Associations of Neonatal Dairy Calf Faecal Microbiota with Inflammatory Markers and Future Performance.

After birth, the immune system is challenged by numerous elements of the extrauterine environment, reflected in fluctuations of inflammatory markers. The concentrations of these markers in the first month of life are associated with the future performance of dairy youngstock. It is thought that bacterial genera colonizing the calf intestinal tract can cause inflammation and thus affect their host's performance via immunomodulation.

Impacts of maternal microbiota and microbial metabolites on fetal intestine, brain, and placenta.

Background: The maternal microbiota modulates fetal development, but the mechanisms of these earliest host-microbe interactions are unclear. To investigate the developmental impacts of maternal microbial metabolites, we compared full-term fetuses from germ-free and specific pathogen-free mouse dams by gene expression profiling and non-targeted metabolomics.

Results: In the fetal intestine, critical genes mediating host-microbe interactions, innate immunity, and epithelial barrier were differentially expressed.

Faecal microbiota in two-week-old female dairy calves during acute cryptosporidiosis outbreak - Association with systemic inflammatory response.

In the present study, relationships between the intestinal microbiota and innate immunity response, acute cryptosporidiosis, and weight gain in female dairy calves were investigated. A total of 112 calves born during a natural outbreak of cryptosporidiosis on one dairy farm was included in the study. Microbiota composition was analysed by means of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing from faecal samples collected during the second week of life, while the status of Cryptosporidium spp.

Maternal microbiota-derived metabolic profile in fetal murine intestine, brain and placenta.

Background: The maternal microbiota affects the development of the offspring by microbial metabolites translocating to the fetus. To reveal the spectrum of these molecular mediators of the earliest host-microbe interactions, we compared placenta, fetal intestine and brain from germ-free (GF) and specific pathogen free (SPF) mouse dams by non-targeted metabolic profiling.

Results: One hundred one annotated metabolites and altogether 3680 molecular features were present in significantly different amounts in the placenta and/or fetal organs of GF and SPF mice.

The Composition of the Microbiota in the Full-Term Fetal Gut and Amniotic Fluid: A Bovine Cesarean Section Study.

The development of a healthy intestinal immune system requires early microbial exposure. However, it remains unclear whether microbial exposure already begins at the prenatal stage. Analysis of such low microbial biomass environments are challenging due to contamination issues.

Genetic dissection of canine hip dysplasia phenotypes and osteoarthritis reveals three novel loci.

Background: Hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis continue to be prevalent problems in veterinary and human medicine. Canine hip dysplasia is particularly problematic as it massively affects several large-sized breeds and can cause a severe impairment of the quality of life. In Finland, the complex condition is categorized to five classes from normal to severe dysplasia, but the categorization includes several sub-traits: congruity of the joint, Norberg angle, subluxation degree of the joint, shape and depth of the acetabulum, and osteoarthritis.

Novel protective and risk loci in hip dysplasia in German Shepherds.

Canine hip dysplasia is a common, non-congenital, complex and hereditary disorder. It can inflict severe pain via secondary osteoarthritis and lead to euthanasia. An analogous disorder exists in humans.

Publisher Correction: The composition of the perinatal intestinal microbiota in cattle.

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The composition of the perinatal intestinal microbiota in cattle.

Recent research suggests that the microbial colonization of the mammalian intestine may begin before birth, but the observations are controversial due to challenges in the reliable sampling and analysis of low-abundance microbiota. We studied the perinatal microbiota of calves by sampling them immediately at birth and during the first postnatal week. The large size of the bovine newborns allows sampling directly from rectum using contamination-shielded swabs.

Expansion of the preimmune antibody repertoire by junctional diversity in Bos taurus.

Cattle have a limited range of immunoglobulin genes which are further diversified by antigen independent somatic hypermutation in fetuses. Junctional diversity generated during somatic recombination contributes to antibody diversity but its relative significance has not been comprehensively studied. We have investigated the importance of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) -mediated junctional diversity to the bovine immunoglobulin repertoire.

Fetal bovine bone marrow is a rich source of CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors with myelo-monocytic colony-forming activity.

The CD34 glycoprotein is an important marker of hematopoietic stem cells. We used a polyclonal rabbit anti-bovine CD34 antibody to stain fetal and adult bovine bone marrow cells. Flow cytometry revealed a low side scatter (SSC(low)) population of cells that were CD34(+) but negative for leukocyte lineage markers CD11b, CD14 or CD2.

The CD34 surface antigen is restricted to glucagon-expressing cells in the early developing bovine pancreas.

Controversy remains regarding the origin of the pancreatic endocrine cells. It is generally accepted that the majority of insulin-secreting cells derive from the endodermal epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution made by a particular cluster of differentiation (CD)-positive cells to the development of the bovine endocrine pancreas.

B-cell development in bovine fetuses proceeds via a pre-B like cell in bone marrow and lymph nodes.

The production of B cells and the primary antibody repertoire in mammalian species other than rodents or man appears to depend on gut-associated lymphoid tissue. Bovine B cells are generated in ileal Peyer's patch from late gestational to juvenile age. However, little is known about where and when the bona fide B lymphopoiesis takes place.

Direct observation of hematopoietic progenitor chimerism in fetal freemartin cattle.

Background: Cattle twins are well known as blood chimeras. However, chimerism in the actual hematopoietic progenitor compartment has not been directly investigated. Here, we analyzed fetal liver of chimeric freemartin cattle by combining a new anti-bovine CD34 antibody and Y-chromosome specific in situ hybridization.

Expression of CD34 mRNA and protein in cattle.

CD34 is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed by hematopoietic progenitors and endothelial cells. It is used widely in the clinic for purification of human hematopoietic stem cells transplants, and as an endothelial marker for several species. The aim of this study was to produce an anti-bovine CD34 antibody and to characterize the expression of CD34 mRNA and protein in cattle tissues.

Identification of major cell types in paraffin sections of bovine tissues.

Background: Identification of cell types in bovine tissue sections is complicated by the limited availability of anti-bovine antibodies, and by antigen retrieval treatments required for formalin-fixed tissue samples. We have evaluated an antibody and lectin panel for identifying major cell types in paraffin-embedded bovine tissue sections, and report optimized pretreatments for these markers.

Results: We selected 31 useful antibodies and lectins which can be used to identify cell types of epithelia, connective tissue, muscle, and nervous tissue, as well as cell proliferation and apoptosis.

Limited contribution of circulating cells to the development and maintenance of nonhematopoietic bovine tissues.

Bone marrow-derived stem cells appear surprisingly multipotent in experimental settings, but the physiological significance of such plasticity is unclear. We have used sex-mismatched cattle twins with stably chimeric hematopoietic systems to investigate the general extent of integration of circulating cells to the nonhematopoietic cell lineages in an unmanipulated large mammal. The donor-derived (Y+) nonhematopoietic cells in female recipient tissues were visualized by Y-chromosome specific in situ hybridization combined with pan-leukocyte labeling.

Persistent differences in the level of chimerism in B versus T cells of Freemartin cattle.

Parabiosis during pregnancy regularly results in an exchange of hematopoietic stem cells between cattle twins. We have exploited this phenomenon and show differences in the levels of chimerism between the descendant cell types. Female recipients were screened for the levels of male donor contribution in surface IgM-bearing B lymphocytes versus CD3(+) T lymphocytes using immunomagnetic fractionation and Y-chromosome specific in situ hybridization.

Oligoclonal Peyer's patch follicles in the terminal small intestine of cattle.

In small ruminants, the development of B cells differs from that in mice or in man. The anti-body repertoire is expanded in the Peyer's patches of the terminal ileum where each B-cell follicle is found by a few cells. To investigate the amount of founder clones in bovine ileal follicles, we have used sex mismatched cattle twins.