Background: Selection based on traits such as average daily gain (ADG) and carcass quality in commercial pig populations have drawn attention of swine breeders due to the correlation with growth and consumer preference for carcass composition, respectively. The association between melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) gene, which encodes the G-protein-coupled receptor and ADG and carcass quality, have been well documented. The study was conducted to determine the effects of MC4R/TaqI and PIT-1/RsaI polymorphisms on growth and carcass quality traits in total of 576 Duroc pigs at national breeding farms of Vietnam. 
 
Methods: After the performance test, the desired traits including ADG, IF and LD were measured. ADG (g/day) was calculated as the live weight divided by the number of days from birth to 100 kg, BF and LD can be captured at position P2 (6-8 cm away from body midline at the last rib level) with Ultrasound machine Aloska SSD 500V. Genomic DNA were collected and genotyped to observe the polymorphism of MC4R and PIT-1. 
 
Result: Three genotypes AA, AG andGG of MC4R gene and AA, AB and BB of PIT-1 gene were found in the studied pig population. The observed frequencies of AA, AG and GG were 0.09, 0.41 and 0.50 (MC4R gene) and for AA, AB and BB were 0.37, 0.47 and 0.16, respectively. The G allele (MC4R) and B allele (PIT-1) have more positive effects on traits of ADG, BF and LD. Specifically, in MC4R gene, the individuals carrying GG genotype had higher ADG by 50 gram and lower BF by 1.4 mm than AA genotype. In PIT-1 gene, pigs carrying BB genotype had higher ADG and LD than AA genotype by 37 gram and by 1.9 mm, respectively. Therefore, the increased selection of G allele, GG genotype (MC4R) and of B allele, BB genotype (PIT-1) should be considered to contribute to the improvement of ADG, BF and LD traits in Duroc population in current study.

Polymorphisms of Candidate Genes Associated with Growth and Carcass Traits in Canadian Duroc Pigs

<div>Background: Price serves as signals of relative scarcity as well as abundance of a given agricultural product. Prices of agricultural products vary from month to month and even from day to day and this constitutes a source of risk to farmers whose livelihood depends on good pricing of their products. 
 
Method: This study was conducted to identify pattern of price dynamics and to develop model for price dynamics of beans, yellow maize and local rice using monthly price data of grains from the National Bureau of Statistics (2006-2015).&nbsp; 
 
Result: The rk of the beans followed a regular decline ranging from 0.4035 to 1 while those (rk) of yellow maize and local rice follow non regular decline with the range 0.1448 &ndash; 1(yellow maize) and 0.2945 -1 (local rice) thus indicating that the data are non-stationary. The corrected Akaike information criteria (AICC) and other information obtained for the ARIMA1,2,2 were higher than those of ARIMA2,2,2. The AICC obtained for the ARIMA1,2,2 are 958.422 (beans), 1178.169 (yellow Maize) and 1211.778 (local rice). The ARIMA2,2,2&nbsp;was thence&nbsp;favored above ARIMA1,2,2.</div>

Polymorphisms of Candidate Genes Associated with Growth and Carcass Traits in Canadian Duroc Pigs

Autoregressive Integration Moving Average (ARIMA) Model for Prices of Selected Grains in the South West Nigeria