Difficulty in observing oestrus is a problem for many dairy farmers performing AI. Finding ways to synchronize oestrous cycles or strengthen display of oestrus without hormonal treatments would be of great interest because many consumers object to the use of exogenous hormones on healthy animals. Modification of reproductive cycles through chemical communication has been reported in several spe...

This paper suggests a method for automatic detection of sows returning to 1 oestrus in the gestation department. The detection is based on monitoring of 2 sows’ visits to a boar, where the duration and frequency of visits are modelled 3 separately and subsequently combined. The hypothesis is that it is possible 4 to reduce the response time and the number of false alarms compared to 5 previousl...

The success and efficiency of pig farming mainly depends on the reproductive performance of pigs. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of presence of the boar on the reproductive performance of sows, the feasibility and economics of rearing pigs of either sex together. Sixteen weaned Large White Yorkshire gilts, twelve weaned sows and two boars were randomly assigned to five groups a...

The response of Meishan conceptuses to an exogenous precursor for oestradiol-17beta biosynthesis was investigated in vitro, to determine whether gestational age or morphological stage of development elicit changes in hormone metabolism. Conceptuses were recovered on days 11, 12, 13 or 15 after the onset of oestrus and cultured for 6 hours at 37 degrees C, in the presence or absence of testoster...

This trial evaluated the reproductive performance in an early routine oestrus induction programme using two different PGF2α preparations in dairy cattle. D-cloprostenol sodium (n = 192; Group A) or dinoprost (n = 187; Group B) was administered between days 35 and 42 post partum. Also, a group of non-treated cows (n = 135; Group C) was included as control. Pedometers were used to detect oestrus,...

The oviduct epithelium undergoes marked morphological and functional changes during the oestrous cycle. To study these changes at the level of the transcriptome we did a systematic gene expression analysis of bovine oviduct epithelial cells at oestrus and dioestrus using a combination of subtracted cDNA libraries and cDNA array hybridisation. A total of 3072 cDNA clones of two subtracted librar...

Nitric oxide synthases (NOS) account for the endogenous production of nitric oxide (NO), a small and permeable bioreactive molecule. NO is known to act as a paracrine mediator during various processes associated with female reproduction. In the present study, the mRNA expression of the endothelial (eNOS) and inducible (iNOS) NO synthases were examined in bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) d...

BACKGROUND The moose (Alces alces) is an intensively managed keystone species in Fennoscandia. Several aspects of reproduction in moose have not been fully elucidated, including puberty, timing of mating and oestrus, and the length of the oestrus period. These aspects are relevant for an adaptive management of moose with respect to harvest, population size, demography and environmental conditio...

Hormonal asynchronies during oestrus, related to the presence of suprabasal plasma-progesterone (P4) concentrations and a delayed ovulation, interfere with the fertility of repeat-breeder heifers (RBH). Since tubal dysfunction can occur in connection with hormonal asynchronies and constrained availability of fertile spermatozoa at the time of ovulation, the present study tested the hypothesis t...

Full signalling of oestrous behaviour is vital for proper timing of AI and good reproductive performance, currently jeopardized by shorter observations of oestrus behaviour. Alternative indicators including progesterone (P(4)) recordings on-farm are tested. Oestrous intensity of 37 heifers (H) and 30 1st-parity dairy cows (C(1)) either Swedish Red (32) or Swedish Holstein (35) with high genetic...