Parturition is crucial for dams, their calves, and cow managers. The prediction of calving time, which assists cow managers to decide on the relocation of cows to maternity pens and necessity of ...human supervision, is a pivotal aspect of livestock farming. However, existing methods of predicting calving time in dairy cows based on hormonal changes and clinical symptoms are time-consuming and yield unreliable predictions. Accordingly, we investigated whether heart rate variability (HRV) which is a non-invasive assessment of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and behavior during the prepartum period would be useful for predicting calving time in dairy cows.
Eight pregnant cows were surveilled under electrocardiogram and video recordings for HRV and behavioral analyses, respectively. HRV parameters in time and frequency domains were evaluated. A 24-h time budget was calculated for each of six types of behavior (standing and lying with or without rumination, sleeping, and eating).
Heart rate on calving day is considerably higher than those recorded on the days preceding calving. Low frequency power declined, whereas high frequency power escalated on the calving day compared to the period between 24 and 48 h before calving. The time budget for ruminating while lying decreased and that while standing increased markedly on the calving day compared to those allocated on the preceding days; nonetheless, the total time budget for ruminating did not differ during the prepartum period.
We elucidated the ANS activity and behavioral profiles during prepartum period. Our results confirm that HRV parameters and behavior are useful for predicting calving time, and interestingly indicate that the time budget for ruminating while standing (or lying) may serve as a valuable predictor of calving. Collectively, our findings lay the foundation for future investigations to determine other potential predictors and formulate an algorithm for predicting calving time.
Antibody is a very important protein in biotechnological and biomedical fields because of its high affinity and specificity to various antigens. Due to the rise of human antibody therapeutics, its ...cost-effective purification is an urgent issue for bio-industry. In this study, we made novel fusion proteins PAxPG with a flexible (DDAKK)n linker between the two Ig binding domains derived from Staphylococcus protein A and Streptococcus protein G. The fusion proteins bound human and mouse IgGs and their fragments with up to 58-times higher affinity and wider specificity than the parental binding domains. Interestingly, the optimal linker for human Fab fragment was n = 4, which was close to the modeled distance between the termini of domains bound to heavy chain, implying increased avidity as a possible mechanism. For binding to Fc, the longest n=6 linker gave the highest affinity, implying longer interchain distance between the two binding sites. The novel fusion protein with optimized interdomain linker length will be a useful tool for the purification and detection of various IgGs including mouse IgG1 that binds only weakly to natural protein A.
•A series of antibody binding proteins PAxPG is made from protein A and protein G.•Linkage of the domains by a flexible linker yielded higher affinity than the parents.•Optimization of the linker length resulted in higher affinity to hIgG Fab and Fc.•With its high affinity, PAxPG will be a useful probe to many Abs including mIgG1.
Experimental and comparative studies suggest that the striped coats of zebras can prevent biting fly attacks. Biting flies are serious pests of livestock that cause economic losses in animal ...production. We hypothesized that cows painted with black and white stripes on their body could avoid biting fly attacks and show fewer fly-repelling behaviors. Six Japanese Black cows were assigned to treatments using a 3 × 3 Latin-square design. The treatments were black-and-white painted stripes, black painted stripes, and no stripes (all-black body surface). Recorded fly-repelling behaviors were head throw, ear beat, leg stamp, skin twitch, and tail flick. Photo images of the right side of each cow were taken using a commercial digital camera after every observation and biting flies on the body and each leg were counted from the photo images. Here we show that the numbers of biting flies on Japanese Black cows painted with black-and-white stripes were significantly lower than those on non-painted cows and cows painted only with black stripes. The frequencies of fly-repelling behaviors in cows painted with black-and-white stripes were also lower than those in the non-painted and black-striped cows. These results thus suggest that painting black-and-white stripes on livestock such as cattle can prevent biting fly attacks and provide an alternative method of defending livestock against biting flies without using pesticides in animal production, thereby proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment.
•A novel accelerometry approach for evaluating behavior of animals was proposed.•Behavior of cattle under vitamin A (VA) restriction was assessed as a pilot study.•Dynamic body acceleration (DBA) was ...used as an index of physical activity.•Combining behavioral classification and DBA was useful for the behavior assessment.
Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical activity quantified by dynamic body acceleration (DBA) and qualitative behavioral classification data. Although feeding low vitamin A (VA) diets to fattening cattle is a popular technique to enhance marbling of beef in Japan, the effects of VA restriction on behavior of fattening cattle have been unclear. Therefore, the effect of VA restriction on behavioral change in feedlot steers was assessed by the approach as an example of evaluation of the change in health status. Ten Japanese Black fattening steers were divided into VA restricted (RES) and supplemented (SUP) groups (five in each group). The RES steers were fed lower VA diets than SUP from 11 to 20 months of age. The measurements of blood VA concentrations, accelerations and classified behaviors of the steers were conducted at 18 and 24 months of age. An accelerometer was fitted dorsally to each steer and three axial accelerations were measured at 10 Hz. The raw acceleration data was processed to calculate vectorial DBA (VeDBA) per second. Behavior of the steers was recorded for 8.5 h on one day and visually classified per second as lying, standing, walking or feeding. As the results, the blood VA concentration at 18 months of age was lower in RES than SUP (P < 0.05) (53.2 and 95.6 IU/dL, respectively) but the concentration was similar between the groups at 24 months of age. All VA concentrations were over the recommended minimum value and none of the steers showed clinical manifestations of VA deficiency, indicating that VA restriction was controlled as expected. The durations of classified behaviors and the overall mean VeDBA were similar between the groups. However, the VeDBA for walking was higher in RES than SUP at both ages (P < 0.05). The results suggested that animals under VA restriction might slightly alter their gait as a stress response at 18 months of age and a residual of this might be detected even after the increase of blood VA concentration at 24 months of age; small changes in behavior that could not be detectable by visual classification were quantified via accelerometry. In the future, a combination of automatic behavioral classification and quantified physical activity such as DBA will be useful for feedback on animal health and well-being.
Heart rate variability (HRV), heart beat-to-beat variations, is a measure of cardiac autonomic functions, and HRV monitoring using sensor technology can be a non-invasive way to assess stress of ...animals. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary vitamin A (VA) restriction to enhance beef quality on the physiological status of fattening steers by HRV analysis. Six Japanese Black steers were equally allocated into VA-restricted (RES) and VA-supplemented (SUP) groups. The RES steers were fed VA-restricted diets from 11 to 20 months of age. The inter-beat intervals and blood VA concentration were measured at 18 and 24 months of age. HRV parameters in time, frequency, and non-linear domains were calculated using the inter-beat intervals. Blood VA concentration was significantly lower in RES steers than in SUP steers at 18 months of age (
P
< 0.05) but did not differ between the groups at 24 months of age. The HRV analysis indicated greater sympathetic and lower parasympathetic activities in RES steers than in SUP steers (
P
< 0.05). However, there were significant interactions of the group and age on HRV parameters (
P
< 0.05), indicating that although RES steers at 18 months of age might suffer from slight stress, the response could recover to a level similar to SUP steers at 24 months of age by the increase in blood VA concentration.
Fluorolabeled antibody-binding proteins were constructed based on Staphylococcus protein A and Streptococcus protein G domains, and used as an adaptor to convert the Fab fragment of interest to a ...Q-body, a fluorescent biosensor that exhibits antigen-dependent fluorescence enhancement. Without having to perform the tedious procedure of genetically introducing a fluorescent dye molecule into a cloned Fab fragment, we successfully converted both a cloned anti-osteocalcin Fab fragment and a commercially available anti-vimentin (Fab) 2 fragment to a Q-body using this method. This method is not only a simpler way for constructing Q-bodies but also a convenient alternative to finding a suitable antibody that has a greater potential to become an excellent biosensor.
Pudexacianinium (ASP5354) chloride is an indocyanine green derivative designed to enable enhanced ureter visualization during surgery. The objective of the present analysis was to determine ...appropriate doses of pudexacianinium for a phase 2, dose‐ranging study (NCT04238481). Real‐time urine pudexacianinium concentration is considered a good pharmacodynamic surrogate marker, since ureter visualization likely depends on its concentration in the ureter. Using plasma and urine concentrations of pudexacianinium from a phase 1 single‐ascending‐dose (0.1‐24.0 mg) study in healthy participants, a 3‐compartment population pharmacokinetic model with a urine output compartment was developed and effectively described the concentration‐time profiles. The individual estimated glomerular filtration rates had a significant impact on drug clearance. Simulations suggested that a 1.0 mg intravenous injection would achieve target urine concentrations over 1 μg/mL (determined from previous nonclinical studies) for 3 hours postdose, assuming a urine production rate of 1.0 mL/min. Based on this simulation, doses of 0.3, 1.0, and 3.0 mg were proposed for the phase 2 study. The observed plasma concentrations were generally consistent with model predictions. For urine, although only limited data could be obtained due to the difficulties of spot urine collection from surgical patients, intraoperative ureter visualization was successful at 1.0 and 3.0 mg.
Objective: Parturition is crucial for dams, their calves, and cow managers. The prediction of calving time, which assists cow managers to decide on the relocation of cows to maternity pens and ...necessity of human supervision, is a pivotal aspect of livestock farming. However, existing methods of predicting calving time in dairy cows based on hormonal changes and clinical symptoms are time-consuming and yield unreliable predictions. Accordingly, we investigated whether heart rate variability (HRV) which is a non-invasive assessment of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and behavior during the prepartum period would be useful for predicting calving time in dairy cows. Methods: Eight pregnant cows were surveilled under electrocardiogram and video recordings for HRV and behavioral analyses, respectively. HRV parameters in time and frequency domains were evaluated. A 24-h time budget was calculated for each of six types of behavior (standing and lying with or without rumination, sleeping, and eating). Results: Heart rate on calving day is considerably higher than those recorded on the days preceding calving. Low frequency power declined, whereas high frequency power escalated on the calving day compared to the period between 24 and 48 h before calving. The time budget for ruminating while lying decreased and that while standing increased markedly on the calving day compared to those allocated on the preceding days; nonetheless, the total time budget for ruminating did not differ during the prepartum period. Conclusion: We elucidated the ANS activity and behavioral profiles during prepartum period. Our results confirm that HRV parameters and behavior are useful for predicting calving time, and interestingly indicate that the time budget for ruminating while standing (or lying) may serve as a valuable predictor of calving. Collectively, our findings lay the foundation for future investigations to determine other potential predictors and formulate an algorithm for predicting calving time.
During parturition, cows often experience intense pain and stress, which increases the risk of inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to compare the postpartum health status between healthy cows and ...those diagnoses with inflammatory diseases by examining behavioral and heart rate (HR) variability (HRV) changes, to provide information before the onset of disease. Eight Holstein cows were used in this study. HR, parameters of HRV (low-frequency power: LF; high-frequency power: HF; LF/HF ratio, and total power) and time budget of individual maintenance behaviors (standing, recumbency, feeding, rumination while standing and lying, and sleep) were continuously recorded from 0 to 168 h postpartum. Milk and blood samples were collected daily. Cows were categorized as diseases based on the positive result of California mastitis test and/or serum haptoglobin concentration that exceeded 50 μg/ml after all blood samples have been collected. Compared to healthy individuals (n = 3), diseased cows (n = 5) exhibited higher HR, LF/HF, and lower total power (p < 0.05), suggesting the dominance of the sympathetic nervous system in cows with inflammatory diseases. Additionally, diseased cows showed an increased standing time budget and reduced recumbency (p < 0.05), which may be a behavioral strategy in response to discomfort from inflammation.
PDF
