Malnutrition is one of the main problems related to the global mass collapse of honey bee colonies, because in honey bees, malnutrition is associated with deterioration of the immune system and increased pesticide susceptibility. Another important cause of mass bee colonies losses is the use of pesticides. Therefore, the goal of this study was to verify the influence of polyphenols on longevity, food consumption, and cytochrome P450 gene expression in worker bees intoxicated by thiacloprid. The tests were carried out in vitro under artificial conditions (caged bees). A conclusively lower mortality rate and, in parallel, a higher average food intake, were observed in intoxicated bees treated using a mixture of phenolic acids and flavonoids compared to untreated intoxicated bees. This was probably caused by increased detoxification capacity caused by increased expression level of genes encoding the cytochrome P450 enzyme in the bees. Therefore, the addition of polyphenols into bee nutrition is probably able to positively affect the detoxification capacity of bees, which is often reduced by the impact of malnutrition resulting from degradation of the environment and common beekeeping management.

In general, it can be stated that the economics of non-dairy sheep breeding in the Czech Republic experienced a worsening trend in recent years. One of the ways to improve this situation is to use some of these breeds also for milk production. One of the possible breeds usable for milk production, especially for the good milk production of mothers, is the Clun Forest (CF). The aim of our experiment was to evaluate the daily milk yield (DMY) and the contents of fat (F), total protein (TP) and lactose (L), pH, titratable acidity (TA), concentration of urea (CU) and somatic cell count (SCC) in CF ewes during lactation. In our experiment, the following means of individual traits for the whole lactation were found:

The aim of the study was to estimate genetic characteristics for important qualitative and quantitative parameters of Czech Fleckvieh bulls' ejaculate and to define factors which influence these parameters. a total number of 2,929 entries about samples from 163 bulls of a selected artificial insemination centre were used for calculation. the analysed ejaculate characteristics were: volume of ejaculate, sperm concentration, total sperm count, native sperm activity and activity after thawing. In all evaluated semen characteristics, the age of individual, coefficient of inbreeding, interval between colection and year of colection were statistically significant (P < 0.05). In the case of season of colection, statistically significance (P < 0.01) was proved in all monitored semen parameters, except concetration of spermatozoa where statistically significant difference was not found (P > 0.05). Estimated coefficients of heritability correspond to the values standardly specified for reproductive parameters (h 2 = 0.003 -0.14), except for the volume of ejaculate (h 2 = 0.31). the highest value of genetic correlation was recorded between the volume of ejaculate and the total sperm count (rG = 0.9), on the contrary, the lowest value was between the volume of ejaculate and the sperm concentration (rG = 0.32).

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a calving season on the Wood's model parameters of the lactation curve and its characteristics in Czech Fleckvieh cows.The observed Czech Fleckvieh cows (with minimum of 75 % of Czech Fleckvieh breed in the genotype) born between 1994-2007 formed three parity groups: parity 1 with 350853 cows, parity 2 with 269276 cows and parity 3 with 175029 cows. All the parity groups were further classified by the calving season: winter (December-February), spring (March-May), summer (June-August) and autumn (September-November). The Wood's function parameters (a, b, c) were calculated and the lactation characteristics estimated were: partial milk yields per 1-100 days, 100-200 days and a total milk yield of 305 days, the peak yield -amount and day, index of persistency 2 : 1 and a coefficient of the declination rate of the lactation curve. The calving season significantly affected the parameters (a, b, c) of the lactation curve, the persistency of lactation and the number of days-in-milk at peak yield; it had no significant effect on the other characteristics. In general, the cows which calved in winter and autumn had more persistent lactations, regardless of the number of lactation. The first-parity cows reached the peak yield sooner when they calved in summer, the older cows in summer and autumn.

Heat stability (HS) is substantial technology property of raw milk. Analysis of sources of HS variation and its regular monitoring can contribute to creating higher added value in the dairy industry. The goal of this analysis was to assess the practice sources of raw cow milk HS variability on the results of an extensive data set of bulk tank milk samples. There was implemented neither a compositional technology modification nor acidity adjustment of milk, just original raw milk was used for the analysis. A total 2634 HS analyses were performed, including other milk indicators, during three years of an experimental period. The log HS mean and standard deviation were 1.273654 ± 0.144189, equal to the HS geometric mean of 18.8 min. Explanation of the HS variability through the linear model used was 41.1% (p < 0.0001). According to the results of the variance analysis, the milk HS was influenced (p = 0.0033 and mostly <0.0001) by all the farm factors such as year; season; calendar month; altitude; total annual rainfall; herd size by the number of cows; milk yield; cow breed; type of milking; litter type in the stable; summer grazing application; farm effect. During the calendar months (p < 0.0001), milk HS values suggest similar seasonal dynamics with the somatic cell count, total count of mesophilic microorganisms, coli bacteria count and urea and lactose concentration and opposite configuration pattern to fat, crude protein, solids-not-fat and total solids content and milk freezing point depression. Here performed quantification of these effects by analyzing the variance may allow efficient raw milk selection to be processed into specific dairy products.