Judit Barna

Centre for Farm Animal Gene Conservation · Institute for Small Animal Research and Gene Conservation Biology

The objective of this study was to clarify whether the most-common species of Mycoplasma are capable of being detected in the reproductive organs and the cloaca, as well as in the semen of asymptomatic native Hungarian male geese. As it is necessary for the semen of that breed to be preserved pathogen-free in an in vitro gene-conservation program,...

Although numerous studies reported the effects of heat stress in chickens, it was not investigated in the Transylvanian Naked Neck breed. In our research, Transylvanian Naked Neck chickens, 24 hours after hatching, were heat-treated at 38.5 °C for 12 hours. We compared the control and heat-treated adult chickens’ productivity parameters following 1...

Background One of the most critical global problem nowadays is the increased environmental temperature. Agriculture is very susceptible to this adverse effect because the productivity of animals and poultry decreased. Although several studies reported the effects of heat-stress in chicken, the expression profile of heat-shock proteins and heat shoc...

In avian species, the surgical technique for ovarian allotransplantation has been developed for domestic chickens; however, not all genotypes can be effectively used as recipients. The aims of the present study were to ascertain donor/recipient combinations for production of offspring from frozen/thawed ovarian tissues. The development of the techn...

The latest advances in molecular biology techniques, such as microsatellite markers, have provided new opportunities to evaluate the genetic variability among animals at the genetic level. Numerous studies have comprised microsatellite analyses of genetic diversity among chicken breeds, including analysis of local chicken breeds, although very few...

Assisted reproductive techniques such as artificial insemination, cryopreservation of avian spermatozoa, in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, early gonad manipulations, and embryonic cell manipulation have all been attempted in various avian species. Most of the related studies, though, are available on the domesticated poultry...

SSZEFOGLALÁS Napjainkban a baromfi-génmegőrzés területén az ondómélyhűtés számít gyakor-latias módszernek, amellyel azonban a nőivar genetikai anyagát nem lehet meg-őrizni. Ez szükségessé teszi alternatív eljárások kidolgozását, amelyre alkalmas lehet az ivarszervek-elsősorban a petefészek-átültetése napos korban. Az ivar-szerv-transzplantáció sike...

The aim of the study was to find a practical and inexpensive method for freezing goose semen for use in routine inseminations under farm conditions. Two basic freezing protocols [(1) dynamic, programmable freezing and (2) static, nitrogen vapour method] were evaluated with varying concentrations of dimethylformamide (DMF) plus additional osmoprotec...

Related to the gene preservation activities of our Institute, the aim of our research was to produce an infertile interspecific hybrid (recipient) which is able to receive primordial germ cells (PGCs) from native poultry breed (donor) and according to our expectations; this genotype may appear in the offsprings of hybrids. To achieve our goals, the...

High environmental temperature can be a stress factor for poultry, thus it can cause reduced productivity traits. The animals can be protected from such negative effects with increased adaptation capabilities through the usage of special keeping technologies. Therefore, during this study our aim was to investigate the impact of heat treatment and h...

Authors present a comprehensive review about the significance of the maintenance of genetic diversity, the possibilities of ex situ/in vitro gene conservation in poultry species. There is an introduction of the various ways of the preservation of genetic material, the results achieved so far at international level, as well as the present developmen...

PRACTICAL CRYOPRESERVATION OF GANDER SPERM USING VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF CRYO- AND OSMOPROTECTANTS Éva Váradi, Barbara Végi, Árpád Drobnyák, Orsolya Zöld, Judit Barna Centre for Farm Animal Gene Conservation H-2100 Gödöllő, Isaszegi rd 200. HUNGARY varadievi@hotmail.com Goose breeding has a traditional role in the Hungarian agriculture. Goose...

Semen cryopreservation is a practical method for banking germplasm from valuable indigenous species which have an increasing risk of extinction. Many scientific publications have described different protocols of avian sperm cryopreservation for both domesticated and non-domesticated avian species, involving cryoprotectant type and packaging method,...

The aim of the present study was to adapt the intra-cardiac blastodermal cell transfer method to domestic goose. Before the manipulations comparative experiments were made to determine the appropriate embryonic developmental stage when migration of PGC cells takes place in the goose embryo. The stages of embryonic development of Hungarian goose emb...

Since early fertility decline is a permanent problem of broiler breeders, the aim of this study was to test the effects of various sex ratios, spiking strategies and additional artificial inseminations (AI) on their breeding efficiency. Six breeder flocks were analysed during the whole reproduction cycle. In Flock A the sex ratio was maintained at...

The aim of the study was to devise a technique to allow transfer of ovarian and testicular tissues obtained from one day old chicks to recipient animals. The following combinations of chicken breeds were used: Tetra SL/Tetra SL, Tetra SL/Harco, Tetra SL/Black Transylvanian Naked Neck, Godollo New Hampshire/Speckled Transylvanian Naked Neck (recipie...

Conservation of indigenous poultry species is an important part of the new Hungarian agricultural strategy. Semen cryopreservation is the most practical method for the long term storage of poultry genetic material. The objective was to compare four protocols for cryopreservation of guinea fowl sperm (slow and fast programmable, freezing in nitrogen...

Although cryopreservation of avian semen is only applicable for singlegene traits, cryopreservation of avian blastodermal cells could facilitate preservation of the entire genome of endangered or rare-breed poultry. Slow freezing methods result in acceptable survival rates; however, there are apparently no reports regarding the use of vitrification...

The final aim of the study is the reliable maintenance of the genetic diversity of domestic poultry breeds, above the maintaining of living populations. Nowadays major part of poultry’s genetic pool is listed on local, domestic species lists, and handled as highly endangered species. Conservation of the genetic material by cryopreservation of semen...

Supporting the rescue of the valuable indigenous domestic animal species is an important part of the new Hungarian agricultural strategy. In the case of poultry species semen cryopreservation is the most practical method for the long term storage of the genetic material. So far, only a single study is available on the freezing of guinea fowl sperm....

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of early age thermal manipulation on sperm parameters, egg production, fertility, as well as the embryonic mortality. The heat treatment was carried out on 4 day-old goslings, applying 38.5°C in a special experimental room, during 24 hours. The concentration of spermatozoa, the motility, the membra...

Present investigation is a part of a large-scale research project with the goal of ex situ conservation of the Hungarian poultry genetic materials. In the study the freezing tolerance of the blastodermal cells of four indigenous poultry breeds (Hungarian white and yellow, Speckled Transylvanian Naked-neck, Partridge colored chicken) was investigate...

The effect of the synthetic GnRH analogue treatment for the changes of the steroid hormone concentrations and the spermatological parameters in broiler breeder males was studied. 10-10 cockerels were treated with GnRH analogue at the beginning of the maturation period (23(rd) week, group GnRH1 and 25(th) week, group GnRH2) and there was a control g...

Present investigation was a part of a large-scale research project with the goal of in situ conservation of the Hungarian poultry genetic materials. First step was to elaborate the deep-freezing procedure of embryonic blastodermal cells of goose. Second step was to create chimeric geese with frozen-thawed embryonic cells. The chimaeras were produc...

Chimera turkeys were produced to study the possibilities of ex situ gene preservation. Blastodermal cell suspension gained from 79 bronze-turkey eggs was injected into 107 recipient BUT big no.6 white-feathered meat-hybrid turkey-eggs with a concentration of about 1000 cells/µl. Chimerism was identified phenotypically by different feather colour of...

Chimeras produced in birds and mammalian species are mosaics whose organisms are constructed from two or more different genotypes, chimeras can occur in nature as well (zygote fusion, freemartins). One of ex situ gene-preservation techniques is the long-term storage of pluripotent embryonic stem cells obtained from the fertilized eggs. One possible...

Embryonic mortality is a significant problem plaguing the hatching success. Its early forms are especially hardly distinguishable from true infertility. Propidium iodide (PI) staining of the germinal disc combined with outer perivitelline layer (OPVL) sperm counting was used for the determination of 'true' fertility of duck eggs in two different ex...

The proportion of spermatozoa with elongated nuclei in ejaculates from a strain of guinea fowl was estimated, subjectively, to range from approximately 1 to 6%. It was confirmed by image analysis that in an ejaculate from one male, the distribution of nuclear lengths was bimodal, with a distinct population comprising 10% of spermatozoa having a mea...

In most bird species, pairs copulate many times before egg laying. The exact function of repeated inseminations (i.e. successful copulations) is unknown, but several suggestions have been made. We tested the hypothesis that repeated inseminations are required to ensure fertilization of eggs, by using an experimental method where free-ranging male c...

The effects of taurine on the motility and intracellular free Ca2+ concentration of fowl spermatozoa were investigated in vitro. The addition of taurine, within the range of 0-5 mmol l(-1), did not appreciably affect the motility of intact fowl spermatozoa. Motility remained almost negligible at 40 degrees C, while vigorous movement was observed at...

The objective of the present experiments was to study some properties of fowl spermatozoa which may play a role in the sperm storage and emptying mechanism of the uterovaginal sperm storage tubules (SST) of the hen. The effects exerted by different amino acids (aspartic acid, Asp; glutamic acid, Glu; gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA; glycine, Gly) and...

The free amino acid content of 34 hens' oviducts was determined in different phases of the egg formation cycle. In addition, quantitative changes of transmitter-type amino acids (glutamic acid, aspartic acid, taurine, glycine) were monitored in comparison with those of other amino acids participating in protein synthesis (e.g., lysine, tyrosine, va...

Eight 40-week-old New Hampshire cockerels (average liveweight: 3.10 +/- 0.2 kg) were used for studying the testosterone response to a single intramuscular dose (5 micrograms/kg b.w.) of exogenous 6D-Phe gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). Serum samples were collected at 15-min intervals during the first hour and at half-hour intervals up to two...

It is well known that the characteristics of spermatozoa such as motility, transmembrane potential, agglutination type, decapacitation and capacitation specifically change within the male and female genital tracts. These features are generally thought to be regulated by two major endogenous factors, one of them being a protein and the other an unid...

In the last decade many attempts were made on faecal steroid analysis, as a non-invasive method. Birds' faeces contain metabolites of steroid breakdown eliminated both from the intestines and the kidneys, resulting in a special situation. For the precise analysis determination of the passage time of fodder in studied species is the first step. In m...

The effect of various mating strategies on the mating efficiency of two and three flocks of broiler breeder was analysed during the whole reproduction cycle by weekly monitoring using IPVL hole counting technique in 2004 and 2005, respectively. 60 eggs/week of 3000 birds/flock were examined by the method of Wishart (1999). For statistical analysis...