• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.444-454
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• 2016

This study was designed to examine the characteristics of sawdust and cocopeat bedding materials, including physicochemical properties (Exp. I) and on-farm trial (Exp. II). In Exp. I, the proportion of particle size was in the order of sawdust>cocopeat India>cocopeat Vietnam (p<0.05), and cocopeat contained higher proportion of small particles ($250{\mu}m$+below $250{\mu}m$) than sawdust, causing a dust production problem. Bulk density was cocopeat India>cocopeat Vietnam>sawdust (p<0.05), thus cocopeat treatments showed 4.4 times higher bedding cost than sawdust. The water absorption rates were 702.0% in cocopeat India, 678.3% in cocopeat Vietnam, and 444.0% in sawdust, showing cocopeat had approximately 1.5 times higher water absorption rate than sawdust. Moisture evaporation rates after 12 h of air blowing (2.00 m/s) were higher (p<0.05) in cocopeat Vietnam (80.4%) than sawdust (71.2%) and cocopeat India (72.8%). In vitro ammonia emissions were higher (p<0.05) in sawdust ($2.71mg/m^2/h$) than cocopeat India ($1.59mg/m^2/h$) and Vietnam ($1.22mg/m^2/h$), and total ammonia emissions were higher (p<0.05) in sawdust ($37.02mg/m^2$) than cocopeat India ($22.51mg/m^2$) and Vietnam ($13.60mg/m^2$). In Exp. II, an on-farm trial was conducted with 48 Hanwoo cattle in 16 pens using the same bedding materials as in Exp. I, with fan (blowing 2.00 m/s) and no fan treatments, and feed bunk side (FB) and water supply side (WS) within a pen (4.5 m, $width{\times}9.0m$, length). Beddings were replaced with fresh bedding materials when moisture concentrations were over 65%. No interactions among treatments were detected for moisture concentration and increment rates, and ammonia concentrations, but a significant effect was observed (p<0.01) for each of the treatments. Both concentrations and increment rate of moisture were higher (p<0.01) in the beddings without fan than with fan. Moisture concentrations and increment rate within a pen were also higher (p<0.01) in FB than WS. Thus, the whole no-fan-FB and sawdust-fan-FB were replaced with fresh bedding material between 4 to 5 experimental weeks. The ammonia concentrations and pH of beddings were not significantly different among treatments. Therefore, using cocopeat bedding with a blowing fan can extend twice the bedding utilization period, and WS within a pen showed twice the bedding-life compared to FB. Despite the outstanding characteristics of cocopeat compared with sawdust, using cocopeat as an alternative for sawdust bedding is not recommended for cattle management, considering it has 4.4 times higher bedding cost and a dust production problem.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.163-169
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of Korean Native Cattle sperm frozen-thawed with L-cysteine and/or catalase. The semen from bulls was collected by the artificial vagina method, and Triladyl containing 20% egg-yolk and/or L-cysteine (L), catalase (C) and L-cysteine + catalase was added to the diluted semen for cryopreservation. The results showed that sperm viability was significantly higher in the L-cysteine + catalase ($69.49{\pm}3.16%$) group than in the control ($60.5{\pm}3.94%$) group (p<0.05). Acrosome damage was significantly lower in the L-cysteine ($17.12{\pm}1.08%$) group than in the control ($21.46{\pm}1.14%$), catalase ($20.54{\pm}0.76%$), and L-cysteine + catalase ($19.29{\pm}0.65%$) groups (p<0.05). In addition, the level of intact mitochondria in the spermatozoa was significantly higher in the L-cysteine ($58.65{\pm}1.39%$) group than in the control ($50.63{\pm}2.37%$) group (p<0.05). The hydrogen peroxide level in the frozen-thawed sperm was significantly lower in the L-cysteine ($3.74{\pm}1.66%$), catalase ($4.65{\pm}1.87%$), and L-cysteine + catalase ($8.11{\pm}2.15%$) groups than in the control ($13.22{\pm}1.6%$) group (p<0.05). The glutathione level was significantly higher in the L-cysteine ($1.33{\pm}0.03%$) group than in the control ($1.08{\pm}0.06%$), catalase ($1.05{\pm}0.02%$) and L-cysteine + catalase ($1.11{\pm}0.03%$) groups (p<0.05). In conclusion, L-cysteine and catalase could protect the membrane of Korean Native Cattle sperm from damage during sperm cryopreservation. Especially, L-cysteine was more effective for keeping acrosomes and mitochondria intactness during sperm cryopreservation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.1075-1083
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• 2015

Adipose tissue deposited within muscle fibers, known as intramuscular fat (IMF or marbling), is a major determinant of meat quality and thereby affects its economic value. The biological mechanisms that determine IMF content are therefore of interest. In this study, 48 genes involved in the bovine peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway, which is involved in lipid metabolism, were investigated to identify candidate genes associated with IMF in the longissimus dorsi of Hanwoo (Korean cattle). Ten genes, retinoid X receptor alpha, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG), phospholipid transfer protein, stearoyl-CoA desaturase, nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group H member 3, fatty acid binding protein 3 (FABP3), carnitine palmitoyltransferase II, acyl-Coenzyme A dehydrogenase long chain (ACADL), acyl-Coenzyme A oxidase 2 branched chain, and fatty acid binding protein 4, showed significant effects with regard to IMF and were differentially expressed between the low- and high-marbled groups (p<0.05). Analysis of the gene co-expression network based on Pearson's correlation coefficients identified 10 up-regulated genes in the high-marbled group that formed a major cluster. Among these genes, the PPARG-FABP4 gene pair exhibited the strongest correlation in the network. Glycerol kinase was found to play a role in mediating activation of the differentially expressed genes. We categorized the 10 significantly differentially expressed genes into the corresponding downstream pathways and investigated the direct interactive relationships among these genes. We suggest that fatty acid oxidation is the major downstream pathway affecting IMF content. The PPARG/RXRA complex triggers activation of target genes involved in fatty acid oxidation resulting in increased triglyceride formation by ATP production. Our findings highlight candidate genes associated with the IMF content of the loin muscle of Korean cattle and provide insight into the biological mechanisms that determine adipose deposition within muscle.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2004

In order to investigate the effect of floor condition on the fattening performance of cattle, sixteen finishing Hanwoo steers of weighting 570kg were fed for 16 weeks to slaughter on two types of sawdust bedding pen oriented to the south(SP) and the north(NP) then obtained following results. The floor condition of SP roofed by transparent material was dry and flat during overall experimental period, whereas, that of NP roofed by solid slate was muddy and rough even in summer and fall, and then frozen in winter period resulted in interfering with the locomotion and resting behavior of steers. Average daily dry matter intake of steers was not different between tow treatments, however, the average daily gain of steers in NP and SP was 0.64kg and 0.75kg, respectively, meaning that gained 14.3% less for the NP group(p<0.05), accordingly, feed requirement(feed/gain) and TDN/gain increased by 15.9% and 15.5%, respectively. No significant differences were found in slaughter weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage, meat yield index and meat quality traits between two treatments. In conclusion, this study revealed that poor floor condition of feeding pen could decrease weight gain and feed efficiency of cattle by increasing energy consumption for locomotion and conductive energy loss while resting on the floor surface. These results indicates that housing orientation of cattle shed and the selection of roof material are important factors in beef cattle production.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 2013

The present study was conducted with three ruminally cannulated non-lactating Holstein cattle in a $3{\times}3$ Latin square design to determine the fermentation characteristics and effective degradability (ED) in the rumen, as well as the whole tract digestibility of whole crop silage based total mixed ration (TMR) in comparison with conventional separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw for late fattening Hanwoo steers. The cattle in each group were fed separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw (control), whole crop barley silage based TMR (BS-TMR) or whole crop rye silage based TMR (RS-TMR). The ruminal fermentation characteristics such as pH, ammonia-N concentration and total volatile fatty acid were not affected by the experimental diet. The molar portion of acetate ($C_2$) was lowest in rumen fluid 1 h after feeding when cattle were fed BS-TMR (p<0.033). Molar proportions of propionate ($C_3$), butyrate and $C_2/C_3$ were not influenced by the experimental diet. There were no differences in effective degradability or whole tract digestibility of feed components among any of the experimental diets. The data obtained from the metabolism trial indicate that the feeding value of TMR with BS or RS is equal to that of a conventional separate feeding of concentrate and rice straw.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

This study is conducted to use the real-time ultrasound measurement data of Hanwoo as basic data being available to improvement. We used the ultrasound measurement data of 1,125 heads of performance tested cattle and the carcass data after castrating at about 12 months of age, fattened to 30 months, and then sold. For 921 heads of progeny tested cattle, we used test data and slaughter data. Heritabilities of ultrasound data for longissimus muscle area and backfat thickness measured at 12 months of age were estimated as 0.57 and- 0.41, respectively, and at 24 months of age, it was 0.57 and- 0.60, respectively, with high heritability. However, in estimation value of heritability containing ultrasound measurement for percent intramuscular fat, it showed low and medium heritability as 0.14 at 12 months of age and 0.22 at 24 months of age for each. The longissimus muscle area, backfat thickness, and percent intramuscular fat of ultrasound measure traits and longissimus muscle area, backfat thickness, marbling score of carcass traits genetic correlation of at 12 months of age were estimated as 0.616, 0.544, 0.501, respectively and at 24 months of age, it showed high genetic correlation as 0.894, 0.937, 0.263, respectively. As a result of ranking correlation between selection index by using weight, carcass traits at 12 months of age and selection index based on ultrasound measurement data which has high genetic correlation, in data of ultrasound measurement at 12 months of age, it showed high ranking correlation as that selection index of young bull was 0.140 and that of proven bull was 0.843.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.389-395
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the combined effect of fatty acid synthase (FASN) and Acetyl CoA Carboxylase-${\alpha}$ (ACACA) genes on carcass traits of Korean cattle (Hanwoo). A total of 1,057 commercial Hanwoo cattle provided by the NongHyup Livestock Research Center (NLRC) and Hanwoo Performance Competition (HPC) were used to analyze the effect of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within FASN (g.11280A>G, g.16024A>G, g.16039T>C, and g.17924A>G) and one SNP within ACACA (g.2274G>A) genes. In addition, the effect of genotypic combinations between FASN (g.17924A>G) and ACACA (g.2274G>A) SNPs has been studied with carcass traits. Significant associations were identified between g.17924A>G of FASN and carcass weight and back fat, and between the ACACA gene SNP g.2274G>A and longissimus muscle area with HPC samples. It was also found that both effects of FASN g.17924A>G and ACACA g.2274G>A polymorphisms were consistent in NLRC samples. Combined analyses of both NLRC and HPC samples also revealed the significant associations between the FASN g.17924A>G and carcass weight and back fat and between the ACACA g.2274G>A and back fat, respectively. The effect of the genotypic combination of g.17924A>G within FASN and g.2274G>A within ACACA genes showed that the combination of both GG genotypes of FASN and ACACA SNPs causes higher carcass weight and marbling score. The results of this study indicate that the two SNP markers within the FASN and ACACA genes can be utilized to select superior Hanwoo cows and calves in commercial Hanwoo farms.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1062-1068
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• 2004

Leptin has a major role in the regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis. In addition, leptin participates in many physiological functions including regulation of lipid metabolism. Bovine recombinant leptin protein was produced in E. coli cells in order to understand function of leptin in the regulation of lipid metabolism. The leptin expression vector was constructed in pGEX-4T-3 vector and transformed into E. coli BL21 cells. Expression of the GST-leptin fusion protein was induced with IPTG. The fusion protein was purified using glutathione sepharose 4B batch method, and the recombinant leptin was eluted after thrombin protease digestion. The effect of leptin on glucose transport was examined in the differentiated adipocytes of 3T3-L1 cells. Leptin had no effect on basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport in 3T3-L1 cells (p>0.05). Effect of recombinant leptin on glucose and acetate transport was examined in adipose tissues of Korean cattle (Hanwoo). Insulin stimulated glucose transport in both intramuscular and subcutaneous adipose tissues (p<0.05), but leptin did not affect glucose transport in both adipose tissues (p>0.05). Insulin stimulated acetate transport in bovine adipose tissues (p<0.05), but leptin did not affect acetate transport (p>0.05). Northern and RT-PCR analyses showed that mRNA levels of uncoupling protein-2 were increased by leptin treatment in 3T3-L1 cells without statistical difference (p>0.05). In conclusion, bovine recombinant leptin did not affect glucose and acetate transport in both 3T3-L1 adipocytes and bovine adipose tissues, while it stimulates UCP-2 mRNA expression in 3T3-L1 cells.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.1109-1122
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to develop a marbling classification and prediction model using small parts of sirloin images based on a deep learning algorithm, namely, a convolutional neural network (CNN). Samples were purchased from a commercial slaughterhouse in Korea, images for each grade were acquired, and the total images (n = 500) were assigned according to their grade number: 1++, 1+, 1, and both 2 & 3. The image acquisition system consists of a DSLR camera with a polarization filter to remove diffusive reflectance and two light sources (55 W). To correct the distorted original images, a radial correction algorithm was implemented. Color images of sirloins of Hanwoo (mixed with feeder cattle, steer, and calf) were divided and sub-images with image sizes of 161 × 161 were made to train the marbling prediction model. In this study, the convolutional neural network (CNN) has four convolution layers and yields prediction results in accordance with marbling grades (1++, 1+, 1, and 2&3). Every single layer uses a rectified linear unit (ReLU) function as an activation function and max-pooling is used for extracting the edge between fat and muscle and reducing the variance of the data. Prediction accuracy was measured using an accuracy and kappa coefficient from a confusion matrix. We summed the prediction of sub-images and determined the total average prediction accuracy. Training accuracy was 100% and the test accuracy was 86%, indicating comparably good performance using the CNN. This study provides classification potential for predicting the marbling grade using color images and a convolutional neural network algorithm.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.426-439
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• 2021

It is already well known that castration improves marbling quality but exact timing of castration is still highly debated in beef cattle production industry. After castration, blood hormonal changes occur in steer and objective of this study was to investigate the effects of growth hormone (GH) levels on adipocyte differentiation in stromal vascular cells (SVCs) and transdifferentiation into adipocytes in C2C12 myoblasts. Total GH concentrations were measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 24 male calves and 4 female calves. Cell proliferation, cellular triglyceride (TG) accumulation, and the cell's lipolytic capability were measured in C2C12 myoblasts and SVCs. Myogenic, adipogenic, and brown adipocyte-specific gene expression was measured via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using SYBR green. Serum GH levels were the highest in late-castrated calves. Treatment with 5 ng/mL GH resulted in greater TG accumulation as well as increased CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)α and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ expression compared to that after treatment with 15 ng/mL GH. Treatment with 5 ng/mL GH also resulted in lower myogenin (myo)G and myoD expression compared to that after treatment with 15 ng/mL GH. The expression of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) 7 after treatment with 5 ng/mL GH was higher than that after treatment with 15 ng/mL GH. But carcass characteristics data showed no significant difference between early and late castrated steers. Therefore, our results indicate that castration timing does not seem to be inevitable determinate of carcass qualities, particularly carcass weight and marbling score in Hanwoo beef cattle.