Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

About: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is a facility organization based out in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Soil water. The organization has 10921 authors who have published 21332 publications receiving 748193 citations. The organization is also known as: Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The use of electrolyte solutions for reducing transport stress.

Abstract: The transport and handling procedures imposed on beef cattle during the normal course of marketing can be a significant stressor. Factors including time off feed, water deprivation, mixing and the resulting behavioral problems, transport movement, unfamiliar noise, inclement weather, and so forth are often present and collectively result in live weight and carcass losses as well as degraded meat quality. In addition, a growing public concern regarding animal welfare in such situations is evident. Understanding how cattle adapt to and are influenced by these factors is a necessary first step in being able to reduce these stresses and a major research effort globally has been directed toward this end. Studies at the Lacombe Research Center have focused on understanding the role of electrolytes in attenuating transport and handling stress. Apparent in this research has been the consistent observation that transport and handling reduce blood pH, glucose concentration, and interstitial water space (P <.05), and increases in serum chloride, hemoglobin, urine sodium, and urine osmolality (P <.05) are evident. These changes are also accompanied by significant increases in the neutrophile/lymphocyte ratio. The application of oral electrolyte therapy, especially if similar in constituents to interstitial fluid, seems to attenuate these physiological changes. Resulting improvements in both live and carcass weights (less shrink) of up to several percent in treated animals as well as a reduction in meat quality degradation (reduced dark cutting) is evident in such trials. These studies suggest that the use of electrolyte therapy may be an effective means of reducing stress in transported cattle.

Adiponectin Induces Periovulatory Changes in Ovarian Follicular Cells

Abstract: Adiponectin, the most abundantly synthesized protein in adipose tissue, has plieotropic effects on liver, muscle, endothelium, placenta, and other tissues. We examined direct effects of recombinant porcine adiponectin on porcine ovarian granulosa cells in vitro. We demonstrate that adiponectin, at physiologically relevant levels (10-25 microg/ml), provokes expression of genes associated with periovulatory remodeling of the ovarian follicle over a time frame of 6-24 h. These include cyclooxygenase-2, prostaglandin E synthase, and vascular endothelial growth factor. Adiponectin modulates steroid synthetic protein gene expression, increasing steroidogenic acute regulatory protein transcript abundance and reducing cytochrome P450aromatase. Adiponectin has antidiabetic properties and sensitizes tissues to insulin. We show that it interacts with both LH and insulin in inducing expression of cyclooxygenase-2 transcripts in granulosa cells. We determined that the MAPK pathway, via phosphorylation of ERK1/2, is involved in mediation of the adiponectin signal in ovarian granulosa cells, rather than protein kinase A or the classic adiponectin transducer, AMP-activated protein kinase. Adiponectin synthesis is reduced in obesity, and our findings suggest that this reduction plays a role in obesity-related ovarian dysfunction.