Adopting technologies such as artificial insemination, and the associated improvements in beef he... more Adopting technologies such as artificial insemination, and the associated improvements in beef herd genetics better position livestock producers to meet anticipated demand increases for high-quality beef. If we examine the factors that influence technology adoption, then we will be better able to envision the producer operations of the future. This research examines Missouri cow-calf producer survey data to determine the impact that producer, operation, and management characteristics; production risk; and location have on the adoption of reproductive technologies regionally. Binary choice models are estimated to assess adoption of artificial insemination and estrus synchronization (AIES).
The beef industry's share of domestic meat demand continues to decline, as increasing vertica... more The beef industry's share of domestic meat demand continues to decline, as increasing vertical coordination in pork and poultry contribute to these industries' ability to offer convenient, consistent, and less expensive products. For such vertical coordination to be effective, incentives must be properly aligned so that those responsible for making the most important investments for system profitability are appropriately compensated. This study demonstrates that cow-calf producers who invest in quality registered cattle and those who are interested in incorporating feedlot and carcass data into herd management decisions are also more interested in retained ownership.
Figure S1. Linear regression of 39 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy ... more Figure S1. Linear regression of 39 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy cows between week 5 and week 9 postpartum in cows that were either cycling or non-cycling by week 5. Figure S2. Linear regression of 21 endometrial genes differentially expressed at week 5 and week 9 postpartum between lactating dairy cows that were either cycling or non-cycling at week 5. Figure S3. Linear regression of 27 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy cows at week 5 and 9 postpartum in response to the endometrial microbiota at week 1 (WK1_PC1). (XLSX 174 kb)
Table S1. Relative abundance of operational taxonomic units in endometrium of postpartum dairy co... more Table S1. Relative abundance of operational taxonomic units in endometrium of postpartum dairy cows. Table S2. Endometrial genes differentially expressed at week 5 postpartum between cycling and non-cycling dairy cows. Table S3. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK1_PC1 microbiota principal component. Table S4. Endometrial genes diffentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK1_PC2 microbiota principal component. Table S5. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK5_PC1 microbiota principal component. Table S6. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK5_PC2 microbiota principal component. Table S7. Endometrial genes differentially expressed between weeks 5 to 9 postpartum in dairy cows not-cycling at week 5 and cycling at week 9 (day 13 of the estrous cycle). Table S8. Endometrial genes differ...
Pregnancy testing in cattle has evolved over time. The simplest and most definitive test for preg... more Pregnancy testing in cattle has evolved over time. The simplest and most definitive test for pregnancy is to wait until the cow gives birth to the calf. This approach is perhaps acceptable for extensive systems but for intensive systems waiting until calving to identify the pregnant or nonpregnant (open) cows takes too long. The desire for an earlier pregnancy diagnosis led to the routine use of rectal palpation of the uterine contents for the purpose of detecting the pregnancy. Although traditionally practiced from 40 to 60 days after insemination or later, pregnancy diagnosis by rectal palpation can be pushed to its limit of detection (30 to 35 days after insemination) to identify open cows sooner. Additional sensitivity can be achieved by using transrectal ultrasound for pregnancy detection. Transrectal ultrasound can be used as early as 25 days after insemination but is more typically applied after day 30 (Fricke, 2002). If performed later (60 to 80 days) then the sex of the cal...
Context Ketosis in grazing cattle has been sparsely studied. A large commercial grazing dairy in ... more Context Ketosis in grazing cattle has been sparsely studied. A large commercial grazing dairy in southern Chile, representative of a significant proportion of the systems in the country, was used in this case study. Aims The study had three objectives: (i) to establish a cut-off for β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) concentration for subclinical ketosis (SCK), and use this to measure the proportion of cows with SCK at 7 days postpartum in spring- and autumn-calving cows; (ii) to describe the relationship of SCK and other periparturient diseases and fertility; and (iii) to compare milk yield of healthy cows and those affected by SCK in a dairy herd with autumn and spring parturitions under grazing conditions in southern Chile. Methods During 2016, 234 cows with autumn parturitions and 632 cows with spring parturitions (n = 866) were assessed for blood BHB at 7 days postpartum. A receiver operating characteristic analysis for a BHB cut-off value was completed. Models were developed for disease ...
Background: Fertility in dairy cows depends on ovarian cyclicity and on uterine involution. Ovari... more Background: Fertility in dairy cows depends on ovarian cyclicity and on uterine involution. Ovarian cyclicity and uterine involution are delayed when there is uterine dysbiosis (overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria). Fertility in dairy cows may involve a mechanism through which the uterine microbiota affects ovarian cyclicity as well as the transcriptome of the endometrium within the involuting uterus. The hypothesis was that the transcriptome of the endometrium in postpartum cows would be associated with the cyclicity status of the cow as well as the microbiota during uterine involution. The endometrium of first lactation dairy cows was sampled at 1, 5, and 9 weeks postpartum. All cows were allowed to return to cyclicity without intervention until week 5 and treated with an ovulation synchronization protocol so that sampling at week 9 was on day 13 of the estrous cycle. The endometrial microbiota was measured by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and principal component analysis. The endometrial transcriptome was measured by mRNA sequencing, differential gene expression analysis, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Results: The endometrial microbiota changed from week 1 to week 5 but the week 5 and week 9 microbiota were similar. The endometrial transcriptome differed for cows that were either cycling or not cycling at week 5 and cyclicity status depended in part on the endometrial microbiota. Compared with cows cycling at week 5, there were large changes in the transcriptome of cows that progressed from non-cycling at week 5 to cycling at week 9. There was evidence for concurrent and longer-term associations between the endometrial microbiota and transcriptome. The week 1 endometrial microbiota had the greatest effect on the subsequent endometrial transcriptome and this effect was greatest at week 5 and diminished by week 9. Conclusions: The cumulative response of the endometrial transcriptome to the microbiota represented the combination of past microbial exposure and current microbial exposure. The endometrial transcriptome in postpartum cows, therefore, depended on the immediate and longer-term effects of the uterine microbiota that acted directly on the uterus. There may also be an indirect mechanism through which the microbiome affects the transcriptome through the restoration of ovarian cyclicity postpartum.
The objectives of this study were to 1) correlate pre-partum teat skin colonization with non-aure... more The objectives of this study were to 1) correlate pre-partum teat skin colonization with non-aureus staphylococcal (NAS) intramammary infection (IMI) in early lactation, and 2) evaluate infection dynamics of subclinical NAS IMI in goats during lactation in a small ruminant lentivirus-infected herd. Pre-partum teat skin swabs (41 goats, 82 halves) and post-partum half-level milk samples (106 goats, 203 halves) were collected at various intervals starting at ≤10 days in milk (DIM) until ≥120 DIM. Teat skin colonization and IMI were defined by culture and strain-typing. The association between the pre-kidding udder-half teat skin sample status and early lactation IMI status for a given species was investigated using McNemar's exact test or logistic regression. Time to IMI elimination and time to new IMI were evaluated by discrete-time survival analysis. Halves with S. caprae isolated from teat skin prior to kidding had increased odds of S. caprae IMI ≤ 10 DIM. Time to IMI elimination varied as a function of NAS species. Intramammary infections detected > 10 DIM had a higher hazard of elimination (hazard ratio [HR] 5.6, 95% CI 2.8-11.2) than IMI detected ≤10 DIM. The presence of an IMI in the contralateral half was associated with a higher hazard of new IMI (HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.4) in an uninfected half. Further studies on interventional strategies targeting early IMI and IMI caused by persistent species are warranted.
An outbreak of clostridial abomasitis was diagnosed and described on a Missouri, USA, dairy farm ... more An outbreak of clostridial abomasitis was diagnosed and described on a Missouri, USA, dairy farm with seasonal parturitions during the fall of 2016. The outbreak comprised 9 fatality cases and 11 clinical cases in calves 4–12 days old. The epidemic event began 10 days after the calving season started. Postmortem examination results reported clostridial abomasitis. Clinical cases were characterised by anorexia, depression, bloat, abdominal distension and yellow‐greenish haemorrhagic pre‐stomach contents. The outbreak was resolved in a period of 11 days and was handled by consistently reinforcing and monitoring standard operation procedures of the entire calf operation. Factors such as proper methods of milk replacer preparation and delivery, quality and temperature of water, osmolality, hygiene, tool disinfection and stress proved to be critical in controlling the outbreak in the calf operation.
Establishment of pregnancy in cattle is complex and encompasses ovulation, fertilization, blastoc... more Establishment of pregnancy in cattle is complex and encompasses ovulation, fertilization, blastocyst formation and growth into an elongated conceptus, pregnancy recognition signaling, and development of the embryo and placenta. The objective here was to investigate sire influences on pregnancy establishment in cattle. First, 10 Holstein bulls were classified as high or low fertility based on their sire conception rate (SCR) value. In a field trial, pregnancy at first timed insemination was not different between high and low SCR bulls. Next, 5 of the 10 sires were phenotyped using In Vitro and In Vivo embryo production. There was no effect of SCR classification on in vitro embryo cleavage rate, but low SCR sires produced fewer day 8 blastocysts. In superovulated heifers, high SCR bulls produced a lower percentage of unfertilized oocytes and fewer degenerated embryos compared to low SCR bulls. Recipient heifers the received 3-5 In Vivo produced embryos from either high or low SCR sire...
Adopting technologies such as artificial insemination, and the associated improvements in beef he... more Adopting technologies such as artificial insemination, and the associated improvements in beef herd genetics better position livestock producers to meet anticipated demand increases for high-quality beef. If we examine the factors that influence technology adoption, then we will be better able to envision the producer operations of the future. This research examines Missouri cow-calf producer survey data to determine the impact that producer, operation, and management characteristics; production risk; and location have on the adoption of reproductive technologies regionally. Binary choice models are estimated to assess adoption of artificial insemination and estrus synchronization (AIES).
The beef industry's share of domestic meat demand continues to decline, as increasing vertica... more The beef industry's share of domestic meat demand continues to decline, as increasing vertical coordination in pork and poultry contribute to these industries' ability to offer convenient, consistent, and less expensive products. For such vertical coordination to be effective, incentives must be properly aligned so that those responsible for making the most important investments for system profitability are appropriately compensated. This study demonstrates that cow-calf producers who invest in quality registered cattle and those who are interested in incorporating feedlot and carcass data into herd management decisions are also more interested in retained ownership.
Figure S1. Linear regression of 39 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy ... more Figure S1. Linear regression of 39 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy cows between week 5 and week 9 postpartum in cows that were either cycling or non-cycling by week 5. Figure S2. Linear regression of 21 endometrial genes differentially expressed at week 5 and week 9 postpartum between lactating dairy cows that were either cycling or non-cycling at week 5. Figure S3. Linear regression of 27 endometrial genes differentially expressed in lactating dairy cows at week 5 and 9 postpartum in response to the endometrial microbiota at week 1 (WK1_PC1). (XLSX 174 kb)
Table S1. Relative abundance of operational taxonomic units in endometrium of postpartum dairy co... more Table S1. Relative abundance of operational taxonomic units in endometrium of postpartum dairy cows. Table S2. Endometrial genes differentially expressed at week 5 postpartum between cycling and non-cycling dairy cows. Table S3. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK1_PC1 microbiota principal component. Table S4. Endometrial genes diffentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK1_PC2 microbiota principal component. Table S5. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK5_PC1 microbiota principal component. Table S6. Endometrial genes differentially expressed in dairy cows at week 5 postpartum in response to WK5_PC2 microbiota principal component. Table S7. Endometrial genes differentially expressed between weeks 5 to 9 postpartum in dairy cows not-cycling at week 5 and cycling at week 9 (day 13 of the estrous cycle). Table S8. Endometrial genes differ...
Pregnancy testing in cattle has evolved over time. The simplest and most definitive test for preg... more Pregnancy testing in cattle has evolved over time. The simplest and most definitive test for pregnancy is to wait until the cow gives birth to the calf. This approach is perhaps acceptable for extensive systems but for intensive systems waiting until calving to identify the pregnant or nonpregnant (open) cows takes too long. The desire for an earlier pregnancy diagnosis led to the routine use of rectal palpation of the uterine contents for the purpose of detecting the pregnancy. Although traditionally practiced from 40 to 60 days after insemination or later, pregnancy diagnosis by rectal palpation can be pushed to its limit of detection (30 to 35 days after insemination) to identify open cows sooner. Additional sensitivity can be achieved by using transrectal ultrasound for pregnancy detection. Transrectal ultrasound can be used as early as 25 days after insemination but is more typically applied after day 30 (Fricke, 2002). If performed later (60 to 80 days) then the sex of the cal...
Context Ketosis in grazing cattle has been sparsely studied. A large commercial grazing dairy in ... more Context Ketosis in grazing cattle has been sparsely studied. A large commercial grazing dairy in southern Chile, representative of a significant proportion of the systems in the country, was used in this case study. Aims The study had three objectives: (i) to establish a cut-off for β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) concentration for subclinical ketosis (SCK), and use this to measure the proportion of cows with SCK at 7 days postpartum in spring- and autumn-calving cows; (ii) to describe the relationship of SCK and other periparturient diseases and fertility; and (iii) to compare milk yield of healthy cows and those affected by SCK in a dairy herd with autumn and spring parturitions under grazing conditions in southern Chile. Methods During 2016, 234 cows with autumn parturitions and 632 cows with spring parturitions (n = 866) were assessed for blood BHB at 7 days postpartum. A receiver operating characteristic analysis for a BHB cut-off value was completed. Models were developed for disease ...
Background: Fertility in dairy cows depends on ovarian cyclicity and on uterine involution. Ovari... more Background: Fertility in dairy cows depends on ovarian cyclicity and on uterine involution. Ovarian cyclicity and uterine involution are delayed when there is uterine dysbiosis (overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria). Fertility in dairy cows may involve a mechanism through which the uterine microbiota affects ovarian cyclicity as well as the transcriptome of the endometrium within the involuting uterus. The hypothesis was that the transcriptome of the endometrium in postpartum cows would be associated with the cyclicity status of the cow as well as the microbiota during uterine involution. The endometrium of first lactation dairy cows was sampled at 1, 5, and 9 weeks postpartum. All cows were allowed to return to cyclicity without intervention until week 5 and treated with an ovulation synchronization protocol so that sampling at week 9 was on day 13 of the estrous cycle. The endometrial microbiota was measured by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and principal component analysis. The endometrial transcriptome was measured by mRNA sequencing, differential gene expression analysis, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Results: The endometrial microbiota changed from week 1 to week 5 but the week 5 and week 9 microbiota were similar. The endometrial transcriptome differed for cows that were either cycling or not cycling at week 5 and cyclicity status depended in part on the endometrial microbiota. Compared with cows cycling at week 5, there were large changes in the transcriptome of cows that progressed from non-cycling at week 5 to cycling at week 9. There was evidence for concurrent and longer-term associations between the endometrial microbiota and transcriptome. The week 1 endometrial microbiota had the greatest effect on the subsequent endometrial transcriptome and this effect was greatest at week 5 and diminished by week 9. Conclusions: The cumulative response of the endometrial transcriptome to the microbiota represented the combination of past microbial exposure and current microbial exposure. The endometrial transcriptome in postpartum cows, therefore, depended on the immediate and longer-term effects of the uterine microbiota that acted directly on the uterus. There may also be an indirect mechanism through which the microbiome affects the transcriptome through the restoration of ovarian cyclicity postpartum.
The objectives of this study were to 1) correlate pre-partum teat skin colonization with non-aure... more The objectives of this study were to 1) correlate pre-partum teat skin colonization with non-aureus staphylococcal (NAS) intramammary infection (IMI) in early lactation, and 2) evaluate infection dynamics of subclinical NAS IMI in goats during lactation in a small ruminant lentivirus-infected herd. Pre-partum teat skin swabs (41 goats, 82 halves) and post-partum half-level milk samples (106 goats, 203 halves) were collected at various intervals starting at ≤10 days in milk (DIM) until ≥120 DIM. Teat skin colonization and IMI were defined by culture and strain-typing. The association between the pre-kidding udder-half teat skin sample status and early lactation IMI status for a given species was investigated using McNemar's exact test or logistic regression. Time to IMI elimination and time to new IMI were evaluated by discrete-time survival analysis. Halves with S. caprae isolated from teat skin prior to kidding had increased odds of S. caprae IMI ≤ 10 DIM. Time to IMI elimination varied as a function of NAS species. Intramammary infections detected > 10 DIM had a higher hazard of elimination (hazard ratio [HR] 5.6, 95% CI 2.8-11.2) than IMI detected ≤10 DIM. The presence of an IMI in the contralateral half was associated with a higher hazard of new IMI (HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.4) in an uninfected half. Further studies on interventional strategies targeting early IMI and IMI caused by persistent species are warranted.
An outbreak of clostridial abomasitis was diagnosed and described on a Missouri, USA, dairy farm ... more An outbreak of clostridial abomasitis was diagnosed and described on a Missouri, USA, dairy farm with seasonal parturitions during the fall of 2016. The outbreak comprised 9 fatality cases and 11 clinical cases in calves 4–12 days old. The epidemic event began 10 days after the calving season started. Postmortem examination results reported clostridial abomasitis. Clinical cases were characterised by anorexia, depression, bloat, abdominal distension and yellow‐greenish haemorrhagic pre‐stomach contents. The outbreak was resolved in a period of 11 days and was handled by consistently reinforcing and monitoring standard operation procedures of the entire calf operation. Factors such as proper methods of milk replacer preparation and delivery, quality and temperature of water, osmolality, hygiene, tool disinfection and stress proved to be critical in controlling the outbreak in the calf operation.
Establishment of pregnancy in cattle is complex and encompasses ovulation, fertilization, blastoc... more Establishment of pregnancy in cattle is complex and encompasses ovulation, fertilization, blastocyst formation and growth into an elongated conceptus, pregnancy recognition signaling, and development of the embryo and placenta. The objective here was to investigate sire influences on pregnancy establishment in cattle. First, 10 Holstein bulls were classified as high or low fertility based on their sire conception rate (SCR) value. In a field trial, pregnancy at first timed insemination was not different between high and low SCR bulls. Next, 5 of the 10 sires were phenotyped using In Vitro and In Vivo embryo production. There was no effect of SCR classification on in vitro embryo cleavage rate, but low SCR sires produced fewer day 8 blastocysts. In superovulated heifers, high SCR bulls produced a lower percentage of unfertilized oocytes and fewer degenerated embryos compared to low SCR bulls. Recipient heifers the received 3-5 In Vivo produced embryos from either high or low SCR sire...
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