Past Events

Good afternoon CGIL,   This week we are happy to have Dr. Dirk-Jan de Koning, professor in Animal Breeding at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, to present for us on, Friday January 27th, 2023. The seminar will begin at 1:30 PM EDT/EST on the virtual platform Microsoft Teams. The title of the presentation is: "Genetics of bone health in laying hens: what you measure or where you measure it?".

We are pleased to announce that a new club has launched within the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph! The Meat Science and Muscle Biology (MSMB) Club will be holding their first event this Thursday with guest speaker Dr. Luiz Silva from Western Kentucky University. Dr. Silva will be speaking about compensatory growth in beef cattle, and the relative impacts on carcass and meat quality.

Good morning CGIL, We are happy to invite you to a very special IN-PERSON CGIL seminar. We will have Dr. Steve Miller, Director of the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) at the University of New England, Australia, to present on Thursday January 26th, 2023. The seminar will begin at 2:30 PM EDT/EST at ANNU 141. The title of the presentation is: "Advancements in livestock breeding and some thoughts on the future".

Good morning CGIL, We are happy to have with us Dr. Lassen, a Senior Project Manager at VikingGenetics and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Aarhus University, to present this Friday, January 20th, 2023. The seminar will begin at 1:30 PM EDT/EST on the virtual platform Microsoft Teams. The title of the presentation is: "Genetic and management analysis of efficiency and body weight data using 3D measures in commercial farms".

The objectives of this thesis were to 1) evaluate the impact of supplementing omega-3 (n3) fatty acids (FA) using calcium salts enriched in fish oil (Ca-FO) during the early postpartum period on the degree and resolution of inflammation using an induced acute inflammation model, and 2) test whether these effects were from an increased energy density of the diet or were due to the effects of n3 FA on immune cell biology. Supplementing Ca-FO was reflected by changes in the FA composition of plasma, milk, and peripheral blood leukocytes.

Several components of dairy farm rearing systems are known to affect developmental programming of calves by acting as epigenet-ic regulators, influencing the trajectory of immune system development.

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is the causative agent of enzootic bovine leukosis (leukosis) and is endemic to the North American dairy cattle population. It is a chronic, contagious disease with no available treatment or vaccine, resulting in lifelong infection. Infection with BLV can lead to persistent lymphocytosis and tumour development within two to five year of infection, and is associated with decreased milk production, immune dysregulation, fertility challenges, and reduced longevity.

The objective of this dissertation was to investigate if dietary supplements could improve dairy calf health and welfare. The first study was focused on investigating the effects of Echinacea purpurea (EP) supplementation on markers of immunity, health, feed intake, and growth of dairy calves. Overall, EP supplementation was associated with blood markers indicative of reduced inflammation and stimulated immunity, with minor benefits to health and growth.

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid with considerable benefits to gut health, and in recent years has been commonly used as an alternative to antimicrobials in agricultural animal production. In this thesis, we assessed the protective effects of sodium butyrate (NaB) on larval zebrafish during a lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa polysaccharide (LPS) challenge and elucidated potential protective mechanisms of action. Larval zebrafish were pre-treated with 3 concen-trations of NaB for 24 hours at 72 hours post fertilization (hpf), and then immune challenged with 60 μg/mL of LPS at 96 hpf.