This study was conducted to investigate the effect of carotenoid, oligosaccharide and anthocyanin supplementation in broiler diets under Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Ross 308 chickens were fed 5 diets: basal diet (control diet), diet supplemented with β-glucan in 0.05% (positive control) and diets with 0.5% carotenoid-, oligosaccharide- or anthocyanin contents. On the 26th days of age, chickens were challenged intraperitoneally 2 mg LPS per kg of body weight. 12 h after injection, birds were euthanized, then spleen and ileum samples were collected. LPS induced increased relative mRNA expression of splenic (p = 0.0445) and ileal (p = 0.0435) interleukin-1β (IL-1β), which was lower in the spleen in carotenoid (p = 0.0114), oligosaccharide (p = 0.0497) and anthocyanin (p = 0.0303)-treated chickens compared to LPS-injected control birds. Dietary supplementation of carotenoids also decreased relative gene expression of splenic interleukin-6 (IL-6) (p = 0.0325). In the ileum, β-glucan supplementation showed lower relative mRNA expression of toll-like receptor 5 (TLR-5) (p = 0.0387) compared to anthocyanin treatment. Gene expression of both splenic and ileal interferon-α (IFN-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) and toll-like receptor 5 (TLR-5) were not influenced by dietary supplements. In conclusion, carotenoids, oligosaccharides and anthocyanins could partially mitigate the immune stress caused by LPS challenge. All of the compounds impacted longer villus height (p < 0.0001), villus height:crypt depth ratios were higher after β-glucan (p < 0.0001) and anthocyanin (p = 0.0063) supplementations and thickened mucosa was observed in β-glucan (p < 0.0001), oligosaccharide (p < 0.0001) and anthocyanin (p = 0.048) treatments. All of these findings could represent a more effective absorption of nutrients.

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A bio-economic model was used to estimate economic values of 15 milk production, functional, growth and carcass traits for Hungarian Holstein-Friesian cattle. The calculations were carried out for the situation in Hungary from 2000 to 2007, assuming no production quotas. The marginal economic values were defined as partial derivatives of the profit function with respect to each trait in a production system with dairy cow herds and with sales of surplus male calves. The economic weights for maternal and direct components of traits were calculated multiplying the marginal economic values by the number of discounted expression summed over a 25-year investment period for 2-year-old bulls (candidates for selection). The standardized economic weight (economic weight x genetic standard deviation) of the trait or trait component expressed as percentage of the sum of the standardized economic weights for all traits and trait components represented the relative economic importance of this trait or trait component. The highest relative economic importance was obtained for milk yield (25%), followed by productive lifetime of cows (23%), protein yield and the direct component of a cow's total conception rate (9% each), the maternal effect of the total conception rate of cows and the somatic cell score (approximately 7% each), fat yield (5%) and mature weight of cows and daily gain in rearing of calves (approximately 4% each). Other functional traits (clinical mastitis incidence, calving difficulty score, total conception rate of heifers and calf mortality) reached a relative economic importance between 0.5% and 2%. Birth weight and dressing percentage were least important (<0.5%). Based on these results, the inclusion of productive lifetime and cow fertility in the breeding programme for Holstein-Friesian cattle in Hungary is advisable.

AbstrAct:Marginal economic values for production and reproduction traits of pigs were estimated applying a bio-economic model to Hungarian commercial sow herds with integrated fattening of piglets. Data collected between 2002 and 2008 were used for the calculation. Marginal economic values (in € per unit of the trait per sow per year) estimated for fattening days in the station test, age at the end of the field test, lean meat percentage in the carcass, percentage of valuable cuts in the carcass and the number of piglets born alive were 2.84 €/day, 2.71 €/day, 22.45 €/%, 28.81 €/% and 54.22 €/piglet in the first litter, respectively.

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The analysis utilized data on performance traits recorded between 1993 and 2004 on 3 and 4 year old Hungarian Sporthorse mares. Traits were categorized in three groups, chosen to describe conformation, free jumping and movement. Low to moderate correlations were found among traits within each of those groups. There were high correlations between type and frame for both ages; and within free jumping performance traits, jumping style and jumping ability were highly correlated as well. In principal component analyses of test results for 3 and 4 year old mares, 9 factors (ratio of variance = 80.935) and 7 factors (ratio of variance = 74.115) were identified, respectively. Dendograms based upon cluster analysis verified the separation of trait groups. The trait of "impulsion in elasticity of movement" could be assigned to movement traits in 3-year-old; but as a probable consequence of training, it could be assigned to conformation traits, especially to overall impression, when horses were 4 years old.Key Words: principal component analysis, performance traits, Sporthorse mare, Hungary Zusammenfassung Titel der Arbeit: Hauptkomponentenanalyse der Eigenleistungsprüfung von Stuten einer ungarischen Sportpferdepopulation Die Analyse basiert auf den Ergebnissen der Eigenleistungsprüfung von drei-bzw. vierjährigen Stuten einer ungarischen Sportpferdepopulation aus den Jahren 1993 bis 2004. Die Merkmale werden den drei Merkmalsgruppen "Typ und Körperform", "freies Springverhalten" sowie "Gangverhalten" zugeordnet. Die Datenanalyse zeigt niedrige bis mittlere Korrelationen innerhalb der Merkmalsgruppen. In beiden Altersgruppen bestehen enge Korrelationen zwischen dem Typ und dem Rahmen sowie den freien Springmerkmalen, wie dem Springstil und dem Springvermögen. Für die Hauptkomponentenanalyse der dreijährigen Stuten werden 9 (Ratio der Varianz=80,935), bei den vierjährigen Stuten 7 Faktoren (Ratio der Varianz=74,115) bestimmt. Die auf den Ergebnissen der Clusteranalyse beruhenden Dendogramme zeigen die Trennung der einzelnen Merkmalsgruppen. Danach kann bei den dreijährigen Stuten das Merkmal "Impulsivität und Elastizität der Bewegung" aus der Gruppe Exterieurbeurteilung den Bewegungsmerkmalen, jedoch bei den vierjährigen, als vermutliche Konsequenz aus dem Training, der ersten Merkmalsgruppe zugeordnet werden.

Holstein-Friesian dams (n = 28) and daughters (n = 28) were superovulated (total number of observations was 235) to determine the repeatability and heritability of ovulation number and embryo collection result for FSH treatment. The donor cows were superovulated with FSHp, artificial insemination was performed and embryo collection was carried out 7 days later. For the analysis, the raw corpdata of the number of corpora lutea (CL), the number of collected embryos (EM) and their log-transformed values were used (log CL, log EM). The genetic parameters were calculated by using the VCE4 software. For calculating heritability, the number of embryo collection was used as a random effect; for calculating repeatability, the permanent environment was fitted. The additive genetic variance of CL was 8.91 and that of the EM was 9.23. The additive genetic variance for the log CL and log EM were 0.457 and 0.340, respectively. The estimated heritability for CL and EM were 0.234 and 0.159, and repeatability were 0.386 and 0.301, respectively. Higher heritabilities but lower as the previous repeatabilities were observed for the log-transformed data, 0.266, 0.194 and 0.294, 0.208 for log CL and for log EM, respectively.

The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for show-jumping competition performance of Hungarian Sporthorses using a random regression model. There were 21,210 records from 739 horses collected in Hungary between 1996 and 2004. Performance was expressed as shifted Blom normalized ranks and as the difference between fence height and fault points. The random regression model (RRM) included fixed effects for sex, year, location, and obstacle height and random effects for animal, rider and permanent environment. Regressions for the random effects in the RRM were modelled with Legendre polynomials from first to fifth order of fit. The model focused on performance of horses from 4 to 11 years of age, with heterogeneous residual variances considered. The heritabilities were low to moderate for both variables. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between different ages decreased with increasing distance between the ages.