Brucella ovis infection is associated with epididymitis, orchitis and infertility in rams. Most of the information available on B. ovis and host cell interaction has been generated using murine macrophages or epithelial cell lines, but the interaction between B. ovis and primary ovine macrophages has not been studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the B. ovis abcEDCBA-encode...

Brucella ovis causes ram contagious epididymitis, a disease for which a specific vaccine is lacking. Attenuated Brucella melitensis Rev 1, used as vaccine against ovine and caprine brucellosis caused by B. melitensis, is also considered the best vaccine available for the prophylaxis of B. ovis infection, but its use for this purpose has serious drawbacks. In this work, two previously characteri...

Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to their posture, gait and behaviour when sexually receptive. Free-ranging females visually signal receptivity by holding their heads and tails high, walking with an exaggerated gait, and displaying increased tactile behaviour towards males. Parous females occasionally exhibit thes...

No report has been published on the economical losses associated with errors in oestrus detection in cows under Iranian intensive dairy management. The following study was carried out to determine the accuracy of oestrus detection by farmers using artificial insemination in Shiraz dairy farms. Milk samples were collected from 179 Holstein milking cows at the time of artificial insemination. Mil...

Evidence of seasonality in oestrus in bitches within specialist breeding programmes, such as those for assistance dogs, may support colony management through tailoring the distribution of resources required for breeding throughout the year. However, at present there are conflicting data regarding seasonality in oestrus (and litter size) in domestic dogs. The primary objective of this study was ...

Oestrus and ovarian activity were studied in a group of crossbred SahiwalShorthorn beef cows over four lactation periods of varying length throughout different seasons of the year. In the first lactation, cows were in poor condition (body weight 303 kg) and the mean interval from calving to first oestrus was 2202 16 days. Five COWS were still anoestrus 18 months after calving and were culled. T...

In order to sterilize and to sensibly stop oestrus or to prevent recurrence of vaginal hyperplasia and hormonal changes, the ovarectomy or the ovariohysterectomy is the best recommended method. The operation, performed in young dogs reduces the incidence of mammary gland tumours. The relative risk for developing mammary gland tumours drops to 0.5%, when spaying is performed before the first oes...

Twenty-four postpartum Sahiwal cows that did not show oestrus upto 85 days postpartum were randomly divided into two equal groups, A and B. Group A cows were injected 2 ml Prostavet injection containing 5 mg Etiproston, a synthetic analogue of PGF2α (Virbac, France) intramuscularly at day 85 postpartum on chronological basis of calving dates without palpation. A second injection was given 11 da...

OBJECTIVES The three objectives of this study were to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) of oestrus diagnosis (heat detection accuracy) by dairy farmers, calculate the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the P4 Rapid milk progesterone assay for detecting a corpus luteum and evaluate the economics of using a cow-side milk progesterone assay designed to aid oestrus diagnosis. M...

Histophilus ovis was shown to be phagocytized by neutrophils when the organisms enter the lumen of the reproductive tract of the ram. The phagocytosis and destruction of H. ovis by neutrophils was demonstrated in vitro by the viable count method and by electron microscopy. It was shown that immunoglobulins and complement had no influence on the phagocytosis and destruction of H. ovis. Phagocyto...