Estrus In Cows Research Articles

Mounting exhibited between cows is not associated with sexual motivation

Females of various species exhibit mounting behavior toward other mature females, i.e., female–female (f–f) mounting. Cows exhibit f–f mounting, which is commonly considered a sexual behavior based on a few similarities with male sexual mounting. Here, we hypothesized that the degree of f–f mounting exhibited by cows in estrus would increase when they are sexually motivated by sexually relevant stimuli. To test this hypothesis, two groups of four cows each were prepared. First, estrus was induced in one of the cows in each group by injecting estradiol in the presence of a non-sexually active male steer as a stimulus animal (steer-stimulus condition), and all f–f mounts were recorded. Estrus induction was repeated until induced in all cows. We then changed the stimulus animal from the steer to a sexually active bull (bull-stimulus condition), and the estrus induction procedures were repeated as before. We confirmed that estrus was induced successfully in cows injected with estradiol and that they were sexually motivated by switching the stimulus animal from steer to bull, as they spent relatively more time with the stimulus animal in the bull-stimulus than in the steer-stimulus condition and when not in estrus. However, f–f mounting frequency in the bull-stimulus condition showed no significant difference to that in the steer-stimulus condition. We observed that six of the eight subjects exhibited f–f mounting when not in estrus, which accounted for 44.6 % of f–f mounting we observed (n = 668). These findings suggest that f–f mounting in cows is not associated with sexual motivation.

Quercetin ameliorates oxidative stress-induced apoptosis of granulosa cells in dairy cow follicular cysts by activating autophagy via the SIRT1/ROS/AMPK signaling pathway

BackgroundFollicular cysts contribute significantly to reproductive loss in high-yield dairy cows. This results from the death of follicular granulosa cells (GCs) caused by oxidative stress. Quercetin is known to have significant antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects. However, the effect of quercetin on follicular cysts has yet been elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the anti-oxidant and anti-apoptosis effects and potential molecular mechanisms of quercetin in H2O2-induced primary cow GCs and 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA)-induced mouse model of oxidative stress and thus treat ovarian cysts in dairy cows.ResultsIn this study, compared with estrus cows, cows with follicular cysts showed heightened levels of oxidative stress and increased follicular cell apoptosis, while autophagy levels were reduced. A model of oxidative stress was induced in vitro by H2O2 and showed significant increases in apoptosis together with reduced autophagy. These effects were significantly ameliorated by quercetin. Effects similar to those of quercetin were observed after treatment of cells with the reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibitor N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Further investigations using chloroquine (autophagy inhibitor), rapamycin (autophagy activator), selisistat (SIRT1 inhibitor), and compound C (AMPK inhibitor) showed that chloroquine counteracted the effects of quercetin on oxidative stress-induced apoptosis, while rapamycin had the same effect as quercetin. In addition, the SIRT1/AMPK pathway inhibitors antagonized quercetin-mediated mitigation of the effects of oxidative stress on increased apoptosis and reduced autophagy. Consistent with the results in vitro, in mouse ovarian oxidative stress model induced by 3-NPA, quercetin activated autophagy through the SIRT1/AMPK signaling pathway, while alleviating oxidative stress damage and inhibiting apoptosis in mouse ovaries.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that quercetin can inhibit apoptosis in GCs and restore ovarian function by activating autophagy through the SIRT1/ROS/AMPK signaling pathway, suggesting a new direction for the treatment of ovarian follicular cysts in high-yield dairy cows.

The influence of cloudiness, hours of sunshine and precipitation on the occurrence of oestrus in cows and heifers in a temperate climate

This study aimed to determine whether the hours of sunshine and/or the amount of precipitation affect the number of cows and heifers that will show oestrus in the following days and the extent to which these climatic elements affect the average number of artificially inseminated cows and heifers per day. During the course of three consecutive years, a total of 21,043 cows and heifers were artificially inseminated in Koprivnica-Križevci County, Croatia. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and Tukey pairwise comparisons were performed between the number of artificially inseminated cows and heifers, cloud cover, rain intensity, and number of days after rain. Significant differences were recorded in relation to cloud cover and the average number of cows and heifers artificially inseminated per day. The average number of artificially inseminated cows and heifers per day did not differ significantly among seasons (p>0.05). Significant differences were observed in the number of artificially inseminated cows and heifers per day in relation to rain (1, 2, 3, 4 or more days after rain) and in relation to the amount of precipitation (dry, light rain, rain, heavy rain, extreme rain). We can conclude that in a temperate climate, significantly fewer cows and heifers were in natural oestrus and artificially inseminated on rainy or cloudy days, while significantly more cattle were artificially inseminated on dry days following rain and on days with more hours of sunshine, regardless of season.

ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ НОВОКАИНОВОЙ БЛОКАДЫ ПО И.П. ЛИПОВЦЕВУ ДЛЯ ЛЕЧЕНИЯ КОРОВ ПРИ СУБКЛИНИЧЕСКОМ ЭНДОМЕТРИТЕ

The aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of using the middle uterine artery puncture according to I.P. Lipovtsev with the introduction of 0.5 % novocaine solution in combination with the antibio¬tic-containing drug Ceftonit Forte in cows with subclinical endometritis. Objectives: to study the therapeutic effectiveness of the introduction of 0.5 % novocaine solution in combination with the antibiotic-containing drug Ceftonit Forte into the middle uterine artery at different times of the estrous cycle; to establish the fertilization rate of cows after the combined use of novocaine blockade according to I.P. Lipovtsev and the drug Ceftonit Forte at different times of the estrous cycle. The object of the study were cows of the red-motley breed with a subclinical form of endometritis. The diagnosis of subclinical endometritis was made according to the method of N.A. Flegmatov. Laboratory studies have established the presence of subclinical endometritis in 29.24–38.21 % of infertile cows. In 16.98–21.69 % of cases, the cervicovaginal mucus did not have visible threadlike or point inclusions of purulent exudate, but the reaction of such mucus with sperm was positive. Therefore, the absence of purulent exudate inclusions in the cervicovaginal mucus cannot indicate the absence of subclinical endometritis in cows. It has been established that a single use of novocaine blockade according to I.P. Lipovtsev in combination with the antibiotic-containing drug Ceftonit Forte of domestic production, regardless of the timing of administration during the estrous cycle, ensures recovery of 95.24–100 % of cows, and the fertilization rate after artificial insemination of females is 76.19–80.95 %. In addition, there is no need to wait for the onset of estrus in cows with subclinical endometritis to administer drugs into the cervical canal, as is generally accepted in veterinary practice, which allows for more rapid treatment of animals with this uterine pathology and significantly reduces the number of days of infertility.

Changes in adiponectin levels of subclinical ketosis cows and their effects on steroid hormone secretion and proliferation in follicular granulosa cells

In dairy cows, the occurrence of subclinical ketosis (SCK) is particularly high during early lactation. Previously, we documented alterations in the abundance of adiponectin (ADPN) in anestrus cows with SCK in comparison to cows in estrus. In the present study, 60 cows were divided into two groups: control (C, n = 30) and SCK (n = 30). Based on cow’s estrus situation in two group at 55–60 days postpartum, 15 anestrus SCK cows and estrus cows were designated the SCK-A group and C-E group, respectively. The SCK-A group had downregulated serum and follicular fluid ADPN levels compared with the C-E group. The serum ADPN level was positively correlated with the insulin level and follicle growth rate, and there was a positive correlation between ADPN and glucose in the follicular fluid. Primary culture of dairy cow granulosa cells (GCs) was established to observe the effect of low glucose (Glu) and/or ADPN on GCs cyclins and proteins important for steroid synthesis. The results showed that the addition of 1 µg/mL ADPN alleviated the negative effects of low Glu treatment on the proliferation of GCs and the expression of steroid secretion related protein proteins. Treatment with LY294002 (PI3K inhibitor) four experimental GCs groups: control (0 µg/mL ADPN), 1 µg/mL ADPN, LY294002 inhibitor, and 1 µg/mL ADPN+LY294002. The results showed that ADPN promotes the secretion of steroid hormones by GCs through the PI3K–AKT. In summary, ADPN plays a crucial role in ameliorating postpartum anestrus in dairy cows with SCK.

The effectiveness of different hormone protocols for improving ovarian function before ovum pick-up in crossbred Japanese black cattle.

Producing and transferring embryos in vitro are profitable for enhancing premium beef genetics. Reducing costs and enhancing the effectiveness of hormone protocols before ovum pick-up (OPU) yield advantages. This study aimed to confirm that estradiol benzoate (EB) treatment resulted in more medium- and large-sized follicles before OPU and of higher oocyte quality after OPU than non-hormonal treatments, comparable to those undergoing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) plus prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and progesterone-releasing controlled internal drug release (CIDR) or EB with progesterone-releasing CIDR hormonal treatments. 30 crossbred Japanese black cows were divided into five equal groups, which were either untreated or treated with different hormone protocols before OPU. Group 1 (cows in estrus) and group 2 (cows in diestrus) were the untreated controls. Cows in group 3 were treated with GnRH + FSH + CIDR + PGF2α. Cows in group 4 received EB, and those in group 5 received EB + CIDR + PGF2α. After administering the protocols, all cow follicles were examined through ultrasonography and categorized by size. Subsequently, all cows underwent OPU, and the oocytes were collected and graded from A to D according to standard criteria. Group 3 presented the highest large follicle numbers, and groups 3-5 had more medium follicle numbers, not different among groups but they had this parameter more than those of control groups 1 and 2. Moreover, groups 3-5 did not differ in combined grades A + B oocytes (good-quality oocytes). Groups 3 and 4 had more A + B oocytes than control groups 1 and 2, whereas group 5 was not different in this parameter from group 1. Among the three hormone protocols, EB treatment proved the most cost-effective and efficient, yielding more high-quality oocytes compared to the non-treatment protocols. To reduce the limitations of EB use in the future, this study suggests researching natural EB phytoestrogens as alternative treatments for improving ovarian function before OPU in other cattle breeds.

Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Typical Reproductive Hormones in Dairy Cows Based on Terahertz Spectroscopy and Metamaterial Technology.

Progesterone (PROG) and estrone (E1) are typical reproductive hormones in dairy cows. Assessing the levels of these hormones in vivo can aid in estrus identification. In the present work, the feasibility of the qualitative and quantitative detection of PROG and E1 using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and metamaterial technology was preliminarily investigated. First, the time domain spectra, frequency domain spectra, and absorption coefficients of PROG and E1 samples were collected and analyzed. A vibration analysis was conducted using density functional theory (DFT). Subsequently, a double-ring (DR) metamaterial structure was designed and simulated using the frequency domain solution algorithm in CST Studio Suite (CST) software. This aimed to ensure that the double resonance peaks of DR were similar to the absorption peaks of PROG and E1. Finally, the response of DR to different concentrations of PROG/E1 was analyzed and quantitatively modeled. The results show that a qualitative analysis can be conducted by comparing the corresponding DR resonance peak changes in PROG and E1 samples at various concentrations. The best R2 for the PROG quantitative model was 0.9872, while for E1, it was 0.9828. This indicates that terahertz spectral-metamaterial technology for the qualitative and quantitative detection of the typical reproductive hormones PROG and E1 in dairy cows is feasible and worthy of in-depth exploration. This study provides a reference for the identification of dairy cow estrus.

Investigating the Productivity of Traditional Dairy Farms in Suburbs of Aligarh, India

The productivity index is one of the most efficient indices in economic analysis. This index can compare the existing activity of an operating unit with the desired situation and show the amount of quantitative and qualitative changes made in the production unit. Investigating the productivity of traditional dairy farms is essential because they significantly contribute to India's milk production and are effective in improving the welfare of farmers. This study tries to estimate the productivity of traditional dairy farm units by emphasizing the incomes and expenses of conventional dairy farms (between one and seven heads of dairy farm) using appropriate models. It calculates the highest level of productivity according to the user classes. In this study, the productivity index has been calculated for each user class in 2022-2023 and compared with each other. In addition, the productivity of single-heads, double-heads, and seven-heads has also been calculated. The results of the research showed that the increase in the number of cows leads to a decrease in the cost of maintenance and, as a result, an increase in the productivity index. It was also found that the units of single-head have problems in the field of inseminating cows at the right time due to the lack of timely recognition of cow estrus, that this issue has caused the prolongation of the Reproduction Cycle and the increase of the costs of the dry period of cows, so that the productivity index of single head cattle farms is less than one. Thus, economically, the existence of these dairy farms is not profitable; while in cattle farms with seven dairy cows, this index was calculated as 1.7, which indicates better productivity.

102 Estradiol and follicular growth are associated with estrous behavior monitored by an accelerometer in grazing beef cows

Abstract In beef cattle, 40% of cows that display estrus do not remain pregnant after embryo transfer (ET). Estrus is a physiological behavior influenced by the concentration of sex-steroids. The use of accelerometer devices for estrus detection is a common practice in dairy operations. It remains unclear if this same artificial intelligence software can accurately measure reproductive behavior in beef females. We hypothesized that estrous variables detected by an accelerometer are associated with ovarian, hormonal, pregnancy outcome, and fertility-related variables measured in the cow. Fifty Bos indicus-influenced, cyclic, primiparous cows were fitted with an accelerometer collar (SCR Engineers, Israel) and a breeding indicator (Estrotectâ) to detect estrus after a synchronization protocol in five subsequent experimental replicates (n = 50*5 = 250). Only cows that showed estrus (d 0) remained in the study. The following variables were used from the accelerometer software: Activity Peak, Rumination Nadir, Estrus Duration, and Heat Index, calculated by proprietary algorithms. Dominant follicle (DF) diameter and plasma concentration of estradiol were measured on d -2 (day of progesterone device removal) and on d 0. On d -1 and d 4, endometrial thickness and luminal fluid accumulation were measured by ultrasonography. On d 7, two embryos were transferred/cow. Pregnancies were diagnosed on d 45 and terminated. After 30 d, a new replicate started. Cows included in at least two replicates that remained pregnant 100%, 99-50%, or less than 50% were classified as fertile, sub fertile, and infertile, respectively. Estrus display was recorded for 166 cows (66%). Estrus detection by accelerometer and Estrotect had excellent agreement rate (kappa coefficient 0.76). Cows detected in estrus only by Estrotect had 66% less pregnancy/ET than cows in estrus by both (9/21 vs. 97/145; P = 0.01). The DF diameter on d 0 was not associated with accelerometer variables. Cows with greater and moderate Activity Peak had a greater growth rate of the DF from d -2 to d 0 than lower Activity Peak cows (interaction day*Activity Peak; P = 0.06). Estradiol on d -1 was positively associated with the Activity Peak (P < 0.0001). Cows with lower Activity Peak had a thicker endometrium on both d -1 and d 4 (P=0.02), and greater uterine luminal fluid score on d -1 (P=0.03). Fertility status was not associated with any accelerometer variables. In conclusion, the Activity Peak is associated positively with estradiol concentration and DF growth, however no association was found with pregnancy outcome and fertility. Therefore, the main advantage of accelerometers in beef ranches is the ability to detect estrus at a similar accuracy as breeding indicators, using less labor. Future enhancements in hardware and software to allow prediction of pregnancy outcomes are expected to increase reproductive efficiency in cow-calf operations.

Social effects on behaviorally-scored and pedometer-detected estrus in beef cattle.

The number of cows in estrus often influences estrus behavior; however, the effects of social order are not well documented. This study examined the effects of social order on the expression of behaviorally-scored and pedometer-detected estrus, combined with the effects of the number of cows in estrus. In a herd comprising 13 or 15 beef cattle, cows with orders 1st-7th were defined as dominant and the remaining cows as subordinate. Sole or simultaneous estrus was induced by prostaglandin F2α analog injection and/or intravaginal progesterone treatment. Ovulation timing was determined using ultrasonography at 6-hour intervals. Estrous signs and steps of the cows were recorded 49 h before ovulation using video monitoring and a pedometer, respectively. Among the 59 treated cows, 56 behaviorally-scored estruses (27 sole and 29 simultaneous) were detected. In the sole estrus, 61.5% of the dominant-rank cows had no zero-point period; however, 35.7% of the subordinate-rank cows had that period. The dominant-rank cows in estrus alone had a significantly shorter duration of scored estrus than those in simultaneous estrus (P < 0.05). Among the 50 pedometer-detected estruses (24 sole and 26 simultaneous), the subordinate-rank cows in sole estrus had a shorter interval from estrus onset to ovulation than the dominant-rank cows in simultaneous estrus (P < 0.05). The effects of social order varied in response to the number of cows in estrus, which might have influenced determining the optimal time for artificial insemination.

Access to an outdoor open pack promotes estrus activity in dairy cows.

Dairy cows have a partial preference to access an outdoor deep-bedded pack, but the effects of continuous access to an outdoor area on estrous behaviors has not been studied. Our objective was to investigate if access to an outdoor open deep-bedded pack improves the expression of estrus behaviors. We enrolled 60 lactating Holstein cows directly after calving and followed them each for 12 weeks. Cows were housed in a single freestall pen holding 36 cows at a time, with a dynamic group composition. Half of the cows were randomly assigned to the OUTDOOR treatment; these cows had access to an outdoor open pack via an automated selection gate. INDOOR cows were housed together with OUTDOOR cows but were not allowed outdoor access. All cows were fitted with an automated activity monitor (AAM) 21 ± 3 d before expected calving date. Estrous behaviors (i.e., standing to be mounted and mounting behaviors) were continuously monitored using video, and the intensity of mounting (i.e., the number of standing to be mounted and other mounting behaviors per hour) was calculated per estrus event per cow. Temperature and humidity were monitored by data loggers indoors, and these data were used to calculate the Temperature Humidity Index (THI). Following an alert from the AAM, cows were checked to detect the presence of a dominant preovulatory follicle and an absence of a mature corpus luteum (CL) by rectal ultrasonography following milking, as well as 7 d thereafter to confirm ovulation by the presence of a new CL. A total of 94 estrus events were used in the final analysis. INDOOR cows tended to have a lower mounting intensity with increasing indoor THI, but no such effect was noted for OUTDOOR cows. The total number of cows in estrus positively influenced mounting intensity. OUTDOOR cows had a longer duration of estrus, as measured by the automated monitors, compared with INDOOR cows (12.4 ± 0.7 h versus 9.9 ± 0.8 h). Estrus event number and the total number of cows in estrus were both positively associated with estrus duration. These results indicate that access to an outdoor pack tended to increase mounting behavior for freestall housed dairy cows, especially during periods of elevated THI. We conclude that providing dairy cows access to an outdoor area can help with estrus detection and may thus help improve the reproductive programs on dairy farms.

E-YOLO: Recognition of estrus cow based on improved YOLOv8n model

Timely and accurately identifying estrus cows is essential in modern dairy farming. To address the challenges of delayed and inefficient manual monitoring of cow estrus, an improved model based on You Only Look Once v8 Nano (YOLOv8n), named Estrus-YOLO (E-YOLO), was proposed to identify estrus cows efficiently. In this research, the dataset was labelled not only for cow mounting behavior but also innovatively labelled individual estrus cows, enabling precise identification of estrus cows. Due to the small size of cow in the field of view, the Complete Intersection over Union (CIoU) loss was replaced with the Normalized Wasserstein Distance (NWD) loss to reduce sensitivity to position deviations of target cows. Context Information Augmentation Module (CIAM) was proposed to enhance the contextual information for estrus cows by utilizing cow mounting behavior as reference features. Furthermore, the Triplet Attention Module (TAM) was incorporated into the Backbone to enhance the network’s focus on individual estrus cows through cross-dimensional interactions. To validate the effectiveness of the algorithm, experiments were conducted on a dataset consisting of 1716 instances of cow mounting behavior. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed model achieved an Average Precision of estrus (APestrus) of 93.90%, Average Precision of mounting (APmounting) of 95.70%, F1-score of 93.74%, detection speed of 8.1 ms/frame, with the parameters of 3.04 M, and the Floating-point Operations (FLOPs) of 9.9 G. Compared to the YOLOv8 model, the proposed model exhibited an improvement of 5.40% in APestrus and 3.30% in APmounting. When compared to Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD), Faster Region Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), YOLOv5n, YOLOv5s, YOLOv7-tiny, YOLOv8n, and YOLOv8s, the proposed model had fewer parameters, FLOPs, and fast detection speed. Except for APmounting, which was slightly lower than SSD, the rest accuracy indexes were the highest, showing good comprehensive performance and meeting the requirements of accurate and rapid identification of estrus cows. The proposed model was helpful for accurate and real-time monitoring of estrus cows in complex breeding environments and all-weather conditions.

Comparative study on plasma mineral profiles of normal cyclic and pregnant cows with infertile cows of North-Western Himalayan region of India

The present study was undertaken to study the effect of different minerals on infertility in cows (n=885) belonging to different Northern Western Himalayan regions of the state. Cows suffering from different types of infertility such as endometritis, anestrus, silent estrus and cows showing metestrual bleeding were evaluated and compared with normal cyclic and pregnant cows. Minerals evaluated were calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, zinc, sodium, and potassium. The levels of calcium were statistically low in anestrus and silent estrus cows when compared with normal cyclic and pregnant animals. The levels of phosphorus were significantly low in cows suffering from endometritis and in cows showing abnormal metestrual bleeding in comparison to normal cyclic cows. Similarly, magnesium levels were high in pregnant cows than other categories. Copper was statistically high in normal cyclicand pregnant cows. Similarly, sodium and potassium were statistically high in normal cyclic cows than infertile and repeat breeder cows.

Upaya Pemerataan Inseminasi Buatan pada Ternak Sapi di Kelurahan Laweyan Kota Surakarta

The purpose of this community service activity is to equalize artificial insemination in cattle in Laweyan Village, Surakarta City. While the results obtained from this activity are if the government does free artificial insemination in Laweyan Village, it will further improve the economy of cattle breeders in Laweyan Village and increase the population of cross-breeding cattle in Laweyan Village. The artificial insemination program was carried out in Laweyan Sub-District, with 20 cattle breeders and 60 cows. In this activity, the implementation team carried out several activities to carry out the artificial insemination program. The number of female cows in all breeders is 60 cows, out of 60 cows we give the first hormone injection simultaneously within 1 day, after that we wait for the cows to go into heat for 11-12 days if there is no heat for 11-12 days we do the second injection, after that we wait for the cows to go into heat for 2-3 days, when the cows go into heat we wait for the right time to be artificially inseminated, then the heat for adult cows is 17 days .8 hours with a range of 2.4-28 hours while for heifers it is 15.3 hours, all activities take place according to directions from the local inseminator and veterinarian. If the farmer's cow starts to go into heat, we and the inseminator and the veterinarian perform artificial insemination, the success of artificial insemination can be determined by observing the cow's estrus cycle 21 days after the artificial insemination is carried out and the cow does not experience the first estrus, and also does not experience the second estrous cycle, then the cow is declared pregnant at 42 days. The number of 60 cows that received artificial insemination injections, the percentage of successful artificial insemination injections of all cows was 65%, it can be said that the artificial insemination injections that were carried out were successful.

Influence of Estrus on Dairy Cow Milk Exosomal miRNAs and Their Role in Hormone Secretion by Granulosa Cells.

Estrus is crucial for cow fertility in modern dairy farms, but almost 50% of cows do not show the behavioral signs of estrus due to silent estrus and lack of suitable and high-accuracy methods to detect estrus. MiRNA and exosomes play essential roles in reproductive function and may be developed as novel biomarkers in estrus detection. Thus, we analyzed the miRNA expression patterns in milk exosomes during estrus and the effect of milk exosomes on hormone secretion in cultured bovine granulosa cells in vitro. We found that the number of exosomes and the exosome protein concentration in estrous cow milk were significantly lower than in non-estrous cow milk. Moreover, 133 differentially expressed exosomal miRNAs were identified in estrous cow milk vs. non-estrous cow milk. Functional enrichment analyses indicated that exosomal miRNAs were involved in reproduction and hormone-synthesis-related pathways, such as cholesterol metabolism, FoxO signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway, mTOR signaling pathway, steroid hormone biosynthesis, Wnt signaling pathway and GnRH signaling pathway. Consistent with the enrichment signaling pathways, exosomes derived from estrous and non-estrous cow milk both could promote the secretion of estradiol and progesterone in cultured bovine granulosa cells. Furthermore, genes related to hormonal synthesis (CYP19A1, CYP11A1, HSD3B1 and RUNX2) were up-regulated after exosome treatment, while exosomes inhibited the expression of StAR. Moreover, estrous and non-estrous cow-milk-derived exosomes both could increase the expression of bcl2 and decrease the expression of p53, and did not influence the expression of caspase-3. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate exosomal miRNA expression patterns during dairy cow estrus and the role of exosomes in hormone secretion by bovine granulosa cells. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further investigating milk-derived exosomes and exosomal miRNA effects on ovary function and reproduction. Moreover, bovine milk exosomes may have effects on the ovaries of human consumers of pasteurized cow milk. These differential miRNAs might provide candidate biomarkers for the diagnosis of dairy cow estrus and will assist in developing new therapeutic targets for cow infertility.

Discrimination strategy using machine learning technique for oestrus detection in dairy cows by a dual-channel-based acoustic tag

Timely identification of cows in heat is a fundamental issue in dairy farming. Although current studies have confirmed that several cow vocalisation characteristics can be used for oestrus identification, the reliability and practicability of oestrus detection methods are limited due to background noise, a lack of data support for sound feature selection, and the unsatisfactory effectiveness of vocalisation recognition algorithms.To overcome these predicaments, a dual-channel recording device and a sound event extraction method were developed in this study. The experimental results in respect of 62 Holstein dairy cows showed that the sound sample recording accuracy was 80.4%, and the noise filtering accuracy was 94.3%, indicating the effectiveness of the vocalisation extraction algorithm in a noisy farm environment. Moreover, two unique sound features with remarkable discrimination ability, i.e., the number of consecutive vocalisations and the maximum consecutive times, were used to improve the effectiveness of oestrus detection. The Friedman test, the Spearman rank order correlation coefficient, and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to obtain the combination of features with the most optimal discrimination. Subsequently, a dual-LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) joint discriminant strategy based on optimal combinations was proposed to promote oestrus detection performance. The results of the blind test on the vocalisation data of 20 oestrus cows and 11 non-oestrus cows demonstrated that the oestrus detection rate of the discrimination strategy reached 100%, and had a temporal advantage over the activity-index-based method in determining the onset of oestrus.The improvements of the selection and-based oestrus detection method mainly included accurately extracting individual cow vocalisations, supplementing the explicability of feature selection, and enhancing the refinement of oestrus recognition. Meanwhile, it is of positive significance for applying sound acquisition devices in oestrus detection. Furthermore, combining sound identification with other automated detection techniques appears to be a promising method for promoting the oestrus detection rate.

Pre-estrus progesterone does not affect post-estrus luminal metabolome in cross-bred beef cows.

The concentration of progesterone through the estrous cycle modulates uterine function to affect the luminal metabolome. This paper reports that the dynamic changes in the bovine uterine luminal metabolome during diestrus are independent of the concentration of progesterone in the previous cycle. In cattle, the concentration of sex steroids modulates uterine function, which is reflected in the composition of the luminal metabolome. Ultimately, the uterine luminal metabolome influences embryonic growth and development. Our objectives were (i) to compare the luminal metabolome 4, 7, and 14 days after estrus of cows that were exposed to greater (HP4; n = 16) vs lower (LP4; n = 24) concentrations of progesterone before displaying estrus and ovulating spontaneously and (ii) to identify changes in the luminal concentration of metabolites across these time points. Luminal epithelial cells and fluid were collected using a cytology brush, and gene expression and metabolite concentrations were assessed by RNAseq and targeted mass spectrometry, respectively. Metabolome profile was similar between treatments within each of days 4, 7, and 14 (false discovery rate (FDR): ≥ 0.1). Concentrations of 53 metabolites changed, independent of treatment, across the diestrus. Metabolites were mostly lipids (40 out 53) and the greatest concentrations were at day 14 (FDR: ≤ 0.1). On day 7, the concentration of putrescine and the gene expression of ODC1, PAOX, SLC3A2, and SAT1 increased (P ≤ 0.05). On day 14, the concentration of 3 ceramides, 4 glucosylceramides, and 12 sphingomyelins and the expression of SGMS2 were increased, in addition to the concentration of choline and 20 phosphatidylcholines. Collectively, the post-estrus concentration of luminal metabolites changed dynamically, independent of the concentration of sex steroids on the previous cycle, and the greatest magnitude changes were on day 14 when lipid metabolism was the most enriched pathway.

Comparation of Physiology, Diameter of Ovary and Follicle at PO Cows Treated Different Method of Estrus Synchronization

One of the biotechnology reproductive used is estrus synchronization. This study determined the body’s physiological, estradiol level, and ovarian and follicle diameter in Peranakan Ongole (PO) cow estrus synchronization using modified progesterone-PGF2α and double injection of PGF2α. This study used 10 PO cows which were divided into two groups. Group 1, cows were given a modified intravaginal sponge containing 250 mg progesterone/sponge for 6 days, followed by intramuscularly injection of PGF2ɑ 25 mg/cow on day sixth. Appearance of estrus was observed on day 7th -9th. Group 2, cows were given a double injection 25 mg/cow of PGF2ɑ intramuscularly at 14-day intervals, then estrus was observed on day 15th -17th. The vaginal temperature was checked using a thermometer, the respiratory frequency was checked by inspection of thorax movements, and the pulse rate was checked by palpation of the coccygeal artery. Ovarian and Graafian follicle diameters were examined using ultrasonography. The data were analyzed using either T-Test or descriptive test. The results showed that in cows that were synchronized to estrus using combination of modified progesterone-PGF2ɑ and double injection of PGF2ɑ, the vaginal temperature, pulse rate, and respiration frequency were 36.9±0.98 and 37.34±0.83, 57.60±12.52 and 74.80±26.59, 30.40±10.43 and 20.00±2.83 respectively. There was no significant difference in ovarian and follicle diameter (P>0.05). The conclusion was the results of body physiology were in normal conditions but still below the average of cows undergoing estrus, and there were no significant differences in ovarian and Graafian follicle diameters.

Preliminary study of estradiol and progesterone detection based on terahertz spectroscopy

Estradiol (E2) and progesterone (PROG) are the two typical reproductive hormones in cows. The concentrations of E2 and PROG in milk are highly correlated with the estrus in cows. In the present work, the feasibility of qualitative and quantitative detection of E2 and PROG by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is preliminarily investigated. 522 sample tablets of E2, PROG, powdered milk, estradiol-powdered milk (E2-PM), progesterone-powdered milk (PROG-PM) and estradiol-progesterone-powdered milk (E2-PROG-PM) are prepared, and the time-domain spectral, frequency-domain spectral and absorption coefficients are collected and analyzed. The density functional theory (DFT) is used to simulate the molecular dynamics of E2 and PROG. The four preprocessing methods, including first order derivative (FD), standard normal variant (SNV), multiple scatter correction (MSC) and Savitzky-Golay (S-G) along with different modeling methods, including support vector regression (SVR), partial least squares regression (PLSR) and convolutional neural network (CNN) are used for quantitative model building and predictions. The prediction set correlation coefficient (Rp) having value 0.9843 for the E2 concentration in the E2-PM, 0.9935 Rp of the PROG concentration in PROG-PM, and 0.9830 Rp for E2 and PROG concentrations in E2-PROG-PM are achieved by using the combination of None & CNN model, None & CNN model and S-G & CNN model respectively. Our study indicates that the use of terahertz technology to determine hormone content has great potential applications in the field of identification of estrus in dairy cows.

Identification of oestrus cows based on vocalisation characteristics and machine learning technique using a dual-channel-equipped acoustic tag

Timely and accurate detection of oestrus in cows is an essential element of the good management of dairy farms. At present, the detection of cows in oestrus by acoustic means is impeded by the problems of filtering, incomplete feature selection, and poor recognition accuracy. To overcome these difficulties, this study proposes a sound detection method for cows in oestrus based on machine learning technology using an optimal feature combination and an optimal time window. Firstly, a dual-channel sound detection tag consisting of a unidirectional microphone and an omnidirectional microphone (OM) was developed. The Least Mean Squares adaptive algorithm based on wavelet thresholds was used to filter the signals from the OM, and the dual-channel endpoint detection algorithm was used to identify the lowing of individual cows. The Friedman analysis was then used to select the sound features with significant differences before and after oestrus in terms of time, frequency, and cepstrum, and these were used to determine the most acceptable feature combination. We then analysed the effects of Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), Cartesian Regression Tree, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest classification on the accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score of oestrus discrimination. Different time windows were used, and the discrimination performance of these algorithms was evaluated using the Area under Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve to find the most satisfactory match between the time window and the recognition algorithm. The dual-channel acoustic tag’s accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity results were 91.25, 98.83, 91.75, and 83.68%, respectively. BPNN with the 70 ms time window and the feature combination (spectral roll-off + spectral flatness + Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients) was confirmed as the most suitable oestrus recognition method. The average accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score of this method were 97.62, 98.07, 97.17, 97.19, and 97.63%, respectively. Based on these results, the approach was shown to be a feasible means of oestrus detection in dairy cows. Based on its ability to differentiate cows and its consistency, it was demonstrated that sound has the potential to replace accelerometers as an early indicator of oestrus in dairy cows.