Sows farrowing in a semi-natural environment terminate nest building 1-7 h prior to parturition after having built a nest for which a variety of materials are used. No nest-building behaviour occurs during parturition and the sows remain lying in the nest throughout most of the farrowing. In contrast, many intensively housed sows are restless during farrowing. To investigate whether gilts house...

Light-dark (LD) cyclicity contributes to a number of reproductive events in the rat, including estrus cyclicity, and the timing of parturition and postpartum estrus. Constant light (LL) disrupts the female's cyclicity, and fertility is typically diminished. To ascertain whether constant light similarly diminishes the fertility of postpartum females, LL and LD animals were compared over three su...

The objective of this study was to compare the course of parturitions induced with sole oxytocin with those induced with the combination of intracervical prostaglandin E2 jelly and oxytocin. For this purpose 13 mares in advanced pregnancy were allocated to the groups pretreated with either intracervical PGE2 (experimental group) or saline (control group) two hours before intravenous oxytocin (5...

Pregnant rats were implanted with subcutaneous minipumps to deliver either naloxone or saline. The time-course of subsequent parturition was different between the two groups: the interval between successive births was significantly shorter for the naloxone-treated rats. This supports the hypothesis that the opioid innervation of the neurohypophysis, which is known to influence oxytocin release ...

Efficient calving surveillance is essential for avoiding stillbirth due to unattended dystocia. Calving sensors can help detect the onset of parturition and thus ensure timely assistance if necessary. Tail-raising an indicator imminent calving. The objective this study was evaluate a tail-mounted inclinometer sensor (Moocall Ltd., Dublin, Ireland) monitor skin integrity after attachment. Cows (...

The rearing of large litters from hyperprolific sows is a characteristic modern genotypes. However, these have body and reproductive characteristics that differentiate them the genotypes past decades, making it necessary to adopt different management strategies. This review describes main care challenges associated with hyperprolificity during period in which replacement gilts are selected, alo...

Milk samples were collected from 180 heifers from 20 herds around parturition to study the prevalence and persistence of intramammary infection (IMI). A total of 3382 quarter milk samples was collected each week from 4 wk before parturition to 4 wk after parturition. Staphylococcus chromogenes, the most commonly found bacterial species before parturition, was isolated from 15% of all quarters. ...

BACKGROUND The increase in breast cancer risk during pregnancy and postpartum is well known; however, the molecular phenotype of breast cancers occurring shortly after pregnancy has not been well studied. Given this, we investigated whether nulliparity and the time interval since pregnancy among parous women affects the breast cancer phenotype in young women. MATERIALS AND METHODS We examined...

To determine if energy or phosphorus status would affect postpartum reproductive performance, we assigned primiparous heifers, six per group, to either high (135% NRC) or low (85% NRC) energy, and high (138% NRC) or low (98% NRC) phosphorus in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Treatments were continued from parturition through 84 days postpartum, after which standard diets were fed. The entire experime...

Fertility data were collected every four weeks for 10 years from 40 herds of Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle. The data collected during 925 lactations from cows with cystic ovarian disease which were treated with 500 microg gonadorelin were compared with data from a control group of 13,869 normal lactations. The intervals between parturition and first insemination and between parturition and con...