Over the last decades, several genetic disorders have been discovered in cattle. However, the genetic background of disorders in calves is less reported. Recently, German cattle farmers reported on calves from specific matings with chronic diarrhea and retarded growth of unknown etiology. Affected calves did not respond to any medical treatment and died within the first months of life. These calves were underdeveloped in weight and showed progressive and severe emaciation despite of normal feed intake. Hallmark findings of the blood biochemical analysis were pronounced hypocholesterolemia and deficiency of fat-soluble vitamins. Results of the clinical and blood biochemical examination had striking similarities with findings reported in human hypobetalipoproteinemia. Postmortem examination revealed near-complete atrophy of the body fat reserves including the spinal canal and bone marrow. To identify the causal region, we performed a genome-wide association study with 9 affected and 21,077 control animals genotyped with the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA), revealing a strong association signal on BTA 11. Subsequent autozygosity mapping identified a disease-associated haplotype encompassing 1.01 Mb. The segment of extended homozygosity contains 6 transcripts, among them the gene APOB, which is causal for cholesterol disorders in humans. However, results from multi-sample variant calling of 1 affected and 47 unaffected animals did not detect any putative causal mutation. The disease-associated haplotype has an important adverse effect on calf mortality in the homozygous state when comparing survival rates of risk matings vs. non-risk matings. Blood cholesterol values of animals are significantly associated with the carrier status indicating a codominant inheritance. The frequency of the haplotype in the current Holstein population was estimated to be 4.2%. This study describes the identification and phenotypic manifestation of a new Holstein haplotype characterized by pronounced hypocholesterolemia, chronic emaciation, growth retardation, and increased mortality in young cattle, denominated as cholesterol deficiency haplotype. Our genomic investigations and phenotypic examinations provide additional evidence for a mutation within the APOB gene causing cholesterol deficiency in Holstein cattle.

Hypospadias, disorder of sex development (DSD), is a sporadic congenital abnormality of the genital region in male ruminants, which is characterized by a non-fused urethra during fetal development. Detailed clinical examination classified the hypospadias phenotype of a male Holstein calf studied here as the perineal type. In combined use of cytogenetic analysis and whole genome sequencing, a non-mosaic, pseudo-monosomy 59, XY + tan(18;27) was detected. This chromosomal aberration had its origin in a tandem fusion translocation of the bovine autosomes (BTA) 18 and 27 with an accompanying loss of genomic sequences mainly in the distal end of BTA 18 and the proximal end of BTA 27. The resulting phenotype included hypospadias, growth retardation and ventricular septal defect.

The displacement of the abomasum to the right (RDA) is a common condition regularly encountered in dairy cows, which requires urgent surgical correction. The survival of the patient primarily depends on early diagnosis and timely treatment, but other factors contributing to the outcome have been discussed in the literature. The objective of this study was to identify preoperative clinical, hematological, as well as intraoperative parameters that are associated with the prognosis of cows with RDA or abomasal volvulus (AV). This retrospective study included patients admitted to a veterinary teaching hospital over a period of 6 years with a diagnosis of RDA or AV. A total of 234 cows were included, of which 193 were discharged after treatment and thus classified as survivors. In contrast, 41 cases died or were euthanized during or after surgery and were categorized as non-survivors. Non-survivors showed more severe dehydration, higher heart rate, lower sodium, as well as higher L-lactate and phosphorus concentration in their blood prior to surgery compared with the survivors. During surgery, the abomasum of non-survivors was markedly dilated and twisted more frequently than in survivors. The results presented here can facilitate the early identification of animals with poor prognosis requiring more intensive peri- and postoperative care.

The creation of a much clearer view on religiosity-morality relations was the basic goal of the present study. Another goal was to examine the impact of factors (gender, type of sports) that possibly effect the formation of moral content judgment and parts of religiosity within a sport environment. The participants were 258 athletes of the Christian Orthodox faith (180 males and 78 females). All participants were involved in the fourteen sports. They filled out the Moral Content Judgment in Sport Questionnaire (MCJSQ), the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ), and the Religious Schema Scale (RSS). Results showed an effect of gender and type of sports on moral judgment and religiosity, respectively. Results also revealed the predicting ability of religiosity on moral judgment with religious schemas presenting more intense participation than that of religious faith.

This study’s purpose was to investigate any possible relationship between the goal perspectives (task and ego orientation) and volitional competences (persistence, expedience, and purposefulness) in physical activities settings. Participants were 134 people with a physical disability (103 men and 31 women) with age ranging from 14 to 67 years. All participants participated in physical activities. Participants filled out the Measure Athletes’ Volition – Short (MAV-S), and Task and Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire (TEOSQ). Results revealed that volitional competencies are predictors goal perspectives in physical activity settings. In addition, the findings showed that the expedience is a stronger predictor to task orientation, while persistence competence is to ego orientation. In conclusion, the present study is considered to offer new knowledge on the achievement goal orientation people with physical disabilities in physical activity contexts. The first one is that volitional competencies (expedience and purposefulness) are significantly positive predictors of task orientation. The second conclusion is that persistence competence is significantly positive predictor, while purposefulness competence is negative predictor of ego orientation.