Yes / Food-animal production businesses are part of a data-driven ecosystem shaped by stringent requirements for traceability along the value chain and the expanding capabilities of connected products. Within this sector, the generation of animal health intelligence, in particular, in terms of antimicrobial usage, is hindered by the lack of a centralized framework for data storage and usage. In this Perspective, we delimit the 11 processes required for evidence-based decisions and explore processes 3 (digital data acquisition) to 10 (communication to decision-makers) in more depth. We argue that small agribusinesses disproportionally face challenges related to economies of scale given the high price of equipment and services. There are two main areas of concern regarding the collection and usage of digital farm data. First, recording platforms must be developed with the needs and constraints of small businesses in mind and move away from local data storage, which hinders data accessibility and interoperability. Second, such data are unstructured and exhibit properties that can prove challenging to its near real-time preprocessing and analysis in a sector that is largely lagging behind others in terms of computing infrastructure and buying into digital technologies. To complete the digital transformation of this sector, investment in rural digital infrastructure is required alongside the development of new business models to empower small businesses to commit to near real-time data capture. This approach will deliver critical information to fill gaps in our understanding of emerging diseases and antimicrobial resistance in production animals, eventually leading to effective evidence-based policies. / This article is part of the research topic "Digital transformation of animal health data: Proceedings of the AHEAD 2017 workshop" (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/5834#articles)

Uterine inflammation after breeding is considered necessary for the clearance of excess semen and debris from the uterus. A subpopulation of mares fails to clear the inflammation in a timely fashion, and develops a persistent breeding induced endometritis (PBIE). Experiments were preformed to evaluate correlations of PBIE to endometrial quality and age. Mares of advanced age and poor endometrial quality had a higher incidence of PBIE. In addition, mares fluctuated in susceptibility to PBIE from one season to the next. The uterine inflammatory gene expression in susceptible and resistant mares within the first 24 hours after breeding was investigated. The peak endometrial cytokine gene expression occurred 6 hours after insemination, and susceptible mares were found to have a reduced response of the inflammatory modulating cytokines during this time. Intrauterine accumulation of the inflammatory byproduct nitric oxide (NO) was investigated in resistant and susceptible mares within the first 24 hours after breeding. Susceptible mares had an increase in NO accumulation over time, whereas NO accumulation in resistant mares remained relatively constant. The effects of immunomodulators on uterine inflammatory response and nitric oxide accumulation in susceptible mares was investigated. Immunomodulators decreased expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β and nitric oxide accumulation. In conclusion, endometrial quality and age are indicators of susceptibility to PBIE, and susceptibly can change from year to year. Six hours after breeding is a critical time for the development of PBIE, and susceptible and resistant mares have differential endometrial inflammatory gene expression, with susceptible mares appearing to have a defect in the inflammatory modulating immune response. Finally, treatment with immune modulators alters the IL1β gene expression and intrauterine nitric oxide accumulation, which may help to explain how they act to reduce inflammation during PBIE.

Studies described in this thesis were performed to investigate associations among season, diet, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) and blood concentrations of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), insulin, glucose, and leptin in horses. In the first study, higher ACTH concentrations were detected in horses affected with PPID. A seasonal increase in plasma ACTH concentration was detected in the late summer and early fall, but PPID did not affect the timing or duration of this increase. Pasture grazing raised glucose and insulin concentrations with a peak in September, at the same time that horses had higher ACTH concentrations, and this convergence of risk factors may raise the risk of laminitis. All of the horses included in this study were from the same farm. The second study was performed to determine whether horses from different locations within the same region exhibited the same seasonal increase in ACTH concentrations. Results of this study indicate that the seasonal increase in plasma ACTH concentrations occurs in horses from different farms with varying management practices. The third study investigated the effects of season on plasma leptin concentrations in the horses from the first study. We hypothesized that higher leptin concentrations would be detected in advance of the seasonal increase in plasma ACTH concentrations. Results did not support our hypothesis because leptin concentrations increased after ACTH concentrations peaked in September. Our findings suggest that the seasonal increase in ACTH concentrations induced leptin resistance, which might facilitate weight gain in the autumn. Alternatively, leptin concentrations increased as a result of weight gain or change in body fat composition. In summary, season appears to signal upregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in horses, in an effort to prepare for winter. This upregulation is retained in horses with PPID, a disorder associated with loss of dopaminergic inhibition to the pars intermedia of the pituitary. The seasonal rise in plasma ACTH concentrations is followed by an increase in leptin concentrations, which suggests the development of leptin resistance or an increase in adiposity.

Two types of placentitis were studied: ascending and nocardioform placentitis. Although the first diagnosis of nocardioform placentitis was made three decades ago, little is known about the disease, due to the lack of an experimental model. In attempt to develop a research model, Crossiela equi was inoculated through intrauterine, intravenous, intrapharyngeal, and oral routes, but none of the routes resulted in nocardioform placentitis. This may indicate that unidentified factors may play a role in disease pathogenesis and that simple presence of bacteria is not sufficient to induce nocardioform placentitis. The second and major component of this dissertation involved the identification of diagnostic markers for placentitis. Because ascending bacterial placentitis is readily and predictably induced using existing experimental models, this model was used to identify diagnostic markers for placentitis in maternal plasma and fetal fluids. Three potential biomarkers were examined: acute phase inflammatory proteins, steroid hormones produced by the fetoplacental unit, and protein composition of the fetal fluids. Of the three acute phase proteins investigated, serum amyloid A and haptoglobin but not fibrinogen increased in association with experimentally induced ascending placentitis. Androgens and progestins appear to be poor markers for placentitis. Serum estradiol 17β concentrations were reduced in mares with experimentally induced placentitis and appear to be a good marker for placentitis in mares. Different methods were used to study the protein composition of the fetal fluids. Alpha-fetoprotein was characterized as a major protein present in the equine fetal fluids, and this protein was elevated in plasma of mares with placentitis. In another study, using a high-throughput proteomic technique several new proteins were characterized in the amniotic and allantoic fluids of mares carrying normal pregnancies, and several previously uncharacterized proteins were detected in the allantoic fluid of mares with placentitis. Three secreting proteins were elevated in allantoic fluid of mares with experimentally induced ascending placentitis.

Laminitis is a crippling disease of horses that can result in chronic lameness and debilitation, and sometimes warrants euthanasia. It is a complication of inflammatory conditions such as gastrointestinal disease, and also occurs in obese, insulin-resistant horses with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). Inflammation and insulin resistance are risk factors for laminitis, and these mechanisms might converge to induce laminitis in susceptible animals. Systemic inflammation is often attributed to endotoxemia, although circulating endotoxin concentrations are not commonly measured in the clinical setting. Although a theoretic basis exists for endotoxemia in the pathogenesis of laminitis, administration of endotoxin alone does not induce the condition. This could be related to differences between experimental models and naturally occurring disease. Studies presented in this dissertation address the overall hypothesis that systemic inflammation causes laminitis and new experimental models can be developed to better represent clinical disease. Associations between systemic inflammation and laminitis were first established by measuring blood inflammatory cytokine expression during a laminitis induction model. A clinically relevant endotoxin model that induced laminitis was then sought, but endotoxin administration alone was insufficient to cause laminitis and endotoxin tolerance developed. Endotoxemia was therefore evaluated in conjunction with predisposing factors such as obesity. In horses with EMS, endotoxin infusion caused exaggerated inflammatory responses, and derangements in glucose homeostasis were more pronounced. Laminitis, however, did not develop. Repeated inflammatory events are implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis-associated organ failure, so a final study was performed to test whether preexisting endotoxemia increased the risk of laminitis during subsequent carbohydrate overload-induced systemic inflammation. This did not occur, however systemic inflammation was more pronounced in horses that developed laminitis compared to non-responders, and tissues rather than circulating leukocytes appeared to be the major source of inflammatory mediators. Our results do not support a role for endotoxin as the causal agent of laminitis, even when combined with predisposing factors. Tissues appear to be an important source of inflammatory mediators, therefore their role in laminitis should be further characterized. Additionally, future investigations should determine whether exaggerated inflammatory responses and loss of glycemic control increase the risk of laminitis in horses with EMS.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2016-09-19T13:55:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2507791 bytes, checksum: 97baf22d8faecb76496fe83ad421e8b6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-19T13:55:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2507791 bytes, checksum: 97baf22d8faecb76496fe83ad421e8b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-02 / The biomass has attracted much attention because it is a renewable source of energy. Cotton seed and cassava (shaving) were dried in convective tunnel to dehydrate and achieve humidity around 11%. The use of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and cassava for biofuel production (biodiesel and ethanol) is presented as a promising alternative due to the production of its fruits being perennial crops and the potential coproducts available. The study was conducted to evaluate the technical feasibility of combinations of coproducts of the production of these biofuels for sustainable sourcing of feed input. Biodiesel is a clean fuel because it is biodegradable, non-toxic and reduces emissions of air pollutants. The oil content of cotton seed used in obtaining biodiesel reaches an average of 25% yield. The average levels of cottonseed oil found in tests applying herbaceous cotton seed was 23% in the core deslintado 37% and 12% cottonseed meal. The physico-chemical properties of cottonseed oil made their indices within the recommended technical standards, which were acid value in oleic acid 0.17 mgNaOH/g, peroxide index 10 meq/kg oil and iodine 103 g/100g. The results of the tests bromatologics pie from the extraction of cottonseed oil reached analytical standards with 50% carbohydrates, 24% crude protein, ash 4% and 12% lipids. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is widely grown for animal feed in Brazil. The coproduct of cassava root has a low oil content (average 1.3%) and high carbohydrate content (average 75%). In this experiment, when the merger of coproducts in the tests, certain aspects were considered for the formulations edible mixtures calculated for animal, the main being the chemical composition of foods (coproducts), the nutritional requirements of each type of animal and the effects antinutritional of gossypol and hydrocyanic acid, respectively, present in cotton and manioc. The bromatologics results of coproducts, combined with the nutritional requirements of each animal entered the calculations of the composition of the food mix created. The metabolizable energy and digestive food were measured, to meet the nutritional needs of animals in categories: bird, bovine (calf, calf and mother in lactation), goats, sheep and pigs. The mixture prepared n°4 was chosen to nourish cattle (in lactation) for a period of 90 days. The test animals were six dairy crossbred cows, weighing between 400 and 500 kg/head/body weight. The ratio applied forage to concentrate the feed composition was held in level 63:37, 20% crude protein. Nutritional assessment of the animals was obtained an increase of twenty percent in milk production and improvements in physical performance of carcasses of animals and their offspring. / A biomassa tem atraído muita atenção por se tratar de uma fonte de energia renovável. Sementes de algodão e mandioca (raspa) foram submetidas à secagem em túnel convectivo para desidratar e atingir umidade em torno de 11%. O emprego de semente de algodão (Gossypium hirsutum L.) e da mandioca para a produção de biocombustível (biodiesel e etanol) se apresenta como uma alternativa promissora em virtude da produção de seus frutos serem de cultivos perenes e pelo potencial de coprodutos disponíveis. O estudo foi realizado para avaliar a viabilidade técnica das combinações dos coprodutos das produções destes biocombustíveis para a obtenção sustentável de insumo alimentar animal. O biodiesel é um combustível limpo, pois é biodegradável, não é tóxico e reduz as emissões de poluentes atmosféricos. O conteúdo de óleo da semente de algodão usado na obtenção do biodiesel atinge em média 25% de rendimento. Os teores médios de óleo de algodão encontrados nos ensaios aplicando semente de algodão herbáceo foi 23%, no caroço deslintado 37% e na torta de algodão 12%. As propriedades físico-químicas do óleo de algodão apresentaram os seus índices dentro dos padrões técnicos recomendados, os quais foram índice de Acidez em ácido oléico 0,17 mg NaOH/g, índice de Peróxido 10 meq/kg de óleo e Iodo 103 g/100 g. Os resultados dos testes bromatológicos da torta proveniente da extração do óleo de algodão atingiram os padrões analíticos com carboidratos 50%, proteína bruta 24%, matéria mineral 4% e extrato etéreo 12%. A mandioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) é largamente cultivada para alimentação animal no território brasileiro. O coproduto da raiz de mandioca possui baixo teor de óleo (média 1,3%) e elevado conteúdo de carboidrato (média 75%). Neste experimento, quando da incorporação dos coprodutos nos ensaios, certos aspectos foram considerados para as formulações de misturas alimentícias calculadas para animal doméstico, sendo os principais: a composição química dos alimentos (coprodutos), as exigências nutricionais de cada categoria de animal e os efeitos antinutricionais do gossipol e do ácido cianídrico, respectivamente, presentes no algodão e na mandioca brava. Os resultados bromatológicos dos coprodutos, aliados as exigências nutricionais de cada animal, entraram nos cálculos da composição da mistura alimentícia elaborada. As energias metabolizáveis e digestivas dos alimentos foram aferidas, para suprir as necessidades nutricionais dos animais das categorias: ave, bovino (bezerro, novilho e matriz em lactação), caprino, ovino e suíno. A mistura elaborada n⁰4 foi escolhida para nutrir bovinos (matrizes em lactação) durante um período de 90 dias. Os animais do ensaio foram seis vacas mestiças leiteiras, com peso entre 400 e 500 kg/cabeça/peso vivo. A proporção aplicada de volumoso:concentrado da composição alimentar foi mantida no nível de 63:37, com 20% de proteína bruta. Na avaliação nutricional dos animais se obteve um aumento de vinte por cento na produção de leite e melhorias nos desempenhos físicos das carcaças dos animais e de suas crias.

Frontal plane slab fractures account for the majority of third carpal bone (C3) fractures in performance horses. Treatment is stabilization with an AO cortical screw. Complications are fragment splitting, fragment spinning, and irritation of dorsal soft tissue structures. A novel, headless, cannulated screw with interlocking threads (the Headless Compression Screw Fastener, HCSF) has been developed to resist multidirectional forces. Simulated C3 slab fractures were created in nine paired equine carpi. HCSF or AO cortical screws were loaded in shear to failure. Stiffness, maximum load to failure, and yield load was assessed in linear mixed models. No significant difference was detected in maximum load to failure, stiffness, or yield load. Mode of failure was screw bending in all specimens. The HCSF successfully repaired simulated third carpal bone fractures. The design eliminates counter sinking. There was no significant difference compared to the cortical screws. These results promote clinical application.

Degenerative joint disease, or osteoarthritis, is a major cause of lameness and morbidity in horses, humans, and dogs. There are no truly satisfactory cures for this widespread problem and current treatments all have limitations or unwanted side effects. New cell-based strategies to repair joint surface lesions have generated a high level of interest, but have yet to achieve the full restoration of articular cartilage structure and function. Currently used therapy cells include autologous chondrocytes and adult mesenchymal cells such as bone marrow derived cells and adipose derived cells. Unfortunately, the resultant repair tissue is biomechanically inferior fibrocartilage. A critical gap in knowledge in this regard is a limited understanding of the specific cellular phenotype of normal, robust articular chondrocytes. This thesis examines the global mRNA transcriptome of equine articular cartilage to test the hypothesis that adult articular chondrocytes have a unique gene expression profile. In the first part of the study, RNA-sequencing was used to compare the mRNA transcriptome of normal adult articular cartilage with five other cartilaginous tissues. From these comparisons, locus level gene expression and alternative splicing patterns have been identified that clearly distinguish articular cartilage. In the second part of the study, fetal (interzone, cartilage anlagen chondrocytes, dermal fibroblasts) and adult (bone marrow derived, adipose derived, articular chondrocytes, dermal fibroblasts) primary cells were grown in culture and stimulated to differentiate into chondrocytes. The chondrogenic differentiation potential as assessed by matrix proteoglycan and the expression of cartilage biomarker genes was highly variable among cell types. Together, these results advance our understanding of the specific phenotype of articular chondrocytes and the potential of prospective therapeutic progenitor cells to differentiate into articular chondrocytes. This new knowledge will improve efforts to optimize cell-based therapies for osteoarthritis and the repair of joint cartilage lesions.

Intra-articular glucocorticoid injections are commonly used to treat synovitis and osteoarthritis in horses. These agents are highly effective at relieving pain, swelling, and other symptoms of joint inflammation. The drugs also have therapeutic benefits by down regulating the expression of cytokines and protease enzymes that participate in the degradation of articular cartilage. However, detrimental effects on chondrocyte function and cell viability that is independent of osteoarthritis pathogenesis have been described and linked to glucocorticoid use. These side effects are both drug- and dose-dependent. This study tested the hypothesis that manufacture recommended dosage levels of methylprednisolone, betamethasone, and triamcinolone that are widely used in equine clinical practice are cytotoxic to articular chondrocytes. Drug-induced chondrocyte cytotoxicity was evaluated in monolayer cultures, cartilage explants, and equine fetlock joints. Total RNA was isolated from control and IL-1β stimulated primary chondrocytes and synoviocytes in culture. Changes in steady state mRNA for targeted gene transcripts related to inflammation and normal cell function were measured using reverse transcription and quantitative PCR. Inducible nitric oxide synthase activity was evaluated using nitrite production. Drug-induced chondrocyte cytotoxicity occurred at drug dosage levels frequently used in equine clinical practice. Both drug- and dose-dependent effects on chondrocyte and synoviocyte gene expression were observed. Maximum anti-inflammatory activities for the glucocorticoids were observed at in vitro concentrations below manufacturer-recommended levels. Results from this study suggest that lower glucocorticoid dose ranges for intra-articular therapy in horses should be validated to maximize the ratio of their therapeutically beneficial anti-inflammatory efficacy against detrimental effects on cell function and viability.

Progesterone in the mare declines to almost undetectable concentrations in late gestation. It’s metabolized into several pregnanes, some circulating at very high concentrations. Although the function of many pregnanes remains unclear, 5α-dihydroprogesterone and allopregnanolone are bioactive. Measurements of pregnanes in late gestation are typically by immunoassay, although results are confounded by cross-reactivity with related pregnanes. Conversely, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) allows differentiation of individual pregnanes. The purposes of these studies were: 1) to evaluate the ability of a 5α-reductase inhibitor, dutasteride, to alter pregnane metabolism and pregnancy outcome, 2) to evaluate changes in target pregnanes in late gestation by LC-MS/MS in mares with ascending placentitis, and 3) compare immunoassay and LC-MS/MS detection of pregnanes in late gestation. Our findings suggest that dutasteride significantly altered pregnane metabolism without effects on pregnancy outcome. Pregnane measurement by LC-MS/MS resulted in a significant (p<0.05) differences in assay results, while correlation was observed between immunoassay measurements and actual progesterone concentrations by LC-MS/MS. These studies demonstrate the complexity of pregnane metabolism in late gestation in the mare and the necessity of LC-MS/MS to detect specific changes that immunoassays cannot differentiate.