The usefulness of claws collected without invasiveness for cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (sulfate) monitoring in healthy newborn puppies after birth.

Despite the high rates of perinatal mortality in dogs, the study of canine perinatology did not receive strong scientific interests until recently, probably due to the difficulties in studying long term changes evaluations without incur with ethical issues. In the recent years, however, the usefulness of new matrices, such as the claws, collectable without invasiveness and providing information about a long-term, retrospective window of time were reported to be a suitable tool for the study of canine perinatology in spontaneously dead puppies. The present study was therefore aimed to assess the usefulness of claws as matrices collectable without invasiveness for the study of immunoreactive cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (sulfate) in alive puppies at birth, at 30 and at 60 days of age. Beside the effect played by the sampling time, the possible effect of type of birth, vaginal delivery (VD) or elective Cesarean section (CS), as well as of some other maternal or neonatal factors was assessed. The results showed a significant decrease of both hormones from birth to 30 and to 60 days of age (p < 0.001) and from 30 to 60 days of age (p < 0.05), and highlighted, for both hormones, the influence of the type of birth, with newborns born by VD having higher concentrations of immunoreactive cortisol (p < 0.01) and dehydroepiandrosterone (sulfate) (p < 0.001) than the newborns born by elective CS in collections made at birth. No other significant effect was detected. The study confirmed the usefulness of claws as matrix collectable without invasiveness for the retrospective, long-term assessment of hormonal changes in alive newborn puppies and that both hormones declined from birth to 60 days of age. The differences between puppies born by vaginal delivery or elective Caesarean section suggest a possible different HPA activation in puppies born by the two types of birth.

Alginate encapsulation preserves the quality and fertilizing ability of Mediterranean Italian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and Holstein Friesian (Bos taurus) spermatozoa after cryopreservation

The use of artificial insemination (AI) in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is limited by poor ovarian activity during the hot season, seasonal qualitative patterns in semen, low resistance of sperm cells in the female tract, difficulties in estrus detection, and variable estrus duration. Although AI procedures are commonly used in bovine, use of AI has been limited in buffalo. In the zootechnical field, different studies have been conducted to develop techniques for improvement of fertilizing ability of buffalo spermatozoa after AI. In this study, for the first time, the use of alginate encapsulation and cryopreservation of buffalo spermatozoa is described, and the same procedure was performed with Holstein Friesian (Bos taurus) semen. Results obtained from in vitro analyses indicate that the encapsulation process does not have detrimental effects (compared to controls) on quality parameters (membrane integrity, progressive motility, path average velocity) in either species. Similarly, there were no detrimental effects after cryopreservation in either species. The fertilizing potential of encapsulated and cryopreserved semen was evaluated after AI in 25 buffalo and 113 bovine females. Pregnancy rates were not affected in either species. The results of this study show proof of concept for the use of frozen semen controlled-release devices in buffalo.