
Paolo Ajmone-MarsanUniversità Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | UNICATT · Department of Animal Science Food and Nutrition
Paolo Ajmone-Marsan
Agriculture
About
433
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (433)
During lactation, high-yielding cows experience metabolic disturbances due to milk production. Metabolic monitoring offers valuable insights into how cows manage these challenges throughout the lactation period, making it a topic of considerable interest to breeders. In this study, we used Bayesian networks to uncover potential dependencies among v...
During lactation, high-yielding cows experience metabolic disturbances due to milk production. Metabolic monitoring offers valuable insights into how cows manage these challenges throughout the lactation period, making it a topic of considerable interest to breeders. In this study, we used Bayesian networks to uncover potential dependencies among v...
Donkeys (Equus asinus) have been used extensively in agriculture and transportations since their domestication, ca. 5000–7000 years ago, but the increased mechanization of the last century has largely spoiled their role as burden animals, particularly in developed countries. Consequently, donkey breeds and population sizes have been declining for d...
Background
Goats were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years before present (YBP) and subsequently spread across Eurasia and Africa. This dispersal is expected to generate a gradient of declining genetic diversity with increasing distance from the areas of early livestock management. Previous studies have reported the existence of...
Milk has become a staple food product globally. Traditionally, milk quality assessment has been primarily focused on hygiene and composition to ensure its safety for consumption and processing. However, in recent years, the concept of milk quality has expanded to encompass a broader range of factors. Consumers now also consider animal welfare, envi...
Background
Rendena is a dual-purpose cattle breed, which is primarily found in the Italian Alps and the eastern areas of the Po valley, and recognized for its longevity, fertility, disease resistance and adaptability to steep Alpine pastures. It is categorized as 'vulnerable to extinction' with only 6057 registered animals in 2022, yet no comprehen...
Background
Metabolic disturbances adversely impact productive and reproductive performance of dairy cattle due to changes in endocrine status and immune function, which increase the risk of disease. This may occur in the post-partum phase, but also throughout lactation, with sub-clinical symptoms. Recently, increased attention has been directed tow...
Background
Ruminal microbial communities enriched on lignocellulosic biomass have shown considerable promise for the discovery of microorganisms and enzymes involved in digesting cell wall compounds, a key bottleneck in the development of second-generation biofuels and bioproducts, enabling a circular bioeconomy. Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) is a p...
We investigated the association between 157 SNPs located in 75 candidate genes involved in the immune system and proxy traits for resistance to gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep. A total of 211 lambs from eight flocks were sampled. Nematode eggs per gram were counted and classified as: (i) Strongyles, (ii) Nematodirus spp., (iii) Trichuris spp. a...
More people in the world depend on water buffalo for their livelihoods than on any other domesticated animals, but its genetics is still not extensively explored. The 1000 Buffalo Genomes Project (1000BGP) provides genetic resources for global buffalo population study and tools to breed more sustainable and productive buffaloes. Here we report the...
The question of how local adaptation takes place remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. The variation of allele frequencies in genes under selection over environmental gradients remains mainly theoretical and its empirical assessment would help understanding how adaptation happens over environmental clines. To bring new insights to...
Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind bovine mastitis is fundamental for improving the management of this disease, which continues to be of major concern for the dairy industry, especially in its subclinical form. Disease severity and progression depend on numerous aspects, such as livestock genetics, and the interaction between t...
The EU-funded Life CLAW project (LIFE18 NAT/IT/000806) is adressing the conservation status of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes species complex in the Italian North-western Apennines. There has been a severe contraction in both the census size and distribution area of the species in Italy during the last century due to anthropogenic pressure...
The considerable increase in the production capacity of individual cows, due to both the selective breeding and innovations in the dairy sector, has posed challenges to management practices in terms of maintaining the nutritional and metabolic health statuses of dairy cows. This observational study aimed to investigate the associations between milk...
There is a growing market demand for cured meat and a global increased need for animal products driven by demographic growth. However, supply chains are challenged by ethical concerns related to animal welfare, environmental impact and loss of biodiversity. In the short term, these challenges can be faced by following FAO recommendations for the su...
The EU-funded Life CLAW project (LIFE18 NAT/IT/000806) aims to improve the conservation status of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes species complex in the Italian Northwestern Apennines. A. pallipes populations during the last century faced a severe contraction in both census size and distribution in Italy due to anthropogenic pressure and the...
Background
Subclinical intramammary infection (IMI) represents a significant problem in maintaining dairy cows’ health. Disease severity and extent depend on the interaction between the causative agent, environment, and host. To investigate the molecular mechanisms behind the host immune response, we used RNA-Seq for the milk somatic cells (SC) tra...
In contrast to nuclear markers routinely used for genomic selection, mitogenome information has been underutilized for breeding and biodiversity management of cattle populations. Our main goal was to promote the efficient use of mitogenome SNPs contained in commercial high-throughput SNP arrays. In collaboration with NEOGEN Genomics (Lincoln, NE, U...
Background
During epididymal transit spermatozoa acquire specific morphological features which enhance their ability to swim in a progressive manner and interact with the oocytes. At the same time, sperm cells undergo specific molecular rearrangements essential for the fertilizing sperm to drive a correct embryo development. To assess epigenetic sp...
The adoption of preventive management decisions is crucial to dealing with metabolic impairments in dairy cattle. Various serum metabolites are known to be useful indicators of the health status of cows. In this study, we used milk Fourier-transform mid-infrared (FTIR) spectra and various machine learning (ML) algorithms to develop prediction equat...
Background
Blood metabolic profiles can be used to assess metabolic disorders and to evaluate the health status of dairy cows. Given that these analyses are time-consuming, expensive, and stressful for the cows, there has been increased interest in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of milk samples as a rapid, cost-effective alternative...
In recent years, increasing attention has been fo-cused on the genetic evaluation of protein fractions in cow milk with the aim of improving milk quality and technological characteristics. In this context, advances in high-throughput phenotyping by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy offer the opportunity for large-scale, efficient measu...
Whole genome sequencing and related tools now offer opportunities to
evaluate the genetic diversity of livestock populations and individuals with
a much higher precision than ever before, at a fraction of previous costs.
Applying genomics is technically demanding, however. This publication
constitutes a practical tool to guide scientists and other...
Indicine and taurine subspecies present distinct morphological traits as a consequence of environmental adaptation and artificial selection. Although the two subspecies have been characterized and compared at genome-wide level and at specific loci, their epigenetic diversity has not yet been explored. In this work, Reduced Representation Bisulphite...
Sperm motility is directly related to the ability of sperm to move through the female reproductive tract to reach the ovum. Sperm motility is a complex trait that is influenced by environmental and genetic factors and is associated with male fertility, oocyte penetration rate, and reproductive success of cattle. In this study we carried out a GWAS...
The EU-funded Life CLAW project aims to improve the conservation status of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes species complex in the Italian North-western Apennines. During the last century, anthropogenic activi- ties and the introduction of allochthonous crayfish species led to a severe
contraction in both census size and distribution area of...
Infectious diseases place an economic burden on aquaculture and a limitation to its growth. An innovative approach to mitigate their impact on production is breeding for disease resistance: selection for domestication, family-based selection, marker-assisted selection, and more recently, genomic selection. Advances in genetics and genomics approach...
By their paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated
introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single-nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY and DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes, Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, with a marked geographi...
Austropotamobius pallipes is currently considered as a species complex including Austropotamobius italicus, an autochthonous species inhabiting the Italian peninsula. Due to the severe contraction of the number of individuals, Austropotamobius populations in Italy have become isolated reproductive units, often confined to separate water basins. The...
Nutrigenomics is a multidisciplinary science focusing on the diet-genes interaction and exploiting different “omics” technologies to comprehensively investigate the overall effects of different nutrients or diets on health. Recent scientific evidence highlighted the role of dietary polyphenols in modulating gene expression, transcription factors, a...
By their paternal transmission, Y‐chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male‐mediated introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single‐nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY, DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y‐chromosomal haplotypes Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B with a marked geographic par...
Experimental and epidemiological studies suggest that maternal nutritional status during early pregnancy, including the period around the time of conception, may induce long-lasting epigenetic changes in the offspring. However, this remains largely unexplored in livestock. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate if modification of th...
Dairy cows have high incidences of metabolic disturbances, which often lead to disease, having a subsequent significant impact on productivity and reproductive performance. As the milk fatty acid (FA) profile represents a fingerprint of the cow’s nutritional and metabolic status, it could be a suitable indicator of metabolic status at the cow level...
By their paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single-nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY, DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B with a marked geographic par...
Milk proteins genetic variants have always attracted a lot of interest as they are associated with important issues relating to milk composition and technological properties. An important debate has recently opened at an international level on the role of β-casein (β-CN) A1 and A2 polymorphisms, toward human health. For this reason, a lot of effort...
The Montecristo wild goat is an endangered feral population that has been on the homonymous island in the Tuscan Archipelago since ancient times. The origins of Montecristo goats are still debated, with authors dating their introduction either back to Neolithic times or between the 6th and 13th century of the Common Era. To investigate the evolutio...
Since the advent of molecular genetics, the analysis of polymorphic loci has been used to study diversity between and within species at all levels of biological complexity, including domestic animals. Following technological improvements, different types of molecular markers have been used to characterize population variability, including allozymes...
Background
Water buffalo is one of the most important livestock species in the world. Two types of water buffalo exist: river buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis bubalis ) and swamp buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis carabanensis ). The buffalo genome has been recently sequenced, and thus a new 90 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) bead chip has been developed. I...
Background
During the Neolithic expansion, cattle accompanied humans and spread from their domestication centres to colonize the ancient world. In addition, European cattle occasionally intermingled with both indicine cattle and local aurochs resulting in an exclusive pattern of genetic diversity. Among the most ancient European cattle are breeds t...
Background
Since their domestication 10,500 years ago, goat populations with distinctive genetic backgrounds have adapted to a broad variety of environments and breeding conditions. The VarGoats project is an international 1000-genome resequencing program designed to understand the consequences of domestication and breeding on the genetic diversity...
Background
Climate and farming systems, several of which are considered as low-input agricultural systems, vary between goat populations from Northern and Southern Italy and have led to different management practices. These processes have impacted genome shaping in terms of inbreeding and regions under selection and resulted in differences between...
The extent to which genomic convergence shapes locally adapted phenotypes in different species remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. It would help assessing the relative role of historical contingencies versus determinism in evolution. To bring new insights to this debate we set up a framework which aimed to compare the adaptive t...
Local breeds represent an underestimated resource in terms not only of their important cultural and economical role in marginal areas, but also because they often own a potential genetic pool well adapted to extreme conditions. This fact is of increasing interest, especially when considering climate global challenges where peculiar and uncommon tra...
Livestock radiated out from domestication centres to most regions of the world, gradually adapting to diverse environments, from very hot to sub-zero temperatures and from wet and humid conditions to deserts. The climate is changing; generally global temperature is increasing, although there are also more extreme cold periods, storms, and higher so...
Metabolic disorders, including hepatic lipidosis and ketosis, severely affect animal health status and welfare with a large economic burden in dairy herds. The gold standard for diagnosing hepatic lipidosis
is the liver biopsy, which is impractical and invasive for the screening at farm level. Ultrasound (US) imaging is a promising technique for id...
Metabolic disorders, including hepatic lipidosis and ketosis, severely affect animal health status and welfare with a large economic burden in dairy herds. The gold standard for diagnosing hepatic lipidosis is the liver biopsy, which is impractical and invasive for the screening at farm level. Ultrasound (US) imaging is a promising technique for id...
Mastitis is one of the most prevalent diseases in dairy cattle and is the cause of considerable economic losses. Alongside somatic cell count (SCC), differential somat-ic cell count (DSCC) has been recently introduced as a new indicator of intramammary infection. The DSCC is expressed as a count or a proportion (%) of polymor-phonuclear neutrophils...
Heat stress has a detrimental impact on cattle health, welfare and productivity by affecting gene expression, metabolism and immune response, but little is known on the epigenetic mechanisms mediating the effect of temperature at the cellular and organism level. In this study, we investigated genome-wide DNA methylation in blood samples collected f...
Local adaptation of animals to the environment can abruptly become a burden when faced with rapid climatic changes such as those foreseen for the Italian peninsula over the next 70 years. Our study investigates the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations and links it with the environment and how genetics might evolve over the next 50 year...
Stress in livestock reduces productivity and is a welfare concern. At a physiological level, stress is associated with the activation of inflammatory responses and increased levels of harmful reactive oxygen species. Biomarkers that are indicative of stress could facilitate the identification of more stress-resilient animals. We examined twenty-one...
The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between differential somatic cell count (DSCC) and milk quality and udder health traits, and for the first time, between DSCC and milk coagulation properties and cheesemaking traits in a population of 1,264 Holstein cows reared in northern Italy. Differential somatic cell count represents th...
Genomic selection (GS) reports on milk fatty acid (FA) profiles have been published
quite recently and are still few despite this trait represents the most important aspect
of milk nutritional and sensory quality. Reasons for this can be found in the high
costs of phenotype recording but also in issues related to its nature of complex trait
constit...
The identification of ancestry tracks is a powerful tool to assist the inference of evolutionary events in the genomes of animals and plants. However, algorithms for ancestry track detection typically require labelled reference population data. This dependency prevents the analysis of genomic data lacking prior information on genetic structure, and...
Dairy cattle health, wellbeing and productivity are deeply affected by stress. Its influence on metabolism and immune response is well known, but the underlying epigenetic mechanisms require further investigation. In this study, we compared DNA methylation and gene expression signatures between two dairy cattle populations falling in the high- and...
Milk fatty acid (FA) profile is a clear example of complex and multiple correlated traits whose genetic basis is difficult to assess. Although genome-wide association (GWA) studies have been successful in the identification of significant genetic variants for complex traits, when correlated phenotypes are analysed separately, the outcomes are diffi...
In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed
characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation.
We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan s...
The genotype of an organism is stable throughout its life; however, its epigenome is dynamic and can be altered in response to environmental factors, such as diet. Inheritance of acquired epigenetic modifications by the next generation occurs through the germline, although the precise mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Here, we used a sheep model...
In Hong Kong, there is a cattle population of ~1,200 individuals of uncertain origin and genetic diversity. This population shows heterogeneous morphology, both in body type and pigmentation. Once used as draught animals by the local farmers, they were abandoned around the 1970s due to changes in the economy, and since then have lived as feral popu...
Hybridisation of wild populations with their domestic counterparts can lead to the loss of wildtype genetic integrity, outbreeding depression, and loss of adaptive features. The Mediterranean island of Sardinia hosts one of the last extant autochthonous European mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) populations. Although conservation policies, including rei...