Biochemical Profile and Productive Performance in Dairy Cows with Lameness During Postpartum Period

Background: Lameness in dairy cows is classified as a gait change caused by multifactorial process. The phase of the peripartum causes intense physiological changes for the adaptation of late gestation and onset of lactation. The aim of this study was to characterize the changes in the biochemical profile and productive performance in dairy cows with lameness during postpartum period.Materials, Methods & Results: This study was conducted at the University of São Paulo farm, in Pirassununga, São Paulo State, Brazil, from January to March 2017. A total, of 48 multiparous (2 to 3 lactations and 3-4 years old) dairy cows, that had the milk production of 9,200 kg/ dairy cow in a period of 305 days in the previous lactation, were included in the study. All cows were managed under the same conditions and nutritional regimen. Evaluation of body condition score was performed by a single person on -18, -12, -8, -5, and -2 days before parturition, at parturition, and on days 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition. Milk production was recorded on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition and saved in the software program. Blood samples were performed on -18, -12, -8, -5, and -2 days before parturition, at parturition, and on days 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition. Blood samples were assayed for albumin, calcium, cholesterol, triglycerides, non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, urea, creatinine, gamma-glutamil-transferase and total protein concentrations. Dairy cows were divided into a lame group (11) and normal group (37) based on locomotion score from parturition to seven days postpartum. Lame cows was classified if their score was > 2, and normal cows was classified if their score was ≤ 2 and free of any disease. Dairy cows that suffer by any health disorder other than lameness were excluded from this study. Cow diagnosed with lameness outside the diagnostic period were excluded from this study. The averages of the milk production, body condition score and biochemical profile were compared with the Tukey’s test. Lame cows showed lower (P < 0.05) concentrations of albumin (on days -18 -12, -8, -5, -2 relative to parturition, at parturition, and on days 7, 14, 21, 45 and 60 after parturition) calcium (on days -18, -12, -8, -5 and -2 before parturition, and on days 7, 14, 21, 45 and 60 after parturition), cholesterol (on days -12, -8, -5 before parturition and on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition) than normal cows. Cow with lameness showed higher (P < 0.05) concentration of triglyceride (on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition), non-esterified fatty acids (on days 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition) and β-hydroxybutyrate (on days -12, -5 and -2 before parturition, at parturition, and on days 1, 14, 21 and 30 after parturition) than normal group. Cows with lameness presented higher (P < 0.05) values of body condition score on days -18, -12 and -8 before parturition, and lower (P < 0.05) values on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition than normal cows. Milk production was lower (P < 0.05) for cows with lameness (on days 7, 14, 21, 30, 45 and 60 after parturition) than normal cows.Discussion: The overall prevalence of lameness in the evaluated period was 22.92% (11/48). Among lame cows, 07 presented laminitis, 02 had interdigital hyperplasia and 02 had sole ulcer. Our findings prove that the biochemical profile and productivity of dairy cows during the peripartum and postpartum period were affected by lameness at the early lactation.

An archaeal biomarker record of paleoenvironmental change across the onset of the Messinian salinity crisis in the absence of evaporites (Piedmont Basin, Italy)

Abstract A sudden change from normal marine to extreme paleoenvironmental conditions occurred approximately 6 Ma ago in the Mediterranean Basin at the onset of the late Miocene Messinian salinity crisis, one of the most severe ecological crises in Earth history. Strong evaporation and tectonics led to hypersaline conditions, resulting in widespread deposition of evaporites and the apparent annihilation of the marine metazoan biosphere. In contrast to the prominent occurrence of evaporites elsewhere in the Mediterranean, evaporites did not form in the deeper part of some marginal basins at the onset of the crisis. The strata of the Pollenzo section (Piedmont Basin, NW Italy) studied here were deposited in such a paleogeographic setting. Instead of evaporites, a cyclic succession of organic-rich shales and carbonates formed during the early phase of the crisis in the study area. These sediments record a sharp increase in the contents of archaeal molecular fossils that are mostly represented by isoprenoidal dialkyl glycerol diethers (DGDs) and isoprenoidal glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs). Such an expansion of archaeal biomass is best explained by a change of the archaeal communities at the onset of the Messinian salinity crisis. In particular, the appearance of molecular fossils of extremophilic archaea, mostly producing DGDs (archaeol and extended archaeol), suggests the emergence of halophilic archaea. At the same time, lipids of planktonic Thaumarchaeota, especially crenarchaeol, are present across the entire section, suggesting the local persistence of normal marine conditions. In agreement with the sudden appearance of tetrahymanol in the upper part of the section, the persistence of crenarchaeol indicates the establishment of water column stratification after the advent of the Messinian salinity crisis. To further investigate the Piedmont Basin paleoenvironmental conditions, we test the Archaeol Caldarchaeol Ecometric (ACE), a proxy developed for identifying high paleosalinities in waters and possibly in sediments. Despite high ACE values found for the Messinian salinity crisis samples, these values are in contrast with the absence of any lithological evidence for high salinities as well with other biomarker-independent information, indicating low to normal seawater salinities. This apparent contradiction is likely explained by the complexity of the sources of archaeal lipids, especially of caldarchaeol and archaeol, limiting the utility of the ACE for the reconstruction of paleosalinities for Messinian strata

Padrões hematológicos em Cebus apella, anestesiados com quetamina

Blood samples were collected from 124 captive Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) at Fundação Parque Zoológico de São Paulo, anesthetized with ketamine (10 mg/kg, IM). Hematological parameters (RBC, WBC, differential count, hematocrit, hemoglobin, MCV, MCH and MCHC) were determined, and influence of sex and age on hematologic values was studied.Amostras de sangue foram colhidas de 124 macacos-prego (Cebus apella) da Fundação Parque Zoológico de São Paulo, anestesiados com quetamina (10 mg/kg, IM), com a finalidade de determinar os seguintes parâmetros hematológicos: contagens globais de hemácias e leucócitos, contagem diferencial de leucócitos, hematócrito, hemoglobina e índices hematimétricos (VCM, HCM e CHCM), expressos em média e desvio padrão. Estudou-se a influência do sexo e da idade sobre os referidos parâmetros

From ether to acid: a plausible degradation pathway of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are ubiquitous microbial lipids with extensive demonstrated and potential roles as paleoenvironmental proxies. Despite the great attention they receive, comparatively little is known regarding their diagenetic fate. Putative degradation products of GDGTs, identified as hydroxyl and carboxyl derivatives, were detected in lipid extracts of marine sediment, seep carbonate, hot spring sediment and cells of the marine thaumarchaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus. The distribution of GDGT degradation products in environmental samples suggests that both biotic and abiotic processes act as sinks for GDGTs. More than a hundred newly recognized degradation products afford a view of the stepwise degradation of GDGT via (1) ether bond hydrolysis yielding hydroxyl isoprenoids, namely, GDGTol (glycerol dialkyl glycerol triether alcohol), GMGD (glycerol monobiphytanyl glycerol diether), GDD (glycerol dibiphytanol diether), GMM (glycerol monobiphytanol monoether) and bpdiol (biphytanic diol); (2) oxidation of isoprenoidal alcohols into corresponding carboxyl derivatives and (3) chain shortening to yield C39and smaller isoprenoids. This plausible GDGT degradation pathway from glycerol ethers to isoprenoidal fatty acids provides the link to commonly detected head-to-head linked long chain isoprenoidal hydrocarbons in petroleum and sediment samples. The problematic C80to C82tetraacids that cause naphthenate deposits in some oil production facilities can be generated from H-shaped glycerol monoalkyl glycerol tetraethers (GMGTs) following the same process, as indicated by the distribution of related derivatives in hydrothermally influenced sediments.Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (ERC Grant 247153

Normal values of plasma fibrinogen in Cebus apella monkeys iunder ketamine anesthesia

Determinaram-se os valores de referência de fibrinogênio plasmático em macaco prego (Cebus apella). Para tanto, utilizaram-se 108 animais sadios, dos quais 53 machos (12 jovens e 41 adultos) e 55 fêmeas (20 jovens e 35 adultas), submetidos, previamente, a exame clínico. A coleta do material (sangue) foi realizada por punção da veia femoral direita e/ou esquerda com os animais anestesiados com quetamina, por via intramuscular, na dose de 10 mg/kg. A determinação da fibrinogenemia foi realizada no soro, obtido após a centrifugação do sangue, segundo técnica descrita por Schalm et al.'s (1975). Obtiveram-se os seguintes resultados expressos em mg/dlNormal values of plasma fibrinogen were determined in 108 Cebus apella monkeys. This parameter was studied in 53 males (12 young and 45 adults) and 55 females (20 young and 35 adults). Blood was collected through venipuncture of right and/or left femoral vein from animals under ketamine sedation (10 mg/kg, intramusculary administred). Determination of fibrinogenemia was done according to the technique described by Schalm et al.  (1975). Results are expressed in mg/dl

Fueled by methane: deep-sea sponges from asphalt seeps gain their nutrition from methane-oxidizing symbionts

Sponges host a remarkable diversity of microbial symbionts, however, the benefit their microbes provide is rarely understood. Here, we describe two new sponge species from deep-sea asphalt seeps and show that they live in a nutritional symbiosis with methane-oxidizing (MOX) bacteria. Metagenomics and imaging analyses revealed unusually high amounts of MOX symbionts in hosts from a group previously assumed to have low microbial abundances. These symbionts belonged to the Marine Methylotrophic Group 2 clade. They are host-specific and likely vertically transmitted, based on their presence in sponge embryos and streamlined genomes, which lacked genes typical of related free-living MOX. Moreover, genes known to play a role in host–symbiont interactions, such as those that encode eukaryote-like proteins, were abundant and expressed. Methane assimilation by the symbionts was one of the most highly expressed metabolic pathways in the sponges. Molecular and stable carbon isotope patterns of lipids confirmed that methane-derived carbon was incorporated into the hosts. Our results revealed that two species of sponges, although distantly related, independently established highly specific, nutritional symbioses with two closely related methanotrophs. This convergence in symbiont acquisition underscores the strong selective advantage for these sponges in harboring MOX bacteria in the food-limited deep sea

Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) shallow water hydrocarbon seeps from Snow Hill and Seymour Islands, James Ross Basin, Antarctica

Fossil hydrocarbon seeps are present in latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) volcaniclastic shallow shelf sediments exposed on Snow Hill and Seymour Islands, James Ross Basin, Antarctica. The seeps occur in the Snow Hill Island Formation on Snow Hill Island and are manifest as large-sized, cement-rich carbonate bodies, containing abundant thyasirid bivalves and rarer ammonites and solemyid bivalves. These bodies have typical seep cement phases, with δ13C values between 20.4 and 10.7‰ and contain molecular fossils indicative of terrigenous organic material and the micro-organisms involved in the anaerobic oxidation of methane, including methanotrophic archaea and sulphate-reducing bacteria. On Seymour Island the seeps occur as micrite-cemented burrow systems in the López de Bertodano Formation and are associated with thyasirid, solemyid and lucinid bivalves, and background molluscan taxa. The cemented burrows also have typical seep cement phases, with δ13C values between 58.0 and 24.6‰. There is evidence from other data that hydrocarbon seepage was a common feature in the James Ross Basin throughout the Maastrichtian and into the Eocene. The Snow Hill and Seymour Island examples comprise the third known area of Maastrichtian hydrocarbon seepage. But compared to most other ancient and modern seep communities, the James Ross Basin seep fauna is of very low diversity, being dominated by infaunal bivalves, all of which probably had thiotrophic chemosymbionts, but which were unlikely to have been seep obligates. Absent from the James Ross Basin seep fauna are ‘typical’ obligate seep taxa from the Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. Reasons for this may have been temporal, palaeolatitudinal, palaeobathymetric, or palaeoecological