Late gestation heat stress alters O regulation in placenta and neonatal heifers.

Introduction: Maternal hyperthermia (i.e. heat stress) can adversely affect placental development and function, with severity varying based on pregnancy stage.

Late-gestation heat stress alters placental structure and function in multiparous dairy cows.

The placenta plays a pivotal role in fetal development and the dam's subsequent lactation performance, because it facilitates nutrient transfer, heat dissipation, and gas exchange with the growing fetus, and regulates key hormones essential for mammary gland development. Heat stress experienced during gestation and lactation can significantly reduce the placenta's capacity to perform these critical functions. To investigate the impact of heat stress, trials were conducted over the summer months of 2020, 2022, and 2023 in Florida.

Effect of a nutritional immunomodulator in dry cows heat stressed with an electric blanket model.

Heat stress in the dry period reduces yield and health in the next lactation. Previous work indicates that feeding OmniGen AF (OMN; Phibro Animal Health) mitigates the detrimental effects of heat stress. Electric blankets (EB) can induce heat stress in lactating cows, but EB have not been used with dry cows.

Seasonal effects on multiparous dairy cow behavior in early lactation.

Controlled studies have shown that heat stress abatement positively influences health, productivity, behavior, and reproductive performance of dairy cows during all stages of the lactation cycle. Based on previous findings, the present study focused on a better understanding of how seasonal changes affect the behavior of multiparous lactating dairy cows kept in typical free-stall housing with the objective to aid in the management of lactating cows exposed to variable environmental conditions. Automated monitoring devices (Nedap, the Netherlands) were used to assess behavioral activity of mature Holstein dairy cows during the "hot season" (HS; n = 19; July, August, and September) and the "cool season" (CS; n = 15; December, January, and February) under normal management conditions.

Application of type I and II error analysis to support economic decision-making of using an immunomodulator feed additive.

The use of the immunomodulator OmniGen-AF (OMN) feed supplement, where the response in milk yield, health, and reproduction is uncertain, allows for an application of type I (use the product when it is not profitable) and type II (do not use the product when it is profitable) analysis to aid decision-making regarding its profitability. This study applies a type I and II error analysis to quantify the economic risk of investing in OMN feed supplementation using data from a controlled study and a field dataset collected on dairy farms. Four prediction models were applied considering the expected value and SD of the response in milk yield; milk and health; milk and reproduction; and milk, health, and reproduction.

Case-by-case combination of the prostate imaging reporting and data system version 2.1 with the Likert score to reduce the false-positives of prostate MRI: a proof-of-concept study.

Objectives: To retrospectively investigate whether a case-by-case combination of the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2.1 (PI-RADS) with the Likert score improves the diagnostic performance of mpMRI for clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa), especially by reducing false-positives.

Methods: One hundred men received mpMRI between January 2020 and April 2021, followed by prostate biopsy.

Clinical, laboratory and immunohistochemical characterization of in situ pulmonary arterial thrombosis in fatal COVID-19.

Background: COVID-19 patients carry an increased rate of thrombosis. It is controversial to which extent thrombi in the pulmonary arterial tree really contribute to disease severity with hypoxemia secondary to microvascular/lung parenchymal damage with viral alveolitis considered to play the main role in critical disease.

Objectives: The primary objective was to compare post-mortem lung disease from fatal COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with macroscopically evident pulmonary arterial tree thrombosis and patients without, by characterizing the immunohistochemical nature of thrombi, and by comparing clinical and laboratory features of these patients with other COVID-19 patients who died but without evidence of pulmonary arterial thrombosis (controls).

Late-gestation heat stress abatement in dairy heifers promotes thermoregulation and improves productivity.

Multiparous, nonlactating pregnant cows are negatively affected by heat stress, but the effect of heat stress on more thermotolerant pregnant heifers has received less attention. Our objective was to characterize the effect of late-gestation heat abatement on thermoregulatory responses and subsequent milk production of nulliparous Holstein heifers. Pregnant heifers, blocked by body condition score (BCS) and predicted transmitting ability (PTA) for milk, were enrolled in either heat stress (HT, shade of freestall barn; n = 16) or cooling (CL, shade of freestall barn, water soakers, and fans; n = 15) environments during the last 60 d of pregnancy (~8 weeks).