2018-B051-10048.

1. Hybrid refers to a condition in which combination of gene pairs give good results
where offspring performs better than either parent.

2. Epistasis is the interaction of genes at different loci

. 3. A mammalian organism reproductive cells are referred to as reproductive germ cells

4. The co-dominant gene effects result in individual animals that are difficult to identify
with superior genotypes.

5. Milk production in cattle is controlled by multiple genes, a condition known a

polygenic trait…

6. Homogeneous or pure lines are individuals with similar alleles.

7. A ……………………… cross is an estimation of a predicted outcome of a single trait.

8. Dominance involves …………gene …… interaction where one allele hides the effect of
the other allele in the same gene pair.

9. Epistatisis . Is a situation where one gene hides the effects of the other genes in
different gene loci.

10. Hybrid male mules are generally sterile, but ………… is not a necessary consequence
of hybridization.
1a)

The capacity of an animal to produce differs between species, breeds and strains as a result
of genetic factors. However, a complex of inter-related factors in the animal husbandry
will influence the animal's ability to utilize that capacity for growth, development and
production.

Animal Moisture and Heat Production

Heat is produced centrally in the deep body. The surplus is conducted to the skin surface
where it is given off to the atmosphere as sensible heat by means of convection, conduction
and radiation and as latent heat by means of evaporation of moisture from the lungs and
skin. Increasing ambient temperature, resulting in less temperature difference between the
body surface and the air, will decrease the amount of heat that can be emitted as sensible
heat. Instead a larger proportion is given off as latent heat, that is, heat employed to
vaporize moisture.

Temperature
The over-riding environmental factor affecting the physiological functions of domestic
animals is temperature. For most farm animals a mean daily temperature in the range 10 to
20°C is referred to as the "comfort zone". In this range the animal's heat exchange can be
regulated solely by physical means such as constriction and dilation of blood vessels in the
skin, ruffling up the fur or feathers and regulation of the evaporation from lungs and skin.
At the upper and lower critical temperatures the physical regulation will not be sufficient to
maintain a constant body temperature and the animal must, in addition, decrease or
increase its metabolic heat production.

A further decrease or increase in temperature will eventually bring the temperature to a

point beyond which not even a change in heat production will be sufficient to maintain
homoeothermic.

A very young animal, lacking fully developed temperature-regulating mechanisms,

particularly the ability to increase heat production by increased metabolism, is much more
sensitive to its thermal environment and requires higher temperatures.
Humidity

Poultry do not have sweat glands, so all evaporative heat loss must originate from the
respiratory tract. Other livestock species have varying abilities to sweat and in descending
order they are as follows: Horse, donkey, cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep and pig.

In a hot-dry climate evaporation is rapid, but in a hot humid climate the ability of the air to
absorb additional moisture is limited and the inadequate cooling may result in heat stress.

Too low humidity in the air will cause irritation of the mucous membranes, while too high
humidity may promote growth of fungus infections. High humidity may also contribute to
decay in structures. If possible keep the relative humidity in the range of 40 to 80%.

Radiation

The heat load on a grazing animal can be considerably increased by direct solar radiation
and radiation reflected from clouds or the ground. A white hair coat will absorb less radiant
energy than a dark, but the heat penetrates deeper in a white, loose coat. Air movements
will dispel the heat and reduce the differences. Furthermore, solar radiation may adversely
affect the animal's skin in particular breeds having unpigmented skin.

Heat gain by radiation can be effectively reduced by the provision of a shaded area. It
must, however, be sufficiently large to allow space between the animals so that the heat
loss by other means is not reduced. Grass covered ground in the surroundings of the shade
will reflect less radiation than bare soil.

Air Movements

Air movements will assist in heat loss by evaporation and by conduction/ convection as
long as the air temperature is lower than the skin temperature. When the air temperature
approaches the skin temperature rapid air movements are experienced as comfortable, but
at low temperatures it will lead to excessive cooling of unprotected skin areas (cold
draught). In addition air movements are required to remove noxious and toxic gases and to
supply the animal with fresh air for breathing. A wind velocity of 0.2m/s is generally
regarded as a minimum requirement, but it can be increased to 1.0m/s, when the
temperature is nearing the upper critical, or more when it goes beyond that.

Precipitation

Heavy rain my penetrate the fur of an animal and decrease its insulation value. A strong
wind can in such circumstances lead to excessive cooling. However, a naturally greasy hair
coat will resist water penetration and with the provision of a shelter for the animals the
problem may be avoided altogether.

3. Worldwide artificial insemination has become a popular practice in animal breeding. a)

Explain the economic benefits of AI in animal production (10 marks)

3a)

Disease control; this is accomplished by preventing skin contact such as in natural

service. The most important diseases it protects against are transmission of the herpes
virus- equine coital exthanema - and contagious equine metritis, which is caused by
bacteria. In addition antibiotics can be added to the semen at the time of insemination
or collection and reduce or totally eliminate breeding the mare with any bacteria at all.

Decreases chances of injury; Semen is generally only collected every other day in an
AI programme, so there is much less chance for injury. In addition semen can be
collected on a phantom and a mare in heat may not even be needed. Not only does this
almost eliminate injury to the mare (if she didn’t want to get served) and stallion but
also it dramatically reduces the chances of injury to those staff involved in the breeding
shed. It may be in future that farms could be in legal trouble when staffs are hurt and
AI could have been used.
 Semen can be collected from stallions with problems. Each year stallions are either
injured or have trouble breeding due to inherent libido (sexual behaviour) problems.
Because semen only needs to be collected every other day it reduces the effects of
breeding pressure and injuries. Semen is evaluated each time it is collected.

Allows more mares to be bred; AI lets us divide the semen up into as many doses as he
is capable of giving in an ejaculate. Typically that is around 10-15 doses on an every
other day collection schedule.

Permits breeding of mares with problems; each year mares are presented for natural
service that may not be psychologically ready for service. Sometimes this is due to the
mare’s own agitation and sometimes it may be because she has a ‘foal at foot’ and
becomes worried about her foal (foal proud).

Permits use of older valuable stallions. As stallions get older their sperm numbers
decrease. This typically begins at around 13 years old. Many stallions are already
exhibiting quite obvious sperm reduction by the time they are 16 - 17 and many are
almost infertile by the time they are 19 - 20 years old. AI allows deposition of the
correct number of sperm to be made for each mare and removes the guesswork.

Allows mares to be bred at the best time for conception because we can store semen
either cooled or frozen mares can be bred when they are most suited for conception. In
a natural service programme this would necessitate breeding the stallion as many as 5-6
times per day. Most stallions would not handle a breeding schedule like that for very
long.

b) Discuss 5 limitations of AI as a farm practice (15 marks)

3d)
. There is always disturbances of the species and disrupts their natural habits.
The act of extracting sperm from male animals normally requires an individual to hold
these animals, which means that they will be disturbed. This will create a negative impact,
especially when subject animals are living in their natural habitats. Also, conserving sperm
by freezing can be used as an exemption to destroy the animals’ natural way of
impregnation.
. It is not effective in other species.
While many animals have successfully adapted to artificial insemination, not all of them
will have positive reactions to this method. It is not that often effective even in humans.

It requires the use of anaesthetics.

To be able to calm animals down when subjected to this procedure, there will be a need to
use anaesthesia on them, which would affect their ability to react to particular conditions,
such as semen extraction.

8. a) What is a transgenic animal? (5 marks)

Transgenic animal

A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted
into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA methodology. In
addition to the gene itself, the DNA usually includes other sequences to enable it

To be incorporated into the DNA of the host and

To be expressed correctly by the cells of the host.

Transgenic sheep and goats have been produced that express foreign proteins in their milk.

Transgenic chickens are now able to synthesize human proteins in the "white" of their
eggs.

These animals should eventually prove to be valuable sources of proteins for human
therapy.

b) State and explain different types of gene effects in farm animals (10 marks)

Different types of gene effects in farm animals

Additive gene effects

this is a condition where the expression of traits is control by several genes. An individual
genes has little or no effect on the traits and it is common in quantitative genetic. E.g.
Weight of the animal, height, milk quantity, etc. usually most of the characteristics of
animals that are of economics value to man are control by multiple genes. The effect of
genes is cumulative with no or little dominance between pairs of allele.

The non-additive genes effect (qualitative genes effect)

This control the traits by determining how genes interact in different combination

The effect is observable, control by only one or two pairs of genes of which only one genes
pair will be dominant if the animal is heterozygous for the traits to be expressed.

Traits that results from non- additive gene effect are qualitative, phenotype is easy to
identify, little or no environmental effect and the genotypes can be easily determined

4. a) Explain how inbreeding in livestock genetics can be of benefits to a farmer (15

marks)

(a) Benefit Of Inbreeding in livestock

 Inbreeding increases uniformity among animals in the farm which help in easy
identification of a given groups of animals by the farmer since members of the
same family will have common characteristic.
 It allow genes concentration to come up with pure line of breeds with the same
desirable characteristic
 Inbreeding increases the performance among offspring since both genetics
materials of the parent is homozygous making them more suitable to
adaptation to the same environment
 It is easy for the farmer to predict the performance of the animal based on the
history of the parents
 There are less reproductive problems within the inbred herds. There is high
fertility rate among the animals
b) What are some of the disadvantages of inbreeding in livestock production (10
marks)

1. Adverse effect on the growth rate of animals: When inbreeding is continuously

or intensely carried out, the growth rate and mature weight of the offspring
(progeny) is negatively affected. That is, the growth rate and mature weight would
moderately decrease.
2. Adverse effect on reproductive performance: Another danger of
continuous/intense inbreeding practice is that the reproductive performance or
efficiency of the progeny will reduce. For example, puberty (testicular or ovarian
development) may be delayed, gametogenesis (formation of gametes) may be
reduced, and embryonic death rate may increase.
3. Adverse effect on production: Economic traits in animals such as high litter
number and size, high milk let down or production, high carcass quality, high meat
or egg production moderately decrease as you increase inbreeding.
4. Adverse effect on animal’s vigour: Death/mortality rates tend to increase with
continuous or intense inbreeding. Inbred (product of inbreeding) are also adversely
affected by the environmental condition, and their resistance to diseases becomes
reduced or weakened.
5. Appearance of lethal or abnormalities: Inbreeding gives room for an often
appearance of lethal traits or abnormalities such as cryptorchidism (absence of one
or both testes firm the scrotum), parrot jaw etc.