Reproductive failure and pregnancy loss in cattle are some of the largest economic burdens to cattle producers and one of most perplexing factors influencing management decisions. Pregnancy loss may occur at any point during gestation with the largest percentage of loss occurring in the first 30 days and, subsequently, decreasing as the pregnancy progresses. Losses may be attributed to numerous factors, predisposed issues or environmental conditions such as nutritional stressors or disease. From a research perspective, determining the exact causes of pregnancy loss or embryonic mortality in cattle have been difficult, due to limitations of accurately determining early gestation pregnancy status. Until methods that precisely determine embryo success early in gestation are available, our understanding of in vivo pregnancy loss will lack clarity necessary to develop management strategies to decrease such loss. In this review, we will briefly discuss the pivotal periods of pregnancy loss affecting beef and dairy cattle, methods and technologies to determine pregnancy status and embryo viability and potential opportunities to decrease reproductive failure.

This experiment evaluated humoral responses in beef calves vaccinated against parainfluenza-3 virus (PI3), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), and bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) using via serum neutralization (SN) tests or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Blood samples were collected from 50 overtly healthy Angus-influenced steers (183 ± 3 kg of body weight, 212 ± 2 d of age) on d 0, 21, 35, and 49 of the experiment. Steers were vaccinated against respiratory viruses on d 0 and 21. Blood was processed for serum collection and frozen in duplicates. One of the duplicates was analyzed for antibodies against BRSV, PI3, and BHV-1 using commercially available ELISA (IDEXX Switzerland AG, Liebefeld-Bern, Switerland), and results reported as sample:positive control (S/P, %) ratio. The other duplicate was analyzed for antibodies against the same vaccine antigens via SN. This method report results as titers, the greatest dilution that provides complete protection of the cells, which were transformed with base 2 log for statistical analyses. Samples were classified as positive for presence of antibodies by SN if log-transformed titer ≥ 2 for all viruses, and by ELISA if S/P ratio ≥ 50% for BHV-1 or ≥ 20% for PI3 and BRSV. Day effects were detected (P < 0.01) for SN and ELISA across all vaccine antigens, as antibody levels increased after vaccine administration. Linear fits were detected (P < 0.01) across all vaccine antigens when regressing the SN and ELISA results; as SN titer increased the ELISA S/P ratio linearly increased (P < 0.01). Kendall (τ) and Spearman’s rank (ρ) correlations were also detected (P < 0.01) between SN and ELISA results across all vaccine antigens. The SN and ELISA were very strongly correlated (ρ ≥ 0.83) for BHV-1 and PI3, and strongly correlated (ρ = 0.66) for BRSV. Cohen’s kappa coefficient for diagnosis agreement between methods were strong for BHV-1 and PI3 (κ ≥ 0.88), but weak (κ = 0.47) for BRSV. The sensitivity of the ELISA in yielding true positive results approached 100% across all antigens. The specificity of the ELISA in yielding negative results were satisfactory for BHV-1 and PI3 assays (84.0 and 88.5%, respectively) but not for BRSV (34.4%). Despite limitations in detecting true BRSV negatives, results from this experiment indicate that the commercial ELISAs tested herein can be used as surrogate for SN tests in quantifying humoral responses to vaccination against BHV-1, PI3, and BRSV in beef cattle.

Objetivo: Avaliar o perfil e condições de parto de mulheres atendidas em uma maternidade da Zona da Mata Mineira. Métodos: Estudo transversal, quantitativo, realizado em um hospital filantrópico, localizado na Zona da Mata Mineira. A coleta de dados foi realizada entre março e junho de 2022 por meio de um questionário semiestruturado. Foram realizadas análises descritiva, bivariadas e modelos de regressão logística para estimar a magnitude da associação. Os dados foram analisados no SPSS versão 23. Para a significância estatística foi considerado p<0,05. Resultados: Participaram 272 mulheres, sendo predominante a idade de 20 a 34 anos, não brancas, com ensino médio, baixa renda, casadas ou em união estável e parto entre 38 e 42 semanas. O parto cesáreo teve maior chance de ser realizado entre as mulheres mais velhas, com maiores rendas, maior escolaridade e autodeclaradas brancas, sem companheiros. Verificou-se que o alojamento coletivo, o contato com o bebê no pós-parto imediato, segurar o bebê e amamentar na sala de parto foram mais presentes no parto normal. Conclusão: A maioria das boas práticas de assistência ao parto estão associadas ao parto normal, porém ainda há a necessidade melhorias na assistência da atenção ao parto e humanização do parto cesáreo.

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