Added dietary cobalt or vitamin B12, or injecting vitamin B12 does not improve performance or indicators of ketosis in pre- and post-partum Holstein-Friesian dairy cows

Vitamin B12 is synthesised in the rumen from cobalt and has a major role in metabolism in the peripaturient period, although few studies have evaluated the effect of the dietary inclusion of cobalt (Co), vitamin B12 or injecting vitamin B12 on the metabolism, health and performance of high yielding dairy cows. Fifty-six Holstein-Friesian dairy cows received one of four treatments from 8 weeks prior to calving to 8 weeks post calving: C, no added Co; DC, additional 0.2 mg Co/kg DM; DB, additional 0.68 mg vitamin B12/kg DM; IB, intra-muscular injection of vitamin B12 to supply 0.71 mg/cow/day pre-partum and 1.42 mg/cow/day post-partum. The basal and lactation rations both contained 0.21 mg Co/kg DM. Cows were weighed and condition scored at drying off, 4 weeks prior to calving, within 24 h of calving and at 2, 4 and 8 weeks post-calving, with blood samples collected at drying off, 2 weeks pre-calving, calving and 2, 4 and 8 weeks post-calving. Liver biopsy samples were collected from all animals at drying off and 4 weeks post-calving. Live weight changed with time, but there was no effect of treatment (P>0.05), whereas cows receiving IB had the lowest mean body condition score and DB the highest (P0.05) with mean values of 21.6 kg/day, 39.6 kg/day and 40.4 g/kg respectively. Cows receiving IB had a higher plasma vitamin B12 concentration than those receiving any of the other treatments (P0.05) of treatment on homocysteine or succinate concentrations, although mean plasma methylmalonic acid concentrations were lower (P=0.019) for cows receiving IB than for Control cows. Plasma β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations increased sharply at calving followed by a decline, but there was no effect of treatment. Similarly, there was no effect (P>0.05) of treatment on plasma non-esterified fatty acids or glucose. Whole tract digestibility of DM and fibre measured at week 7 of lactation were similar between treatments, and there was little effect of treatment on the milk fatty acid profile except for C15:0, which was lower in cows receiving DC than IB (P<0.05). It is concluded that a basal dietary concentration of 0.21 mg Co/kg DM is sufficient to meet the requirements of high yielding dairy cows during the transition period, and there is little benefit from additional Co or vitamin B12

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Brain Disorder Characterized by Eating Problems Originating during Puberty and Adolescence

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine condition associated with reproductive and psychiatric disorders, and with obesity. Eating disorders, such as bulimia and recurrent dieting, are also linked to PCOS. They can lead to the epigenetic dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis, thereby impacting on ovarian folliculogenesis. We postulate that PCOS is induced by psychological distress and episodes of overeating and/or dieting during puberty and adolescence, when body dissatisfaction and emotional distress are often present. We propose that upregulated activation of the central HPG axis during this period can be epigenetically altered by psychological stressors and by bulimia/recurrent dieting, which are common during adolescence and which can lead to PCOS. This hypothesis is based on events that occur during a largely neglected stage of female reproductive development. To date, most research into the origins of PCOS has focused on the prenatal induction of this disorder, particularly in utero androgenization and the role of anti-Müllerian hormone. Establishing causality in our peripubertal model requires prospective cohort studies from infancy. Mechanistic studies should consider the role of the gut microbiota in addition to the epigenetic regulation of (neuro) hormones. Finally, clinicians should consider the importanc

Analysis of bovine blastocysts indicates ovarian stimulation does not induce chromosome errors, nor discordance between inner-cell mass and trophectoderm lineages

Contemporary systems for oocyte retrieval and culture of both cattle and human embryos are suboptimal with respect to pregnancy outcomes following transfer. In humans, chromosome abnormalities are the leading cause of early pregnancy loss in assisted reproduction. Consequently, pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) is widespread and there is considerable interest in its application to identify suitable cattle IVP embryos for transfer. Here we report on the nature and extent of chromosomal abnormalities following transvaginal follicular aspiration (OPU) and IVP in cattle. Nine sexually mature Holstein heifers underwent nine sequential cycles of OPU-IVP (six non-stimulated and three stimulated cycles), generating 459 blastocysts from 783 oocytes. We adopted a SNP-array approach normally employed in genomic evaluations but reanalysed (Turner et al., 2019; Theriogenology 125: 249) to detect levels of meiotic aneuploidy. Specifically, we asked whether ovarian stimulation increased the level of aneuploidy in either trophectoderm (TE) or inner-cell mass (ICM) lineages of blastocysts generated from OPU-IVP cycles. The proportion of Day 8 blastocysts of inseminated was greater (P < 0.001) for stimulated than non-stimulated cycles (0.712 ± 0.0288 vs. 0.466 ± 0.0360), but the overall proportion aneuploidy was similar for both groups (0.241 ± 0.0231). Most abnormalities consisted of meiotic trisomies. Twenty in vivo derived blastocysts recovered from the same donors were all euploid, thus indicating that 24 h of maturation is primarily responsible for aneuploidy induction. Chromosomal errors in OPU-IVP blastocysts decreased (P < 0.001) proportionately as stage/grade improved (from 0.373 for expanded Grade 2 to 0.128 for hatching Grade 1 blastocysts). Importantly, there was a high degree of concordance in the incidence of aneuploidy between TE and ICM lineages. Proportionately, 0.94 were “perfectly concordant” (i.e. identical result in both); 0.01 were imperfectly concordant (differing abnormalities detected); 0.05 were discordant; of which 0.03 detected a potentially lethal TE abnormality (false positives), leaving only 0.02 false negatives. These data support the use of TE biopsies for PGT-A in embryos undergoing genomic evaluation in cattle breeding. Finally, we report chromosome-specific errors and a high degree of variability in the incidence of aneuploidy between donors, suggesting a genetic contribution that merits further investigation

Keeping the herds healthy and alert: implications of predator control for infectious disease

Predator control programmes are generally implemented in an attempt to increase prey population sizes. However, predator removal could prove harmful to prey populations that are regulated primarily by parasitic infections rather than by predation. We develop models for microparasitic and macroparasitic infection that specify the conditions where predator removal will (a) increase the incidence of parasitic infection, (b) reduce the number of healthy individuals in the prey population and (c) decrease the overall size of the prey population. In general, predator removal is more likely to be harmful when the parasite is highly virulent, macroparasites are highly aggregated in their prey, hosts are long-lived and the predators select infected prey

Effects of environmental pollutants on the reproduction and welfare of ruminants

Anthropogenic pollutants comprise a wide range of synthetic organic compounds and heavy metals, which are dispersed throughout the environment, usually at low concentrations. Exposure of ruminants, as for all other animals, is unavoidable and while the levels of exposure to most chemicals are usually too low to induce any physiological effects, combinations of pollutants can act additively or synergistically to perturb multiple physiological systems at all ages but particularly in the developing foetus. In sheep, organs affected by pollutant exposure include the ovary, testis, hypothalamus and pituitary gland and bone. Reported effects of exposure include changes in organ weight and gross structure, histology and gene and protein expression but these changes are not reflected in changes in reproductive performance under the conditions tested. These results illustrate the complexity of the effects of endocrine disrupting compounds on the reproductive axis, which make it difficult to extrapolate between, or even within, species. Effects of pollutant exposure on the thyroid gland, immune, cardiovascular and obesogenic systems have not been shown explicitly, in ruminants, but work on other species suggests that these systems can also be perturbed. It is concluded that exposure to a mixture of anthropogenic pollutants has significant effects on a wide variety of physiological systems, including the reproductive system. Although this physiological insult has not yet been shown to lead to a reduction in ruminant gross performance, there are already reports indicating that anthropogenic pollutant exposure can compromise several physiological systems and may pose a significant threat to both reproductive performance and welfare in the longer term. At present, many potential mechanisms of action for individual chemicals have been identified but knowledge of factors affecting the rate of tissue exposure and of the effects of combinations of chemicals on physiological systems is poor. Nevertheless, both are vital for the identification of risks to animal productivity and welfare