheumatologic disorder have been reported.Gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with SLE are common, specifically abdominal pain; as described in some series, it has been shown to have a prevalence of 19.2% (2). The rate of pancreatitis in patients with SLE varies depending on individual series from Europe and the United States between 0.7 and 4% (3,4). This association is mainly at the expense of acute episodes of pancreatitis; however only four reports have been published regarding this relationship with chronic pancreatitis (5-7).Three cases of SLE-associated pancreatitis are described, and disease onset, etiological factors and clinical progression are analyzed. A review of the literature and a brief discussion about the pathophysiological mechanisms and the role of corticosteroids are also included. METHODSA retrospective review of hospital admissions at Gastroenterology Department, University Hospital, Santiago de Compostela during 2001-2005 with the dual diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus and pancreatitis was made. Demographic data, clinical intervention, and progression parameters of pancreatic disease were identified. These patients were collected by searching our institution's computer database using the key words "pancreatitis" and "SLE". Demographic information registered from the medical charts included subject age, gender, time (years) from the initial diagnosis of SLE, alcohol abuse, medications, specially corticosteroids, and criteria used for SLE diagnosis.Clinical data collected included symptoms, SLE activity with a list of organs or systems involved, initial pancreatic enzymes, number of admissions for pancreatitis, and serologies for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and C-reactive protein levels. All radiological results were documented, including abdominal ultrasounds, helical CT, cholangiopancreatic resonance (MRPC), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERPC), and endoscopic ultrasounds (EUS

The aim of this study was to assess and apply a microsatellite multiplex system for parentage determination in alpacas. An approach for parentage testing based on 10 microsatellites was evaluated in a population of 329 unrelated alpacas from different geographical zones in Perú. All microsatellite markers, which amplified in two multiplex reactions, were highly polymorphic with a mean of 14.5 alleles per locus (six to 28 alleles per locus) and an average expected heterozygosity (H(E)) of 0.8185 (range of 0.698-0.946). The total parentage exclusion probability was 0.999456 for excluding a candidate parent from parentage of an arbitrary offspring, given only the genotype of the offspring, and 0.999991 for excluding a candidate parent from parentage of an arbitrary offspring, given the genotype of the offspring and the other parent. In a case test of parentage assignment, the microsatellite panel assigned 38 (from 45 cases) offspring parentage to 10 sires with LOD scores ranging from 2.19 x 10(+13) to 1.34 x 10(+15) and Delta values ranging from 2.80 x 10(+12) to 1.34 x 10(+15) with an estimated pedigree error rate of 15.5%. The performance of this multiplex panel of markers suggests that it will be useful in parentage testing of alpacas.

Bleeding in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) users limited their prescription. This first multicenter full case–control study (325 cases and 744 controls), explored the association of e-NOS intron 4 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGIH) in NSAID exposed and unexposed populations and assessed any interaction between this polymorphism and NSAIDs. NSAID users carrying e-NOS intron 4 wild type genotype or VNTR polymorphism have higher odds of UGIH than those unexposed to NSAIDs [Odds Ratio (OR): 6.62 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 4.24, 10.36) and OR: 5.41 (95% CI 2.62, 11.51), respectively], with no effect modification from VNTR polymorphism-NSAIDs interaction [Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI): −1.35 (95% CI −5.73, 3.03); Synergism Index (S): 0.77 (95% CI 0.31, 1.94)]. Similar findings were obtained for aspirin exposure. Non-aspirin NSAID users who carry e-NOS intron 4 VNTR polymorphism have lower odds of UGIH [OR: 4.02 (95% CI 1.85, 8.75) than those users with wild type genotype [OR: 6.52 (95% CI 4.09, 10.38)]; though the interaction estimates are not statistically significant [RERI: −2.68 (95% CI −6.67, 1.31); S: 0.53 (95% CI 0.18, 1.55)]. This exploratory study suggests that the odds of UGIH in NSAID or aspirin users does not modify according to patient´s e-NOS intron 4 genotype.

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