The objective of this study was to characterize breeds representing diverse biological types for birth and weaning traits in crossbred cattle (Bos taurus). Gestation length, calving difficulty, percentage of unassisted calving, percentage of perinatal survival, percentage of survival from birth to weaning, birth weight, weaning weight, BW at 205 d, and ADG was measured in 1,370 calves born and ...

BACKGROUND Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are developmental toxicants, but the impact of both maternal and paternal exposures on offspring birth size is largely unexplored. OBJECTIVE We examined associations between maternal and paternal serum concentrations of 63 POPs, comprising five major classes of pollutants, with birth size measures. METHODS Parental serum concentrations of 9 or...

OBJECTIVE To explore the association between maternal low birth weight (LBW) and adverse perinatal outcomes and to discriminate between confounders and mediating factors of these associations in a population-based birth cohort of Southern Brazil. METHODS Data from 794 female members of the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study known to have delivered a live-born singleton offspring up to December 2...

Maternal obesity induced by a high fat (HF) diet may program susceptibility in offspring, altering pancreatic development and causing later development of chronic degenerative diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Female mice were fed standard chow (SC) or an HF diet for 8 weeks prior to mating and during the gestational and lactational periods. The male offspring were assessed at birth, at 1...

BACKGROUND The social disparity in perinatal mortality may vary by the age of the offspring. We studied offspring mortality from pregnancy week 16 until 1 year after birth by maternal educational level. METHODS We included all births in Norwegian women during the years 1999-2004 (n = 297 663). The Medical Birth Registry of Norway was linked to the Norwegian Education Registry to obtain indivi...

This paper presents first results from a project to reconstitute the demographic behavior of three villages in Württemberg (southern Germany) from the mid-sixteenth to the early twentieth century. Using high-quality registers of births, deaths, and marriages, and unusual ancillary sources, we improve on the family-reconstitution techniques pioneered by Louis Henry and applied to good effect by ...

Low birth weight is a risk factor for the subsequent development of hypertension in humans. We previously reported that reduced uterine perfusion in the pregnant rat results in growth-restricted offspring predisposed to the development of hypertension. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the sympathetic nervous system plays a role in mediating hypertension in this model of low bi...

Low birth weight of offspring has been associated with increased risk of maternal cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular risk factors measured within pregnancy have been related to offspring birth weight. It is not clear whether cardiovascular risk factors assessed prior to pregnancy are associated with the offspring's birth weight. The authors combined baseline data from 3,461 women in t...

OBJECTIVE The offspring of mothers who had diabetes during pregnancy experience increased risk later of diabetes and obesity later. We hypothesized that, in light of the historical improvements in the management of diabetes during pregnancy, these late consequences of the early environment might be diminishing with time. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Birth weight and information on BMI and gluc...

B irth weight of people is related to their risk of noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), which may reflect intra-uterine programming of disease risk, or common genetic factors related both to birth weight and to NIDDM risk. The latter has been called the ‘‘fetal insulin hypothesis’’. Currently there is little direct evidence for this hypothesis, although two studies have shown an inv...