Spermatogenesis is a continuous process in which functional sperm are produced through a series of mitotic and meiotic divisions and morphological changes in germ cells. The aberrant development and fate transitions of spermatogenic cells cause hybrid sterility in mammals. Cattle-yak, a hybrid animal between taurine cattle (Bos taurus) and yak (Bos grunniens), exhibits male-specific sterility due to spermatogenic failure. In the present study, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing analysis to identify differences in testicular cell composition and the developmental trajectory of spermatogenic cells between yak and cattle-yak.

In countries with pasture-based dairy systems and relatively cold winters, such as New Zealand, it is common to manage pregnant, nonlactating cows on forage crop paddocks rather than pasture due to slow pasture growth rates. Wintering dairy cattle on grazed crops can compromise welfare if wet and muddy underfoot conditions occur, which can reduce lying. This study investigated behavioral and physiological indicators of welfare of cows under 2 wintering practices: cows managed on and grazed kale crop (Brassica oleracea), and cows managed on pasture with baled hay.

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of lipid from rapeseed cake and oats on ruminal CH4 emission and lactational performance of dairy cows. Twelve lactating Nordic Red cows, of which 4 primiparous, and averaging (±SD) 48 ± 22.9 DIM, 37.8 ± 7.14 kg/d milk yield were enrolled in a switch-back design experiment with 3 periods of 4 wk each. The cows were assigned into 6 pairs based on parity and days-in-milk, milk yield, and body weight at the beginning of the experiment. The experimental treatments were 1) rapeseed cake and oats (RSC+O), and 2) rapeseed meal and barley (RSM+B) as the concentrate feeds.

The possibility of inclusion of agro-industrial by-products in the diet of small ruminants represents both an economical and an environmental strategy for reducing waste management by industries and the cost of feeding as well as the impact of livestock farming. Large amounts of wastes from the cocoa industry are annually produced with a considerable part represented by cocoa bean shells, considered a suitable ingredient to be included in the diet of ruminants within the limits established by European legislation.

Free stall comfort is reflected in various indicators, including the ability for dairy cattle to display unhindered posture transition movements in the cubicles. To ensure farm animal welfare, it is instrumental for the farm management to be able to continuously monitor occurrences of abnormal motions. Advances in computer vision have enabled accurate kinematic measurements in several fields such as human, equine and bovine biomechanics. An important step upstream to measuring displacement during posture transitions is to determine that the behavior is accurately detected.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of ceftiofur on metritis cure, milk yield, reproductive performance, and culling up to 300 DIM. The secondary objective was to evaluate the effect of metritis cure at 5 (ECURE) and 14 (LCURE) d after diagnosis on milk production, reproduction, and culling. A total of 422 Holstein cows diagnosed with metritis from 4 herds located in TX, CA, and FL were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial. Cows diagnosed with metritis (fetid, watery, reddish/brownish uterine discharge) were blocked by herd and parity and were randomly allocated to receive systemic administration of ceftiofur (CEF) or to remain untreated (CON).

The objectives of this prospective cohort study were to characterize associations among genomic merit for fertility with ovarian and endocrine function and the estrous behavior of dairy cows during an entire, non-hormonally manipulated estrous cycle. Lactating Holstein cows entering their first (n = 82) or second (n = 37) lactation had ear-notch tissue samples collected for genotyping using a commercial genomic test. Based on genomic predicted transmitting ability values for daughter pregnancy rate (gDPR) cows were classified into a high (Hi-Fert; gDPR > 0.6 n = 36), medium (Med-Fert; gDPR −1.3 to 0.6 n = 45), and low fertility (Lo-Fert; gDPR < −1.3 n = 38) group.

An experiment was conducted to identify the factors that cause reduced production of cows fed a diet with high corn distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS). We hypothesized that the factors could be high S content in DDGS which may directly (S toxicity) or indirectly [dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD)] cause reduced production. We also hypothesized that high polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in DDGS could be another major factor. In a randomized complete block design, 60 lactating cows (15 primiparous and 45 multiparious; average ± SD at the beginning of the trial: milk yield, 44.0 ± 6.9 kg/d; DIM, 123 ± 50; BW, 672 ± 82 kg) were blocked and cows in each block were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: SBM [4.7% fatty acids (FA), 0.22% S, and 178 mEq/kg DM of DCAD], a diet containing soybean meal as the main protein source; DG, SBM replacing mainly soybean byproducts and supplemental fat with DG at 30% dietary DM (4.7% FA, 0.44% S, and 42 mEq/kg DM of DCAD); SBM+S, SBM with sodium bisulfate for additional dietary S (4.8% FA, 0.37% S, and 198 mEq/kg DM of DCAD); SBM+CO, SBM with corn oil (4.7% FA, 0.23%, and 165 mEq/kg DM of DCAD); and DG+DCAD, DG with increased DCAD (4.7% FA, 0.40% S, and 330 mEq/kg DM of DCAD).

The objective was to compare differences in reproductive performance for dairy cows grouped based on the combination of data for predictors available during the prepartum period and before the end of the VWP, automated estrus alerts (AEA) during the VWP, and the combination of both factors. In a cohort study, data for AEA and potential predictors of the percentage of cows that receive insemination at detected estrus (AIE) and pregnancies per AI (P/AI) for first service, and the percentage of cows pregnant by 150 DIM (P150) were collected from −21 to 49 DIM for lactating Holstein cows (n = 886).

The cheese microbiota plays a critical role in influencing its sensory and physicochemical properties. In this study, traditional Apulian Caciocavallo cheese coming from 4 different dairies in the same area and produced following standardized procedures have been examined, as well as the different bulk milks and natural whey starter cultures used. Moreover, considering the cheese wheels as the blocks of Caciocavallo cheeses as whole, these were characterized at different layers (i.e., core, under-rind, and rind) of the block using a multi-omics approach.

Milk ejection disorders were induced by oxytocin receptor blockade. We tested the hypothesis that the degree of udder emptying at incomplete milk ejection can be estimated based on the concentration of various milk constituents in different milk fraction samples. To induce different levels of spontaneous udder emptying (SUE) 10 Holstein dairy cows were milked either with or without i.v. injection of the oxytocin receptor blocking agent atosiban (ATO). In ATOearly, 12 µg/kg BW ATO was injected immediately before and in ATOlate directly after a 1 min manual udder preparation.

The meltdown test is an efficient tool widely and commonly used to characterize structural changes in frozen desserts resulting from different ingredients and processing conditions. The meltdown is commonly determined by a gravimetric test, and it is used to obtain the onset (Mon), rate (Mrate), and maximum (MMax) meltdown. However, these parameters are calculated ambiguously due to the inconsistency in the methodology. This work aims at modeling the meltdown curves (weight vs time) of different commercial samples (36 commercial samples).

Total bacterial count (TBC) and somatic cell count (SCC) are important quality parameters in goat milk. Exceeding the bulk milk TBC (BMTBC) thresholds leads to price penalties for Dutch dairy goat farmers. Controlling these milk quality parameters can be challenging, especially around kidding. First, we describe the variation and the peaks around kidding of TBC and SCC in census data on Dutch bulk milk over the last 22 years. Second, to explore causes of these elevations, we studied the variation of TBC and SCC in individual goat milk from 3 weeks before to 5 weeks after kidding and their association with systemic response markers interferon-γ (IFN-γ), calprotectin, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), body condition score (BCS) and fecal consistency.

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of dietary supplementation with Artemisia ordosica crude polysaccharides (AOCP) on lactation performance, antioxidant status, and immune status of lactating donkeys and analyzing rectal microbiomes and serum metabolomes. Fourteen lactating Dezhou donkeys with similar age (6.16 ± 0.67 years of BW ± SD), weight (250.06 ± 25.18 kg), days in milk (39.11 ± 7.42 d), and averaged parity of 3 were randomly allocated into 2 treatments: a control group (CON, basal diet) and an AOCP group (AOCP, basal diet with 1.0 g/kg DM AOCP).

In recent years, Genomic Selection (GS) has accelerated genetic gain in dairy cattle breeds worldwide. Despite the evident genetic progress, several dairy populations have also encountered challenges such as heightened inbreeding rates and reduced effective population sizes. The challenge has been to find a balance between achieving substantial genetic gain while managing genetic diversity within the population, thereby mitigating the negative effects of inbreeding depression. This study aims to elucidate the impact of GS on pedigree and genomic rates of inbreeding (ΔF) and coancestry (ΔC) in Nordic Jersey (NJ) and Holstein (NH) cattle populations.

The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the efficacy of supplementing bovine colostrum replacer during weaning to reduce intestinal permeability and improve gain. For this experiment, 65 calves were enrolled and housed individually until 70 d of age. Calves were fed milk replacer (150 g/L) 3 times daily with 9 L/d, 10.5 L/d, 11.25 L/d, and 12 L/d offered from d 1–7, d 8–14, d 15–21, d 22–56, respectively. Calves were weaned over 8 d from d 57–64, receiving a total of 7.8 L in 2 meals/d from d 57–60 and 3.8 L/d in one feeding from d 61–64.

Ketosis, a commonly observed energy metabolism disorder in dairy cows during the peripartal period, is distinguished by increased concentrations of β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in blood. This condition has a negative impact on milk production and quality, causing financial losses. An untargeted metabolomics approach was performed on plasma samples from cows between 5 and 7 DIM diagnosed as controls (CON, BHB <1.2 mM, n = 30), subclinically ketotic (SCK, 1.2 < BHB <3.0 mM, n = 30), or clinically ketotic (CK, BHB >3.0 mM, n = 30).

Lactoferrin is widely found in milk and has the ability to bind iron. Previous studies have reported that lactoferrin was effective in the prevention and treatment of acute alcohol-induced liver injury (AALI). Ferroptosis is a recently discovered cell death and is involved in the development of AALI. However, the potential role of lactoferrin in acute alcohol-induced ferroptosis is still unclear. In this study, we observed that lactoferrin (10, 20 and 40 μg/mL) significantly mitigated alcohol (300 mM)-induced injury in vitro.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a pathogenic bacterium-contaminating milk and dairy foods causing food poisoning and foodborne pathogens. In this work, a smartphone-enabled enzyme cascade-triggered colorimetric platform was constructed using cascade bio-nanozyme formed by immobilized glucose oxidase (GOx) on the Fe3O4@Ag for rapid detection of S. aureus. Benefiting from reasonable experimental design, a bio-nanozyme cascade-triggered reaction was achieved through H2O2 produced by GOx oxidation of glucose, followed by in situ catalysis of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) by the inherent peroxidase-like activity of Fe3O4@Ag to produce color signals.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of direct-fed microbials (DFM) on health and growth responses of pre-weaning Bos indicus × B. taurus (Gyr × Holstein) crossbred calves. Ninety newborn heifer calves [initial body weight (BW) 35 ± 4.0 kg] were used. At birth, calves were ranked by initial BW and parity of the dam and assigned to: 1) whole milk without DFM supplementation (CON; n = 30), 2) whole milk with the addition of 1.0 g/calf per day of a Bacillus-based DFM (BAC; n = 30), or 3) whole milk with the addition of 1.0 g/calf per day of BAC and 1.2 g/calf per day of Enterococcus faecium 669 (MIX; n = 30).