Publicaties

Udder cleft dermatitis (UCD) is a common dermatological condition of the udder skin in dairy cows. It is generally considered to be a multifactorial disease, being described in a rather limited amount of literature. Its cow and within-herd prevalence widely ranges between studies depending on the study characteristics, environment and breed. Known risk factors include husbandry practices and environmental factors, such as freestall housing, the ...

This report describes a stallion presenting a unilateral high inguinal undescended testicle and a unilateral scrotal testicle teratoma. Blood tests showed increased levels of anti-Müllerian hormone. Following castration, histological examination revealed that the teratoma contained testicular tissue, hair, hair bulbs, sebaceous glands, cartilage and endochondral bone. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report elevated anti-Müllerian ...

Following a significant increase in herd and farm sizes after the removal of milk quotas in Europe, the past 10 years have seen a slight yet steady decline in the population of cattle. This includes a reduction of approximately 5 % in dairy and beef cattle. This trend is driven by various factors, such as changing market demands, economic shifts, and sustainability challenges in the livestock sector. Despite this, technological advancements in ...

In the present study, we examined the relationship between uterine involution, serum metabolites and calcium concentrations in clinically healthy postpartum dairy cows with or without subclinical endometritis (SCE). A cohort of 43 Holstein cows, sampled between 21 and 29 days postpartum, was selected based on the absence of clinical endometritis or other clinical postparturient diseases. Reproductive tract measurements included the diameters of ...

Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) is a promising advancement for detecting bone edema-like lesions (BME). However, its application in horses remains limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate DECT virtual-non-calcium (VNCa) imaging in the equine foot and establish which confounding factors could influence its applicability in clinical practice. The DECT VNCa map of 14 standing and 5 cadaveric (recumbent) cases with foot-related lameness ...

Evaluating cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) morphology is commonly used to assess oocyte quality. However, clear guidelines on interpreting COC morphology data are lacking as this evaluation method is subjective. In the present study, individual in vitro embryo production was used, allowing follow-up of blastocyst formation for each COC. Images of immature COCs were presented to embryologists and two artificial intelligence (AI) models: deep neural ...

Clinical endometritis (CE) is associated with bacterial pathogens while the same has not been proved about subclinical endometritis (SCE). We aimed to use shotgun metagenomic sequencing to investigate the associations between potentially unidentified pathogens and SCE. Uterine cytobrush samples from multiparous Holstein cows (n = 23) were taken at 21 days in milk (DIM) and sequenced via the Illumina shotgun platform. At 36 DIM, the cows were ...

Background We investigated the impact of different classification schemes for postpartum uterine disease on genital tract involution, milk yield, and reproductive performance in dairy cows. The reproductive tracts of 223 Polish Holstein cows were examined between 21 and 29 days postpartum (median 24 days). Transrectal ultrasonography was employed to assess reproductive tract dimensions, vaginoscopy was used for visual scoring of vaginal ...

Standardized methods for investigating the canine vaginal microbiome are not available yet. Data using next-generation sequencing (NGS) are still limited, and methodologies lack consistency. In theory, microbiome results can be significantly affected by factors like sampling technique, storage, DNA extraction methods, and reference databases, which can all introduce bias. To address these concerns, we compared two storage methods for the sample ...

Data-driven health monitoring based on milk yield has shown potential to identify health-perturbing events during the transition period. As a proof of principle, we explored the association between the cow's residual milk yield, that is, the difference between the actual and expected milk yield, and the behavioral parameters of cows during the transition period, as measured by a neck and leg activity sensor. Cows from 8 Dutch commercial dairy ...