Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Antimicrobial Resistance of and Species Isolated from Subclinical Bovine Mastitis.

Subclinical mastitis (SCM) is a prevalent serious disease among dairy cows worldwide. It poses a significant challenge to the dairy industry, animal welfare, and a threat to public health. The present study aimed to investigate the molecular detection, prevalence, and antimicrobial resistance of spp.

First report of knowledge and practices towards toxoplasmosis among cat owners: A cross-sectional survey in Bangladesh.

Raising awareness about Toxoplasma gondii infection among cat owners in Bangladesh is indispensable to formulate persuasive management tactics to avoid zoonotic infections from pet cats. However, to the authors' best knowledge, no studies have been performed in Bangladesh to determine knowledge and practices of toxoplasmosis in cat owners. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to cover this research gap.

Review on diagnosis and molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in humans and animals.

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoon which causes toxoplasmosis, an important zoonotic disease that is endemic worldwide. Common sources of T. gondii infection in humans are food or water contaminated with oocysts and raw or undercooked meat with cysts.

Seminal plasma contains TGF-β and CXCL10 but sperm washing before cryopreservation is beneficial for post-thawing sperm motility in Black Bengal goats (Capra hircus).

Problem: Artificial insemination, which requires cryopreservation of semen, is not completely optimized in goats because bucks discharge a small volume of ejaculate and seminal plasma (SP) contains specific proteins that are detrimental to spermatozoa at cryopreservation. However, it is not known the effects of sperm washing (removal of SP) before cryopreservation on the post-thawing frozen spermatozoa of Black Bengal bucks. Moreover, it is completely unknown whether SP of goats contains TGF-β and CXCL10 that have been proven essential for fertility in other mammals.

Expression of Immune Regulatory Genes in the Porcine Internal Genital Tract Is Differentially Triggered by Spermatozoa and Seminal Plasma.

Mating or cervical deposition of spermatozoa or seminal plasma (SP) modifies the expression of genes affecting local immune defense processes at the oviductal sperm reservoir in animals with internal fertilization, frequently by down-regulation. Such responses may occur alongside sperm transport to or even beyond the reservoir. Here, immune-related gene expression was explored with cDNA microarrays on porcine cervix-to-infundibulum tissues, pre-/peri-ovulation.

Conserved gene expression in sperm reservoirs between birds and mammals in response to mating.

Background: Spermatozoa are stored in the oviductal functional sperm reservoir in animals with internal fertilization, including zoologically distant classes such as pigs or poultry. They are held fertile in the reservoir for times ranging from a couple of days (in pigs), to several weeks (in chickens), before they are gradually released to fertilize the newly ovulated eggs. It is currently unknown whether females from these species share conserved mechanisms to tolerate such a lengthy presence of immunologically-foreign spermatozoa.

Selection for higher fertility reflects in the seminal fluid proteome of modern domestic chicken.

The high egg-laying capacity of the modern domestic chicken (i.e. White Leghorn, WL) has arisen from the low egg-laying ancestor Red Junglefowl (RJF) via continuous trait selection and breeding.

The ubiquitous hyaluronan: Functionally implicated in the oviduct?

Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid) is a simple, nonantigenic, nonsulfated glycosaminoglycan present everywhere in the extracellular compartments of the body. Noteworthy, it is highly conserved phylogenetically, from sauropsida to mammals; and plays a plethora of roles from embryonic/fetal development to adult physiological and pathological events, including tumor development. In reproduction, hyaluronan has proven related to initial events as sperm survival, buildup of the sperm reservoir in the oviduct, regulation of sperm capacitation, and prefertilization to later participate in embryo, fetal, and placental development.

The Seminal Plasma of the Boar is Rich in Cytokines, with Significant Individual and Intra-Ejaculate Variation.

Problem: The boar, as human, sequentially ejaculates sperm-rich and sperm-poor fractions. Seminal plasma (SP) spermadhesins (PSP-I/PSP-II) induce a primary endometrial inflammatory response in female sows, similar to that elicited by semen deposition in other species, including human. However, the SP is also known to mitigate such response, making it transient to allow for embryo entry to a cleansed endometrium.

Mating induces the expression of immune- and pH-regulatory genes in the utero-vaginal junction containing mucosal sperm-storage tubuli of hens.

The female chicken, as with other species with internal fertilization, can tolerate the presence of spermatozoa within specialized sperm-storage tubuli (SST) located in the mucosa of the utero-vaginal junction (UVJ) for days or weeks, without eliciting an immune response. To determine if the oviduct alters its gene expression in response to sperm entry, segments from the oviduct (UVJ, uterus, isthmus, magnum and infundibulum) of mated and unmated (control) hens, derived from an advanced inter-cross line between Red Junglefowl and White Leghorn, were explored 24  h after mating using cDNA microarray analysis. Mating shifted the expression of fifteen genes in the UVJ (53.

Measurement of activity and concentration of paraoxonase 1 (PON-1) in seminal plasma and identification of PON-2 in the sperm of boar ejaculates.

This study revealed and characterised the presence of the antioxidant enzymes paraoxonase (PON) type 1 (PON-1, extracellular) and type 2 (PON-2, intracellular) in boar semen. To evaluate PON-1, an entire ejaculate from each of ten boars was collected and the seminal plasma was harvested after double centrifugation (1,500g for 10 min). Seminal plasma was analysed for concentration as well as enzymatic activity of PON-1 and total cholesterol levels.

Replacement of glutamine with the dipeptide derivative alanyl-glutamine enhances in vitro maturation of porcine oocytes and development of embryos.

The presence of glutamine (Gln) in in vitro maturation (IVM) and in vitro culture (IVC) medium is a more potent factor for improving porcine oocyte and embryo development than other amino acids. However Gln is inherently unstable and spontaneously breaks down into ammonia, and therefore interferes with proper development. To avoid this adverse effect, Gln was replaced in the present study with its stable dipeptide derivative alanyl-glutamine (Ala-Gln) and the effects of this replacement on porcine IVM and IVC were evaluated.

Effect of oocyte-secreted factors on porcine in vitro maturation, cumulus expansion and developmental competence of parthenotes.

The oocyte is known from recent studies in the mouse, cow, sheep and human to be a central regulator of follicular cell function. However, in the pig, little information is known about the regulation of cumulus expansion by oocyte-secreted factors and oocyte quality. We investigated the possible effects of oocyte-secreted factors during in vitro maturation on cumulus expansion and on porcine oocytes as judged by subsequent embryonic development after parthenogenetic activation.

Developmental competence of porcine oocytes after in vitro maturation and in vitro culture under different oxygen concentrations.

In this study, we investigated the effect of two oxygen concentrations (5 and 20%) during in vitro maturation (IVM) and during in vitro culture (IVC) on porcine embryo development and analysed differences in gene expression between cumulus-oocyte complexes matured under 5 or 20% oxygen and the resulting blastocysts cultured under 5% or 20% oxygen following parthenogenetic activation. There was no significant difference in oocyte maturation rate. However, the numbers of resulting blastocysts were significantly increased in the 5% IVC group compared with the 20% IVC group.

Blastocysts derived from adult fibroblasts of a rhesus monkey ( Macaca mulatta) using interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer.

In non-human primates, it is difficult to collect sufficient numbers of oocytes for producing identical embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Because of this factor, inter-species SCNT (iSCNT) using heterospecific oocytes is an attractive alternative approach. The objective of this study was to produce iSCNT-derived blastocysts using enucleated cow (Bos taurus) metaphase II oocytes and adult rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) fibroblasts.

The 9-cis retinoic acid signaling pathway and its regulation of prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 during in vitro maturation of pig cumulus cell-oocyte complexes and effects on parthenogenetic embryo production.

The addition of 9-cis retinoic acid to the oocyte maturation culture medium has a beneficial effect on in vitro fertilized embryos. However, the mechanism of this activity is not known. Therefore, this study was done to elucidate the effect of 9-cis retinoic acid on parthenogenetic embryo production and its signaling pathway and molecular function during in vitro maturation of porcine cumulus cell-oocyte complexes (COCs).

Short-term treatment with 6-DMAP and demecolcine improves developmental competence of electrically or Thi/DTT-activated porcine parthenogenetic embryos.

Treatment with 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) or demecolcine (DE) for several (at least 2) hours after artificial activation is known to improve in vitro development of porcine embryos. However, several reports have also shown that treatments with these chemicals induce apoptosis. The aim of this study was to find out whether short-term treatment with 6-DMAP and DE combined with electrical or thimerosal/dithiothreitol (Thi/DTT) activation had a beneficial effect on development of parthenogenetically activated porcine oocytes.