Mechanisms of Infertility Associated with Clinical and Subclinical Endometritis in High Producing Dairy Cattle

Clinical and subclinical endometritis are common causes of infertility and subfertility in high producing dairy cattle, delaying the onset of ovarian cyclic activity after parturition, extending luteal phases and reducing conception rates. Escherichia coli and Arcanobacterium pyogenes cause endometrial damage and inflammation. Components of microbes, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), are detected by Toll-like receptors on endometrial cells, leading to secretion of cytokines, chemokines and antimicrobial peptides. Long luteal phases associated with endometritis are probably caused by a switch in endometrial prostaglandin production from prostaglandin F_2a (PGF) to prostaglandin E₂. In addition, LPS impairs the function of the hypothalamus and pituitary, and directly perturbs ovarian granulosa cells steroidogenesis, providing mechanisms to explain the association between uterine disease and anovulatory anoestrus. Cows with uterine disease that ovulate have lower peripheral plasma progesterone concentrations that may further reduce the chance of conception associated with endometritis.     

Trickle irrigation: Predominant bacteria in treated Colorado River water and biologically clogged emitters

Summary Bacterial numbers and predominant bacterial types were determined in trickle irrigation systems receiving treated Colorado River water. Fourteen bacterial genera were isolated and identified from 86 water and sediment samples collected from trickle emitter systems receiving six water treatments. The bacteria identified were common aquatic and soil microbes and the genera in order of prevalence were Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Vibrio, Brevibacterium, Micrococcus, and Bacillus. A greater diversity of bacterial types was found in water that was sand filtered and received no chemical treatment. Regardless of the water treatment, Pseudomonas stutzeri was the predominant bacterium followed by Flavobacterium lutescens. The data indicated that pigmented bacteria, F. lutescens and ytophaga hutchinsonii caused the yellow color of the slime deposits in biologically clogged emitters; and, their growth was presumably supported by P. stutzeri., a nonpigmented bacterium. The occurrence of Bacillus sp. was enhanced by sand and screen filtration and markedly reduced by chemical conditioning the water with either chlorine and acid or acid alone. No strictly anaerobic bacteria, such as Clostridium sp., were detected in water treated with chlorine and acid. Iron bacteria, Sphaerotilus spp., were not detected in any water or sediment samples from trickle irrigation systems.Contribution from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration, Agricultural Research     

Integrating fishing and conservation in a risk framework: A stochastic population model to guide the proactive management of a threatened freshwater crayfish

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Genetic relationships between efficiency traits and gut microbiota traits in growing pigs being fed with a conventional or a high-fiber diet

In pigs, the gut microbiota composition plays a major role in the process of digestion, but is influenced by many external factors, especially diet. To be used in breeding applications, genotype by diet interactions on microbiota composition have to be quantified, as well as their impact on genetic covariances with feed efficiency (FE) and digestive efficiency (DE) traits. This study aimed at determining the impact of an alternative diet on variance components of microbiota traits (genera and alpha diversity indices) and estimating genetic correlations between microbiota and efficiency traits for pigs fed a conventional (CO) or a high-fiber (HF) diet. Fecal microbes of 812 full-siblings fed a CO diet and 752 pigs fed the HF diet were characterized at 16 weeks of age by sequencing the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. A total of 231 genera were identified. Digestibility coefficients of nitrogen, organic matter, and energy were predicted analyzing the same fecal samples with near infrared spectrometry. Daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, residual feed intake and average daily gain (ADG) were also recorded. The 71 genera present in more than 20% of individuals were retained for genetic analyses. Heritability (h²) of microbiota traits were similar between diets (from null to 0.38 ± 0.12 in the CO diet and to 0.39 ± 0.12 in the HF diet). Only three out of the 24 genera and two alpha diversity indices with significant h² in both diets had genetic correlations across diets significantly different from 0.99 (P < 0.05), indicating limited genetic by diet interactions for these traits. When both diets were analyzed jointly, 59 genera had h² significantly different from zero. Based on the genetic correlations between these genera and ADG, FE, and DE traits, three groups of genera could be identified. A group of 29 genera had abundances favorably correlated with DE and FE traits, 14 genera were unfavorably correlated with DE traits, and the last group of 16 genera had abundances with correlations close to zero with production traits. However, genera abundances favorably correlated with DE and FE traits were unfavorably correlated with ADG, and vice versa. Alpha diversity indices had correlation patterns similar to the first group. In the end, genetic by diet interactions on gut microbiota composition of growing pigs were limited in this study. Based on this study, microbiota-based traits could be used as proxies to improve FE and DE in growing pigs.     

The 1949 Atlas of French peat deposits,a starting point for a national inventory of peatlands

Fifty per cent of European peatlands are in a damaged state. While intact peatlands are natural carbon sinks, degraded sites release important amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Restoration of the hydrological functionality of peatlands has proved to be an efficient tool to avoid these emissions. In France, Tuffnell & Bignon's ministerial report (2019) emphasized the need for peatlands ‘integration into the National Low Carbon Strategy, targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. However, current knowledge regarding French peatlands’ distribution and carbon stocks is insufficient and does not allow decision makers and managers to prioritize areas for restoration. The most complete database to date is the 1949 Atlas, an inventory of exploitable peat deposits that was conducted during WWII for peat exploitation as fuel. Until its digitalization, the latter database was archived and never used in a scientific study. It provides detailed information about peatland surfaces, peat thicknesses and carbon contents at that time. We estimated peat carbon stocks from French peatlands to be 111 Mt C in 1949 for 63,290 ha identified as peaty sites, the equivalent of 3% of the organic carbon contained in the upper 30 centimetres of French soils. 34% of this stock was held in Lower Normandy (37.7 Mt C) and 12% in the Picardy's region (13.0 Mt C), in large lowland peatlands. However, not all peatlands were prospected in the 1949 inventory and the characteristics of the prospected peatlands may have changed with anthropic disturbances of the last decades, such as draining or climate change. These first results highlight the need for a recent inventory of French peatlands and carbon stocks based on local data aggregation. Data from the 1949 Atlas could help constituting this new inventory but should be validated before being used to describe the present.