@conference {78977,
	title = {Milk somatic cells are not suitable biomarkers of lactating ruminant mammary gland function},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {72},
	year = {2012},
	month = {Jan},
	pages = {3-7},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Christchurch},
	abstract = {<p>Understanding the molecular regulation of milk production by the ruminant mammary gland may help farmers meet increasing production milestones. Investigating these mechanisms currently relies upon invasive sampling by post-mortem or biopsy. The objective of this study was to determine if milk somatic cells, shed by the gland during milking, could be used as a non-invasive source of cells to measure these mechanisms. To answer this we employed two widely used molecular techniques, biochemical indices and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Experiment 1: Biochemical indices as measures of cell size, protein production capacity and efficiency were determined in milk somatic cells and mammary tissue harvested from six lactating dairy goats. Results showed protein production capacity (P = 0.03) and cell size (P = 0.03) were higher in mammary tissue compared to somatic cells while protein production efficiency was unaffected (P = 0.55). Experiment 2: Milk protein and ribosomal RNA gene expression were measured using qPCR in milk somatic cells and mammary tissue collected from three lactating dairy cows treated with growth hormone and four treated with saline. Results showed expression of all genes differed between milk somatic cells and mammary tissue. Taken together, these results indicate milk somatic cells are not suitable for measuring biochemical indices or gene expression in the lactating ruminant mammary gland.</p>
},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Sciascia Q and Pacheco D and Senna Salerno M and Blair HT and McCoard SA}
}
@conference {79022,
	title = {Is placentome size more important than morphologic type in relation to fetal weight in sheep?},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {72},
	year = {2012},
	month = {Jan},
	pages = {210-212},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Christchurch},
	abstract = {In sheep, placental exchange of nutrients between the ewe and her fetus occurs at sites called placentomes (Ford 2000). Placentomes are comprised of cotyledons on the chorioallantoic membrane which attach to discrete caruncles on the uterine wall (Ford 2000). Ovine placentomes can be classified into four types on the basis of their gross morphological appearance (Vatnick et al. 1991). The distribution of placentome type and size of individual placentomes can be influenced by many factors such as, nutritional state, placental blood flow and oxygen availability (Gardner et al. 2002; Osgerby et al. 2004). In general, previous work has shown that adverse intrauterine conditions early in pregnancy lead to a shift to more everted placentomes (more C and D types) (Osgerby et al. 2004; Vonnahme et al. 2006).},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {van der Linden DS and Sciascia Q and Sales F and McCoard SA}
}
@conference {69465,
	title = {Effect of growth hormone on the liver transcriptome profile during established lactation in the dairy cow},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {70},
	year = {2010},
	month = {Jun},
	pages = {33-38},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {Milk production involves a coordinated metabolic response from multiple tissues. Administration of growth hormone (GH) to lactating cows provides an endocrine signal that redirects nutrients towards milk production. Hepatic responses to GH define the nutrient supply to peripheral organs both directly and indirectly, through processes such as gluconeogenesis and endocrine modulation. However, the mechanisms controlling these processes in the liver itself have not been completely elucidated. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of GH on gene expression in the liver of lactating dairy cows. Using a 22,690 expressed sequence tags (EST) bovine cDNA microarrays, we examined differences in liver mRNA transcript profiles between four cows treated with a slow-release formulation of GH and four control cows treated with saline solution. We identified 38 unique transcripts in liver that met the criteria of having expression changes greater than +/- 1.2 fold and false discovery rates <0.05. Of these genes affected by GH, 29 were down-regulated and nine were up-regulated. The pathways most affected by GH were carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, molecule transport and small molecule biochemistry. This preliminary study provides further insights into the molecular changes involved in the effects of GH on liver gene expression in the lactating dairy cow.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Pacheco D and Nones K and Sciascia Q and McCoard SA}
}
@conference {69466,
	title = {Effect of growth hormone on the mammary transcriptome profile during established lactation in the dairy cow},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {70},
	year = {2010},
	month = {Jun},
	pages = {39-42},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {Gene expression profiling studies have provided insights into the potential mechanisms involved in a range of physiological processes in the ruminant mammary gland. However, despite the well established galactopoietic effect of growth hormone (GH) in lactating ruminants (Bauman, 1999; Akers, 2006), the molecular mechanism(s) that mediate the effects of GH on milk production are not fully understood.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {McCoard SA and Hayashi AA and Pacheco D and Sciascia Q and Nones K and Rounce JR and Sinclair BR and McNabb WC and Roy NC}
}
@conference {69471,
	title = {The effect of growth hormone on translation initiation and elongation in liver and skeletal muscle tissue in the lactating dairy cow},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {70},
	year = {2010},
	month = {Jun},
	pages = {62-64},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {Administration of bovine growth hormone (GH) has been shown to increase milk production in dairy cows by coordinating the metabolism of various organs and tissues, so that nutrients are repartitioned to the mammary gland to support increased requirements for milk synthesis (Keys et al., 1991). Some of the targets for GH are adipose tissue (Gallo  et al., 1990), skeletal muscle, liver (Bush  et al., 2003) and the mammary gland (Hayashi et al., 2009). In muscle GH decreases glucose uptake and increases amino acid catabolism efficiency (Vallimont et al., 2001), whilst the liver responds by increasing the rate of basal gluconeogenesis through lypolysis of adipose reserves (Gallo et al., 1990).},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Sciascia Q and Pacheco D and McCoard SA}
}
@conference {69500,
	title = {Effects of restricted fetal nutrition in utero on mTOR signaling in ovine skeletal muscle},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {70},
	year = {2010},
	month = {Jun},
	pages = {180-182},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {High prolificacy (twins and triplets) is a desirable trait in sheep under intensive management systems. However, multiple-born lambs have lower birth weights resulting from placental insufficiency (McCoard, 1997), and carryover detrimental effects on lean deposition, feed efficiency, and lifelong performance compared to singletons (Greenwood et al., 1998; De Blasio  et al.,2007), suggesting differential nutritional programming in utero.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Sciascia Q and Pacheco D and Bracegirdle J and Berry C and Kenyon PR and Blair HT and Senna Salerno M and Nicholas G and McCoard SA}
}
