Péter Horn

Kaposvar University

After the last glacial, the Carpathian Basin was repopulated from either eastward or northward colonisation routes for various species; one of these was the emblematic member of the European megafauna, the red deer, Cervus elaphus. We analysed 303 red deer individuals from the middle of the region, in seven Hungarian game reserves, at ten microsate...

A szerzők tanulmányukban összefoglalják a legelőre alapozott gímszarvastartás néhány legfontosabb kérdését a legelöhasznosítás szempontjából. A legelö metabolizálható energiatartalma növekedésével lineárisan javul a szarvasborjak napi tömeggyarapodása a szoptatási idószak azon szakaszában, amikor a borjak legelőfű felvétele számottevó. A gyepek pil...

A szerzők összegzik a gyep táplálóértékét befolyásoló fontosabb tényezőket, különös tekintettel a gyepben található pillangós virágú növények előfordulásának arányára. Elemzik a gyepnövényzet fejlettségének hatását az emészthetőségre, a gyeptakarmány metabolizálható energiatartalmára és a gímszarvasok takarmány felvételére. Foglalkoznak a nagyon gy...

The experiment was carried out with altogether 1740 non-beak-trimmed laying hens, which originated from Bábolna TETRA Ltd., representing two different types (Rhode Island Red (RIR) and Rhode Island White (RIW)) and four different lines (Lines 1–2: RIR, Lines 3–4: RIW). The plumage and body condition of randomly selected 120 hens (30 hens/line) was...

Microsatellites are widely applied in population and forensic genetics, wildlife studies and parentage testing in animal breeding, among others, and recently, high-throughput sequencing technologies have greatly facilitated the identification of microsatellite markers. In this study the genomic data of Cervus elaphus (CerEla1.0) was exploited, in o...

The experiment was started with 1,508 Rhode Island Red (RIR) and 1,820 Rhode Island White (RIW) type non-beak-trimmed day-old pullets, which were originated from 58 RIR and 70 RIW different pedigree cocks, respectively. From all of the 128 cocks 26 half sibling offspring were tested. The pure line pullets were raised up to 18 weeks of age in a clos...

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) hinds (n=3×10) of identical initial body weight (BW, ca. 68 kg) were reared on a monocotyledonous grass (G group), on a grass–papilionaceous (GP group) or on pure papilionaceous pasture each of 2 ha (P group) for 219 d. At the end of the experiment carcass tissue composition was assessed by means of computer tomography, sl...

The access to food shaped human societies and dietary models throughout the history of mankind. Animal protein consumption became a part of human culture. Data are presented showing the relationship of daily calorie and animal protein consumption as affected by capita GDP changes. Examples are presented how genetic improvement of animal and fodder...

We present here the de novo genome assembly CerEla1.0 for the red deer, Cervus elaphus, an emblematic member of the natural megafauna of the Northern Hemisphere. Humans spread the species in the South. Today, the red deer is also a farm-bred animal and is becoming a model animal in biomedical and population studies. Stag DNA was sequenced at 74× co...

A tojás egy „ételcsoda”, biológiai értéke az anyatejével azonos, 40-féle fehérjét tartalmaz, köztük baktericid, erős antigén és vérnyomáscsökkentő hatásúakat is. 18-féle aminosav található benne, amiből 9 esszenciális. Egy fehérje (6-6,7 g/tojás) és vitamin (A, D, E, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₅/pantoténsav, B₆, B₉/folsav, B12-vitamin) „bomba”, sőt ásványi anyag...

Changes in the distributional range of European red deer (Cervus elaphus) during the Quaternary and the recolonization of Europe from different refugia, created a clear phylogeographical pattern. In Central Europe, two distinct − Iberian and Balkan − lineages of European red deer are present; however, this suture zone has not yet been studied in de...

Recently, there has been considerable interest in genetic differentiation in the Cervidae family. A common tool used to determine genetic variation in different species, breeds and populations is mitochondrial DNA analysis, which can be used to estimate phylogenetic relationships among animal taxa and for molecular phylogenetic evolution analysis....

The aim of the experiment was to compare 3 genetic groups, slaughtered at similar weights, to examine their productive and carcass traits and economic value. Three lines of the Pannon Breeding Programme, selected for different criteria, were examined in the experiment. Pannon Ka (PKa, maternal line) does were inseminated with semen of PKa, Pannon W...

Electrocardiography-gated dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methodology was developed for the in vivo examination of sheep heart characteristics. By combining noninvasive determination of skeletal muscle mass, we studied the relationship between total body skeletal muscle content and heart performance. Measurements were carried out on male M...

Four important Hungarian common carp (Cyprinus carpio L) breeds (Attala mirror, Attala scaled, Hortobágy scaled and Szeged mirror) harvested from different fish farms were analyzed in this study. Main body indices, slaughter characteristics, fillet fat content, and conventional fish flesh quality characteristics were measured and compared. The slau...

Yearling red deer (Cervus elaphus) hinds of identical initial body weight were reared on a monocotyledonous grass (group 1) or on a papillonaceous plant pasture (group 2) for 212 days. At the end of the experiment (when deer were shot) blood was taken from ten animals of each group for serum biochemical analysis. Hinds of group 2 provided higher fi...

Authors analyzed data of 9 trophy parameters (weight of the antler, length of main beam, length of brow tine, length of bay tine, length of tray tine, circumference of coronet, lower circumference of main beam, upper circumference of main beam, number of total tines) of 6868 red deer stags shot between 1997 and 2007 and estimated ages were between...

Abstract There is a constant need to increase productivity in aquaculture, particularly to improve growth rate, feed utilization as well as stress resistance of fish. Because of consumer concerns and strict regulations in many countries, the use of synthetic chemicals, hormones and antibiotics is becoming unviable and natural com- pounds are more ac...

The author summarizes the main new challenges facing animal agriculture: growing GDP in many countries increasing animal protein demand, bioenergy industry as a new player using potential food or feedstuffs, increasing demand, Growing water and land scarcity, weaking the position of plant agriculture, feed production. Forecasts are summarized regar...

The objective of the study was to analyze the effects of divergent selection for computer tomography (CT) measured thigh muscle volume (VTM) on the production and slaughter performance of growing rabbits. Pannon White rabbits were selected to increase (PP) or decrease (MM) their VTM during two generations. Production and slaughter traits of their o...

Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) previously reared on a commercial feed were shifted to 3 experimental diets with added 5 % of soybean, linseed oil or fish oils, for 42 days as a finishing diet, according to literature recommendations. Fillet, liver and mesenteric fat total lipid fatty acid composition was determined and evaluated taking health and...

The study is an economic evaluation of the effect of age and weight at slaughter on the value of loin fillet, thigh meat and whole carcass of rabbit. Rabbits were 74, 84 and 94 days of age at slaughter, with the average body weight of 2.53, 2.84 and 3.15 kg, respectively, and with five weight categories in each age group. Revenue from the whole car...

The effect of different weaning ages, that is, 21 (G21), 28 (G28) or 35 (G35) days, on growth and certain parameters of the digestive tract was examined in rabbits to assess the risk of early weaning attributable to the less-developed digestive system. On days 35 and 42, G35 rabbits had 10% to 14% and 10% higher BW, respectively (P < 0.05), than th...

In a recent study (Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B. (2010)155: 301-308) we reported that the fatty acids (FA) of the avian (7 species) total lung phospholipids (PL) (i.e. lung parenchyma and surfactant together) provide allometric properties. To test whether this allometric scaling also occurs in either of the above components, in six gallinaceous specie...

Our study was carried out with the pure, crossed and reciprocal crossed off spring of TETRA-H hybrid, a coloured slow-growing broiler genotype which was devel-oped in the 1980's by Bábolna TETRA Ltd. In this project the potential of a new, im-proved sire line was also investigated. Experiments were carried out in the Poultry Test Station of the Kap...

In the present work, our goal was to match high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scans with cross-sectional anatomical pictures of the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). Two male BUT 6 (a commercial line) turkeys were used. CT scans with 1 mm slice thickness were performed. The images covered the trunk from the level of the 9th cervical vertebra to t...

Antlers of deer display the fastest and most robust bone development in the animal kingdom. Deposition of the minerals in the cartilage preceding ossification is a specific feature of the developing antler. We have cloned 28 genes which are upregulated in the cartilaginous section (called mineralized cartilage) of the developing ("velvet") antler o...

Three diets were formulated, a control diet (C, 40.7% NDF, 15.1% CP), the same diet but medicated (M, 500 mg/kg oxytetracycline and 50 mg/kg thiamulin), and a third diet obtained substituting 4% of barley with inulin (Frutafi t) in C diet (I). Pannon White does and their litters were randomly allocated into three groups (8/group) at 21 d of lactati...

The aim of this experiment was to study the carcass traits of rabbits when the same maternal stocks were mated with bucks of two well-known hybrids selected for growth traits or with Pannon White bucks selected for carcass traits by CT (computerised tomography). Three experiments were carried out at the same time. Experiment 1: Pannon White (P) or...

At 130 kg bodyweight Mangalica and Hungarian Large White pig adipose tissue was compared, by means of histology. Adipose cell diameter (117.2 ± 24.1 vs. 55.3 ± 17 μm, Mangalica vs. Hungarian Large White), size (118.9 ± 44.3 vs. 31.9 ± 0.63 μm 2 • 100) and volume (8.01 ± 0.67 vs. 2.18 ± 0.18 μm 3 • 1 000) was significantly higher in Mangalica, while...

At identical bodyweight values (130 kg) Mangalica and Hungarian Large White tissue (liver, kidney, heart and skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, spleen and lung) triacylglycerol (TAG) fatty acid distribution analysis was performed, to describe tissue types and possible genotype-associated differences. Tissue TAG was partially hydrolyzed with hog pancr...

Nine loci have been compiled into two multiplex microsatellite polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sets (four and five loci) and used as a tool to determine the most probable hind for each calf. The two sets were suitable to combine them in an eight-plex reaction. The exclusion probabilities of the eight-plex reaction and the nine loci were 99.3 and 99...

The effects of dietary fish oil (FO), soybean oil (SO) and linseed oil (LO) (12 % crude fat content each) in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) diets were tested on the fillet flesh quality, chemical and fatty acid (FA) composition, after 3 and 6 weeks of feeding. The bodyweight gain of fish and the fillet dry matter, crude protein and crude fat...

The aim of the experiment was to study the effect of dam and sire genotypes on the production and slaughter performance of growing rabbits. The experiment was carried out at Kaposvár University. Pannon White (PW) and maternal line (M) does were inseminated with the sperm of PW, M, large body line (LB), terminal line of Hycole hybrid (H), or colored...

The effect of a non-medicated diet with or without a grain extract feed additive (benzoquinones as main active ingredients) on the growth of rabbits and certain physiological indicators of the digestive tract was examined. One-day-old rabbits of average birth weight were distributed into litters of eight, and these litters were randomly divided int...

A two-way selection procedure was performed on a Landrace pig line. First the cardiac output (CO) values (6.89 +/- 1.27 L/min) were estimated by ECG-gated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify the heart performance of the boars (n = 30), then total body skeletal muscle volume (MVTB; 48.7 +/- 5.17 dm3) was determined applying spiral computeri...

The absorption, distribution and elimination of fumonisin B-1 (FB1) and its metabolites was investigated in pigs. For the determination of the absorption and biotransformation of FB1, T-cannula were implanted into the distal part of experimental pigs' ileum and the total urine and faeccs moiety was collected during the toxin feeding (45 mg FB1/kg d...

Rabbits were divergently selected for muscle content on hind legs, as measured by computerized tomography (CT). Progenies of does and bucks in the first and second generations were compared: M=progenies of minus selected parents of the first generation (n=71), P=progenies of plus selected parents of the first generation (n=64), MM=progenies of minu...

In commercial rabbit meat production, a major part of the breeding loss results from diseases of the digestive system, occuring mainly (about 25%) around weaning (between days 18 to 50). Beside economic losses, this disease has a negative influence on animal welfare, as well. Antibiotics are still widely used to reduce mortality of the growing rabb...

The immunomodulating effect of a wheat extract (Immunovet-HBM) feed supplement in pigs suffering from immunosuppression caused by 1.5 and 3.0 ppm T-2 toxin was examined. Immune response was measured after vaccination (day 1 and 5) of the animals against Aujeszky's disease. Specific and non specific in vitro cellular immune response was measured by...

The absorption, distribution and elimination of fumonisin B1 (and B2) after oral administration of Fusarium verticillioides (MRC 826) fungal culture, mixed into the experimental feed for 10 days, was studied in weaned barrows. In order to determine the absorption of FB1 from the feed marked by chromium oxide, a special T-cannula was implanted into...

The authors investigated the effect of swine ileal and caecal microbiota on fumonisin B1 (FB1) metabolism. In order to determine the absorption and biotransformation of FB1, T-cannula was implanted into the distal part of pigs' ileum and the total quantity of urine and faeces was collected during the feeding of diet containing toxin (45 mg FB1/kg,...

There is a lack of information on the effect of swine caecal microbiota on fumonisin metabolism. In this in vitro study, the biotransformation of fumonisin B(1) (FB(1)) by the gut microbiota of adult, healthy pigs was examined. Suspensions of caecal contents and McDougall buffer solution were incubated anaerobically with pure FB(1) for 0, 12, 24, 4...

Sexual maturation and sperm release were induced in farmed European eels Anguilla anguilla kept exclusively in fresh water by using two dosages of human chorion gonadotropin (100 International Unit (IU)-Group one and 250 IU/individual per week-Group two). Sperm release took over 13 wk in both groups. The quality of sperm was investigated on the eig...

A follow-up, comparative study was designed for the description of differences between two divergent laying hen strains, a Leghorn type and a medium heavy body (MHB) genotype (Hy-Line Brown), in chemical body composition and serum biochemical parameters determined at 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 25, 30, 52 and 72 weeks of age; each time 5 birds...

Genetic parameters for average daily gain between the age of 5 and 10 weeks (ADG), the average cross-sectional area of the m. Longissimus dorsi (L) (between the 2nd–3rd and 4th–5th lumbar vertebrae-based on in vivo computerized tomography (CT)) and dressing out percentage (DoP) were estimated in a group of 28,686 Pannon White rabbits reared in 5044...

The myocardial phospholipid fatty acid (FA) composition (mol %) of 7 avian species was determined, in a body mass range from 150 g (Japanese quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica) to 19 kg (turkey, Meleagris gallopavo). Significant allometric increases were found for C16:1 n7 (allometric exponent: B=0.15), C18:1 n7 (B=0.08), C18:1 n9 (B=0.24), C20:1 n9...

In trimmed muscle types of four game species the dry matter, crude protein, crude fat, ash, Ca, P, Mg, Na, K, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn contents were determined. Samples of the m. semimembranosus and m. longissimus dorsi of each of 10 red deer, fallow deer, roe-deer and wild boars from the Southwestern region of Hungary in the end-winter period were analy...

The objective of the study was to determine the effect of birth weight and the influence of nutrient supply during nursing and after weaning on the performance of suckling and growing rabbits (n=182). The experiment was set-up using a 3×2×2 factorial arrangement. Newborn female rabbits were divided on the basis of their birth weight in 3 classes: l...

The distribution and elimination of fumonisins after oral administration of 50 mg FB(1), 20 mg FB(2) and 5 mg FB(3) per animal day(-1) for 22 days was studied in weaned barrows. At the end of the trial, the lung, heart, liver, kidney, spleen, brain, serum, bile, muscle, fat, urine and faeces samples were collected and their content of fumonisins (F...

The growth-associated development of the m. pectoralis superficialis (MPS) phospholipid (PL) and triacylglycerol (TAG) fatty acyl (FA) chain composition was determined in BUT8 meat-type turkeys. Samples (3 d, 8, 12, 16 and 20 wk) of each 6 males were analysed by lipid fractionation and subsequent gas chromatography. Results were interpreted on an a...

Sixty left sides of pig carcasses were scanned by spiral computed tomography (CT) to measure lean meat weight and percentage. The carcasses were fully dissected and scanned to develop a calibration protocol. Different image analyses were performed on the basis of anatomically defined scans, direct volumetric estimation, body- and grey-scale ranges...

The effect of nursing method and ingestion of maternal faeces on the development of the bacteroides, lactobacillus and coliform flora of the caecum in the first 10 days of life were examined in freely nursed pups having access to maternal faeces (Group FF), pups nursed once a day and having access (Group CF), or having no access (Group CN) to mater...

The aim of the study was to examine the efficiency of the selection based on CT measured thigh muscles with divergent selection method. Does of the first generation selected for high or low muscle volume were inseminated with the semen of similarly selected bucks at the same time. At 12 weeks of age 25−25 rabbits of similar body weight were slaught...

For a complex investigation of forced moulting 27 Hy-Line Brown laying hens were exposed to total feed withdrawal with ad libitum water supply, for a trial period of 12 days. Computer tomography for the determination of the total body composition and its changes was performed on days 0, 6, 12 and after 3 wks of refeeding. Blood samples were collect...

Commercial geese (Gray Landes) were examined by means of high-resolution spiral computer tomography in order to follow their liver development in vivo. Three ganders were scanned six times before, within and after a force-feeding period. 3D images of the liver were reconstructed from the 2D transverse slices with segmentation and rendering methods....

Blood serum clinical biochemical parameters of fasted BUT Big 8 male turkeys were determined at the ages of 3 days, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 weeks, for a follow-up of the developmental changes of some serum metabolites, enzymes and ions. The serum protein content (total protein, albumin, globulin) increased with age, indicating also the moulting-associa...

The belly region composition of a representative commercial pig sample of 130 castrates was examined by in vivo spiral computed tomographic (CT) scanning. The lean meat percentage, the muscle/fat tissue ratio within the total body and separately within the bacon part were estimated by image analysis. The lean meat content of the total body was dete...

The artificial induction of sexual maturation of European eel males was carried out by using weekly hCG administrations. Histological pictures showed that the testis tissues developed and regressed naturally and no pathological changes took place under the conditions of artificial rearing in freshwater. According to light and electron microscopic i...

Feed was totally withdrawn from laying hens (n = 30, Hy-Line Brown, 608 d of age, 2.04 +/- 0.07 kg of mean BW) to induce molting. Ten birds were slaughtered on d 0 and 12, and the hepatic and myocardial triacylglycerol (TAG) and phospholipid (PL) fatty acid composition, as well as the tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) conce...

Artificially induced maturation of 10 male eels Anguilla anguilla L. weighing 170 ± 30-3 g was followed for 6 wk with in vivo CT scanning in a repeated manner. Since testis tissue has a well defined X-ray density value, the volumetric development could be described. Parallel with this process, a strong decrease of the abdominal fat volume was measu...