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December 2021

Sharareh Jahanbin Defence Notice

Sharareh Jahanbin's PhD Defence

The nutritional value of feed ingredients varies due to the use of different raw materials and processing conditions during the produc-tion of protein ingredients. Thermal processing is central to the production of many feed ingredients. Proteins tend to be reactive and may un-dergo chemical changes during thermal processing which is collectively described as “heat damage”. Heat damage includes numerous chemical processes that may irreversibly damage amino acids or render protein more resistant to digestion. Processing of proteins at high temperatures can result in protein cross-linking.
ABSc Snowman Building Competition

ABSC GSC Winter Snowman Building Competition

Repeats every day 2 times.
Greetings Animal Biosciences,    Can you believe that 2021 is almost finished? The Graduate Student Council (ABSc GSC) is BACK with the last student run EVENT of the year! A department wide SNOWMAN BUILDING COMPETITION!
Nanostring nCounter Seminar Flyer

NanoString nCounter Seminar

Nanostring nCounter technology enables multiplexed quantification of up to 800 RNA, DNA or protein targets from a variety of samples sources. This virtual seminar will provide an overview of the technology including capabilities and range of applications. Check your email and calendar for the Zoom meeting link. Hope to see you there!  
ABSc Snowman Building Competition

ABSC GSC Winter Snowman Building Competition

Greetings Animal Biosciences,    Can you believe that 2021 is almost finished? The Graduate Student Council (ABSc GSC) is BACK with the last student run EVENT of the year! A department wide SNOWMAN BUILDING COMPETITION!

Emily Leishman's PhD Defence

Animal robustness is essential in the poultry industry because of its consequences for animal health, wellbeing, and industry profitability. Strategies to improve animal robustness can include quantifying environmental sensitivity or direct selection for ro-bustness-related traits, however, these have come with limited success.

Renee Hilker's MSc Defence

MicroRNAs interfere with translation of mRNAs through complementary binding at the 3’ untranslat-ed region (UTR). MicroRNA-29b-3p (miR-29b) is localized to the nucleus in porcine granulosa cells, but its function is unknown. We hypothesized miR-29b binds to nuclear DNA to regulate transcrip-tion. We analyzed genes regulated by miR-29b for potential binding sites in their promoter regions. MiR-29b may bind to the promoter regions of GLUL, CDKN2B, and NR2F2, but does not regulate NR2F2 transcription. We instead identified genes miR-29b may regulate via 3’ UTR repression.

2021 Virtual Nutrition Seminar Series

Please join us for the DECEMBER Installment of the 2021 ‘Virtual’ Nutrition Seminar Series, hosted by the Centre for Nutrition Modelling (Animal Biosciences Department). Each month in 2021 a different lab within the Nutrition group will share their exciting new research in a dynamic virtual manner.  In December we bring you:

Renee Garant's MSc Defence

Bones are a highly complex tissue capable of adapting to changes in muscle usage through specialized cells which respond to mus-cle strain. As such, the way in which birds utilize their wings has a direct impact on strain production of the flight muscles, and sub-sequently the keel bone to which the muscles anchor. Currently, adaptations of muscle and bone in response to a decrease in wing use is unknown in laying hens. Therefore, the first study (Chapter 2) sought to investigate if a loss of flight feathers (reduction to wing area) would reduce wing activity.

Angela Wilson's PhD Defence

Free-stalls are an important area of dairy production where cow comfort should be maximized. Comfortable free-stalls con-tribute to the cows’ ability to achieve adequate rest, which translates into improved health and production. However, free-stalls are generally designed to promote cleanliness and reduce the labour required for maintenance through restricting cow behaviour. The overall objective of this thesis was to evaluate a novel free-stall designed to improve cow comfort using an increased stall slope, minimal stall partitioning, a heat abatement system, and supplemental lighting.

Siobhan Mellor's MSc Defence

Due to the high prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders in dairy calves, optimizing nutritional strategies to enhance gastrointestinal (GIT) development and improve calf health is at the forefront of industry concerns. This thesis investigates the effects of whole milk powder (WP) and milk replacer (MR) of similar macronutrient composition on GIT development, function, and composition in male Holstein calves.

Emma Hyland's MSc Defence

Research into the genetic aspects of calf health traits is an emerging field for the dairy industry. Calf respiratory illness and diarrhea remain the two highest causes of calf morbidity and mortality in Canada and worldwide. Previous research has shown there are long term effects to an animal as a result of calfhood morbidity. The goal of the research described in this thesis was to understand the quantity and quality of calf health information available, specifically respiratory illness and diarrhea, that could be used in future genetic research.

Victoria Asselstine's PhD Defence

Mastitis is a very challenging disease in the dairy industry that affects the animal’s health, as well as the producer’s profit and management. Although it has been studied in depth over the years, we have still yet to eliminate it due to the fact that there are numerous pathogens that can cause a mastitis infection, and they are extremely prevalent in the cow’s environment. For this reason, emphasis is being placed on identifying cows that are more able to prevent or recover from a mastitis infection based on her genetics.

Aisha Fong's MSc Defence

Johne’s disease is a chronic wasting disease in dairy cattle caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). Genetic selection can help to control this disease, and one candidate gene of interest is the gene encoding for interleukin-10 receptor subunit alpha (IL10Rα). A bovine mammary epithelial cell line was created with the gene encoding IL10Rα knocked out (IL10KO). This cell line was ex-posed to live MAP, and mRNA was extracted. The differentially expressed genes were compared between the IL10KO and wild-type cell lines, and gene ontology was performed.

Juan Rivera's MSc Defence

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum Sp.) is characterized by high biomass yields and the ability to grow on mar-ginal lands where common dairy forage sources are unable to thrive. The objective of this research was to as-sess its feeding value for dairy cows by comparative evaluations of DM degradability in vitro and in situ, and lactational performance in vivo when fed in partial replacement (13% of ration DM) of corn and alfalfa silag-es. In vitro results showed that cup plant silage only had lower DMD than the alfalfa silages, and lower pH than corn silage.