reproductive efficiency in dairy cattle has been decreased over the last 5 decades despite significant gains in genetic selection, improved reproductive technologies and nutritional care. in high-yielding dairy cattle, the negative energy balance (neb) during the first week post-partum adversely affects ovarian activity, mainly follicle growth and steroidogenesis. circulating levels of non-este...

Globally Harmonized System defines Reproductive Toxicity as “an adverse effects (of chemicals) on sexual function and fertility in adult males and females, as well as developmental toxicity in the offspring.” Several toxicity assessment studies have been performed taking into account the action of toxicants on reproductive activity. Testis is the main organ of male reproductive system and sperm...

Water is the most limiting factor for plant growth and crop productivity (Kramer, 1983), and water-deficit stress adversely affects crop growth and yield throughout the world (Boyer, 1982). Crop yields are being reduced by drought and the increasing scarcity of water for irrigation, and changing world climatic trends may increase the severity of the problem (Le Houerou, 1996). Water availabilit...

BACKGROUND Stress exposure has been proved to be linked to reproductive failure. The reproductive potential of women depends on the ovarian reserve. Anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) has been proved a reliable clinical marker of ovarian reserve. However, the correlation between psychological stress and AMH level is not clear. METHODS A cross-sectional study including 576 women was conducted. AMH c...

To understand how environmental factors contribute to fertility or infertility in humans, it is first necessary to define environment. A view that will guide this review is that environment represents the "external milieu," analogous to the well-defined concept of "internal milieu" first introduced by Claude Bernard. Within this context, the environment provides both positive and adverse influe...

Background: Catecholamines and cortisol are stress hormones in teleosts secreted, respectively, by the adrenal homologs, chromaffin and interrenal tissues. It is well known that the stress hormones respond to a variety of stress stimuli, induced or natural. There is a cross-talk between the stress and reproductive axis but the physiological implications are debated. It is believed that breeding...

Evolutionary theories propose that aging is the result of a trade-off between self-maintenance and reproduction, and oxidative stress may play a crucial role in such a trade-off. Phenotypic manipulations have revealed that a high investment in reproduction leads to a decline in the organism's resistance to oxidative stress, which could in turn accelerate aging. Here, by using quantitative genet...

Ambient temperatures are predicted to rise in the future owing to several reasons associated with global climate changes. These temperature increases can result in heat stress- a severe threat to crop production in most countries. Legumes are well-known for their impact on agricultural sustainability as well as their nutritional and health benefits. Heat stress imposes challenges for legume cro...

We reduced or increased tree swallow, Tachycineta bicolor (Vieillot, 1808), clutch sizes by three eggs (50% of modal clutch size) to test experimentally for relationships between stress and parasite loads. In the first year of the study (1996), we enumerated two measures of stress (granulocyte to non-granulocyte ratios and heterophil to lymphocyte ratios), blood parasites, and ectoparasites liv...