Alfonso Ruiz, Leopoldo

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Alfonso Ruiz

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Leopoldo

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Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación

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IS-FOOD. Research Institute on Innovation & Sustainable Development in Food Chain

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • PublicationOpen Access
    An expression of mixed animal model equations to account for different means and variances in the base population
    (Editions Scientifiques Medicales Elsevier, 1999) Alfonso Ruiz, Leopoldo; Estany Illa, Joan; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena
    This paper presents a general expression to predict breeding values using animal models when the base population is selected, i.e. the means and variances of breeding values in the base generation differ among individuals. Rules for forming the mixed model equations are also presented. A numerical example illustrates the procedure.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Comparative description of growth, fat deposition, carcass and meat quality characteristics of Basque and Large White pigs
    (EDP Sciences, 2005) Alfonso Ruiz, Leopoldo; Mourot, Jacques; Insausti Barrenetxea, Kizkitza; Mendizábal Aizpuru, José Antonio; Arana Navarro, Ana; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
    Characteristics of growth, fat deposition, carcass and meat quality of pigs from the Basque Black Pied breed were described and compared with those of Large White pigs. Four pens, two per breed, of eleven pigs born during the same two week period, were simultaneously fattened and slaughtered, under the same conditions. The experiment was carried out over a fixed duration (124 days) and slaughter was carried out at a fixed average age (202 days). Basque pigs showed lower growth and feed efficiency and higher backfat depth (2.6 vs. 1.7 cm, P < 0.001) than Large White pigs. The difference was especially noticeable in the middle subcutaneous fat layer (0.5 cm, P < 0.001). The meat of Basque pigs was darker, redder, more marbled, and with higher pH values than in Large White pigs. Differences in fatty acid composition were observed between breeds but they were not statistically significant (P > 0.05) because of high variability observed between animals. The Basque breed exhibited an early and higher adipose development and a higher activity of enzymes responsible for lipid synthesis than the Large White. The diameter of intramuscular adipose cells was larger in Basque (40.2 vs. 33.0 μm, P < 0.001) than in Large White pigs. The results show the particular characteristics of the Basque breed as compared to pig lines highly selected for lean growth efficiency.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Use of meta-analysis to combine candidate gene association studies: application to study the relationship between the ESR PvuII polymorphism and sow litter size
    (EDP Sciences, 2005) Alfonso Ruiz, Leopoldo; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena
    This article investigates the application of meta-analysis on livestock candidate gene effects. The PvuII polymorphism of the ESR gene is used as an example. The association among ESR PvuII alleles with the number of piglets born alive and total born in the first (NBA1, TNB1) and later parities (NBA, TNB) is reviewed by conducting a meta-analysis of 15 published studies including 9329 sows. Under a fixed effects model, litter size values were significantly lower in the "AA" genotype groups when compared with "AB" and "BB" homozygotes. Under the random effects model, the results were similar although differences between "AA" and "AB" genotype groups were not clearly significant for NBA and TNB. Nevertheless, the most noticeable results was the high and significant heterogeneity estimated among studies. This heterogeneity could be assigned to error sampling, genotype by environment interaction, linkage or epistasis, as referred to in the literature, but also to the hypothesis of population admixture/stratification. It is concluded that meta-analysis can be considered as a helpful analytical tool to synthesise and discuss livestock candidate gene effects. The main difficulty found was the insufficient information on the standard errors of the estimated genotype effects in several publications. Consequently, the convenience of publishing the standard errors or the concrete P-values instead of the test significance level should be recommended to guarantee the quality of candidate gene effect meta-analyses.