Nadine Buys

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Department of Biosystems

Background Psoroptic mange, caused by Psoroptes ovis mites, is affecting Belgian Blue cattle’s welfare and production potential. The Belgian Blue cattle—known for its high degree of muscling, low feed conversion ratio and high beef quality—is highly susceptible for this disease. Results In this study, we phenotyped 1975 Belgian Blue cattle from mo...

Background Previous research showed that deviations in longitudinal data are heritable and can be used as a proxy for pigs' general resilience. However, only a few studies investigated the relationship between these resilience traits and other traits related to resilience and welfare. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between res...

The main goal of the Belgian Warmblood horse studbook (BWP) is to breed successful competition horses, with emphasis on show jumping. However, competition results are only available later in life and competition traits are lowly heritable. Hence, the use of phenotypes that record performance‐related traits at an early life stage could help increase...

Screening for genetic diversity in livestock species breeds is of utmost importance, especially for local, small populations that are at the risk of extinction. Luckily, recent developments in technology increase access to genotyping, also for numerically small breeds. One of these new technologies is the IMAGE001 single nucleotide polymorphism gen...

Background Increasing resilience is a priority in modern pig breeding. Recent research shows that general resilience can be quantifed via variability in longitudinal data. The collection of such longitudinal data on weight, feed intake and feeding behaviour in pigs has been facilitated by the development of technologies such as automated feeding...

Background Show jumping is one of the most popular disciplines in the horse sector, which makes success in show jumping competitions an important breeding goal for many studbooks. Therefore, the genetic evaluation of show jumping performance is of major interest and this is the case for two Belgian Warmblood studbooks: the Belgian Warmblood horse a...

Simple Summary Animals have been used as subjects in biomedical research for a long time. In these studies, tissue collection for RNA profiling is often essential, and hence, the animals are euthanised using standard injectable anaesthetics such as sodium pentobarbital or T-61®. Recently, a euthanasia method using an inhalant anaesthetic ‘nitrogen...

Pig breeding is changing rapidly due to technological progress and socio-ecological factors. New precision livestock farming technologies such as computer vision systems are crucial for automated phenotyping on a large scale for novel traits, as pigs’ robustness and behavior are gaining importance in breeding goals. However, individual identificati...

Belgian Blue cattle are known for their high degree of muscling and good carcass qualities. This high degree of muscling is mainly caused by a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN). Although the MSTN mutation is considered as fixed in the Belgian Blue breed, segregation is occurring in a sub-population bred for dual purpose. In the latter populatio...

Osteochondrosis (OC) is an important skeletal disease causing profound welfare concerns in horses. Although numerous studies have explored the genetics underlying OC in various breeds, the Belgian Warmblood (BW) remains unstudied despite having a concerning prevalence of 32.0%. As a result, this study aimed to conduct genome-wide association (GWA)...

Genetic diversity is increasingly important for researchers and society. Small and local populations deserve more attention especially, as they may harbor important characteristics. Moreover, small populations are at greater risk and their genetic management is often more challenging. Likewise, European red cattle populations are threatened, as the...

Background Runs of homozygosity (ROH) have become the state-of-the-art method for analysis of inbreeding in animal populations. Moreover, ROH are suited to detect signatures of selection via ROH islands and are used in other applications, such as genomic prediction and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Currently, a vast amount of single nucle...

Sheep scab, caused by Psoroptes ovis mites, represents a significant threat to sheep health and welfare. Infestations are diagnosed by parasite identification in skin scrapings, and more recently with a commercial ELISA against serum antibodies to the Pso o 2 mite allergen. However, little is known about the performance of the ELISA in non-UK sheep...

The use of antimicrobials in animal production is under public debate, mainly due to the risk of transfer of resistance to pathogenic bacteria in humans. Therefore, measures have been taken during the last few decades to reduce antibiotic usage in animals, for instance, by national monitoring programmes and by improving animal health management. Al...

The use of antimicrobials in animal production is under public debate, mainly due to the risk of transfer of resistance to pathogenic bacteria in humans. Therefore, measures have been taken during the last decades to reduce antibiotic usage in animals, for instance by national monitoring programmes and by improving animal health management. Althoug...

To investigate whether there are important interactions in play in broilers between thyroid hormones and the central regulation of energy homeostasis through AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), we induced a functional hyperthyroid and hypothyroid state in broiler chicks, and quantified systemic and hypothalamic AMPK related gene expression and rel...

Boar taint is an unpleasant taste and odor that can occur in entire male pigs and is caused by androstenone, skatole, and to a lesser extent indole accumulating in fat tissue. In the present observational study, we evaluated an extensive list of such potential risk factors which influence boar taint: social hierarchy and puberty attainment, housing...

Trained expert panels are used routinely in boar taint research, with varying protocols for training of panelists and scoring methods. We describe a standardized process for training and scoring, to contribute to standardize the olfactory detection of boar taint. Three experiments are described in which we (1) evaluate the importance of training an...

Background: PLINK is probably the most used program for analyzing SNP genotypes and runs of homozygosity (ROH), both in human and in animal populations. The last decade, ROH analyses have become the state-of-the-art method for inbreeding assessment. In PLINK, the --homozyg function is used to perform ROH analyses and relies on several input settin...

The present study focuses on the Belgian Milk Sheep in Flanders (Belgium) and compares its genetic diversity and relationship with the Flemish Sheep, the Friesian Milk Sheep, the French Lacaune dairy sheep and other Northern European breeds. For this study, 94 Belgian Milk Sheep, 23 Flemish Sheep and 22 Friesian Milk Sheep were genotyped with the O...

The Piétrain pig originates from the Belgian village Piétrain some time between 1920 and 1950. Owing to its superior conformation, the Piétrain has spread worldwide since the 1960s. As initial population sizes were limited and close inbreeding was commonplace, the breed’s genetic diversity has been questioned. Therefore, this study examines Piétrai...

Abstract Background Copy Number Variation (CNV) is a common form of genetic variation underlying animal evolution and phenotypic diversity across a wide range of species. In the mammalian genome, high frequency of CNV differentiation between breeds may be candidates for population-specific selection. However, CNV differentiation, selection and its...

Background Copy Number Variation (CNV) is a common form of genetic variation underlying animal evolution and phenotypic diversity across a wide range of species. In the mammalian genome, high frequency of CNV differentiation between breeds may be candidates for population-specific selection. However, CNV differentiation, selection and its populatio...

Background Copy Number Variation (CNV) is a common form of genetic variation underlying animal evolution and phenotypic diversity across a wide range of species. In the mammalian genome, high frequency of CNV differentiation between breeds may be candidates for population-specific selection. However, CNV differentiation, selection and its populatio...

Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH), which is a cutaneous allergic reaction to antigens from Culicoides spp., is the most prevalent skin disorder in horses. Misdiagnosis is possible, as IBH is usually diagnosed based on clinical signs. Our study is the first to employ IgE levels against several recombinant Culicoides spp. allergens as an objective,...

Background Copy Number Variation (CNV) is a common form of genetic variation underlying animal evolution and phenotypic diversity across a wide range of species. In the mammalian genome, high frequency of CNV differentiation between breeds may be candidates for population-specific selection. However, CNV differentiation, selection and its populatio...

Immunocastration (vaccination against boar taint) is an alternative method to prevent boar taint without the need for surgical castration. This study investigates the evolution of boar taint compounds in serum and fat, serum steroid compounds as well as behavior in immunocastrated pigs from 3 sire lines: 15 stress positive Belgian Piétrain (BP), 20...

Genetic evaluation of Piétrain sires in Flanders occurs under standardized conditions, on test stations with fixed dam breeds, standardized diets and uniform management practices. As environmental conditions vary on commercial farms and differ from the test stations, this study aimed at understanding to what extent the sire, the dam breed and the i...

Copy Number Variants (CNVs −gain or loss of genomic material) are a common form of genetic variation underlying phenotypic diversity across a wide range of species. It has previously been hypothesized that high frequency CNV differentiation between breeds may be linked to population-specific selection; and highly inbred populations may also accumul...

Background: Many common and relevant diseases affecting equine welfare have yet to be tested regarding structural variants such as copy number variations (CNVs). CNVs make up a substantial proportion of total genetic variability in populations of many species, resulting in more sequence differences between individuals than SNPs. Associations betwe...

One of the challenges in the production of entire male pigs is the occurrence of boar taint. We separately tested the effect of 3 management strategies to reduce boar taint on respectively 2, 3, and 6 Flemish pig farms: 1) adapted feeding strategies, 2) presence of gilts in the compartment, and 3) varying lairage duration at the slaughterhouse. A c...

Background The selection of a future breeding dog is a complicated task, in which disease characteristics and different traits have to be combined and weighed against one another. Truncation selection, that is the exclusion of affected animals, may be very inefficient when selecting on a large number of traits, and may result in a reduction of the...

In an attempt to prevent tail biting in pigs, tail docking is often done. This management procedure is painful for the pigs, so the question arises whether pigs can be raised with intact tails and whether these pigs would benefit from an enriched environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavior and performance of fattening pigs wi...

Chiari-like malformation (CM), syringomyelia (SM) and middle ear effusion (also called PSOM) are three conditions that frequently occur in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS). Both CM and SM are currently screened in the Netherlands prior to breeding and are graded according to the British Veterinary Association’s Kennel Club (BVA/KC) scheme. Thi...

MRI data. Excel file with all, anonymized, analyzed MRI scan. (XLSX)

CCD scans. Representation of all dogs with the length of the CCD during their first scan (blue) and their second scan (orange). (TIFF)

The Flemish sheep breed is of the dairy type and currently considered as a rare breed in Flanders (Belgium). The original breeding objective of the Flemish sheep was wool production (18th century) but it was also known for its high litter size and good maternal capacity. In order to support conservation efforts, pedigree data (n=5,095) and litter s...

The Flemish sheep breed is of the dairy type and currently considered as a rare breed in Flanders (Belgium). The original breeding objective of the Flemish sheep was wool production (18th century) but it was also known for its high litter size and good maternal capacity. In order to support conservation efforts, pedigree data (n=5095) and litter si...

The prevalence of harmful and unwanted behavior in fattening pigs is influenced by different factors including housing. Housing may include the opportunity to hide from aggressive pen mates and this ability is related to pen design and shape. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a hiding wall in the pen on the behavior and perform...

There is a commitment by the European pig sector to ban surgical castration of male piglets in the European Union in 2018. One alternative to castration is to raise entire male pigs, with an increased risk of boar taint. A field study was performed to: (1) evaluate inter- and intra-farm variation in boar taint prevalence, (2) investigate factors me...

Through centuries of both natural and artificial selection, a variety of local cattle populations arose with highly specific phenotypes. However, the intensification and expansion of scale in animal production systems led to the predominance of a few highly productive cattle breeds. The loss of local populations is often considered irreversible and...

Concurrent with a tendency toward higher slaughter weights of fattening pigs, minimum requirements for space allowance are increasing. Allowing pigs more space in existing standard pens, however, leads to a decrease in the number of pigs per pen, which jeopardizes the economic viability of the pig farm. A possible solution includes creating a twole...

Concurrent with a tendency toward higher slaughter weights of fattening pigs, minimum requirements for space allowance are increasing. Allowing pigs more space in existing standard pens, however, leads to a decrease in the number of pigs per pen, which jeopardizes the economic viability of the pig farm. A possible solution includes creating a two-l...

p>Through centuries of both natural and artificial selection, a variety of local cattle populations arose with highly specific phenotypes. However, the intensification and expansion of scale in animal production systems led to the predominance of a few highly productive cattle breeds. The loss of local populations is often considered irreversible a...

Many genes are known to have an influence on conformation and performance traits; however, the role of one gene, Myostatin (MSTN), has been highlighted in recent studies on horses. Myostatin acts as a repressor in the development and regulation of differentiation and proliferative growth of skeletal muscle. Several studies have examined the link be...

While susceptibility to hypersensitive reactions is a common problem amongst humans and animals alike, the population structure of certain animal species and breeds provides a more advantageous route to better understanding the biology underpinning these conditions. The current study uses Exmoor ponies, a highly inbred breed of horse known to frequ...

Previously, long-term effects on body weight and reproductive performance have been demonstrated in the chicken model of prenatal protein undernutrition by albumen removal. Introduction of such persistent alterations in phenotype suggests stable changes in gene expression. Therefore, a genome-wide screening of the hepatic transcriptome by RNA-Seq w...

The genetic diversity in 23 dog breeds raised in Belgium was investigated using both genealogical analysis and microsatellite markers. Some of these breeds are native breeds, with only small populations maintained. Pedigree and molecular data, obtained from the Belgian kennel club, were used to calculate the inbreeding coefficients, realised effect...

This study verified the effect of straw blocks on the behavior and growth of finishing pigs and possible interactions with the genetic background (boar type). A total of 359 finishing pigs, which were offspring from different boar types, were housed in gender-mixed pens with slatted floors. Half of these pigs descended from sires selected for bette...

The history of livestock started with the domestication of their wild ancestors: a restricted number of species allowed to be tamed and entered a symbiotic relationship with humans. In exchange for food, shelter and protection, they provided us with meat, eggs, hides, wool and draught power, thus contributing considerably to our economic and cultur...

The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project is an artistic undertaking of renowned artist Koen Vanmechelen. In this project, the artist interbreeds domestic chickens from different countries aiming at the creation of a true Cosmopolitan Chicken as a symbol for global diversity. The unifying theme is the chicken and the egg, symbols that link scientific, polit...

Genetic factors involved in susceptibility to insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in Belgian Warmblood horses (BWP) were investigated. Data relating to 3409 horses were collected using a questionnaire, administered to owners during sport competitions, BWP breeding days, breeder visits and after phone calls. Horses were classified as IBH-affected or...

Societal pressure to ban surgical castration of male piglets is rising due to animal welfare concerns, thus other methods to prevent boar taint need to be explored. Genetic selection against boar taint appears to be a long-term sustainable alternative. However, as boar taint is linked to reproductive hormones, it is important to consider possible n...