Effects of heat stress on mammalian reproduction

Hansen, Peter J.

doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0131

Cited by 579 publications

(476 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Other authors have reported similar declines in milk yield at low THIs or cold temperatures (Rodriquez et al, 1985;Bruegemann et al, 2012). The rate of decrease in milk yield in our study was greater at higher values of THI than at lower values, consistent with the idea that endotherms are more tolerant of low than high body temperatures (Hansen, 2009). Cows that were indoors showed an overall decrease in milk yield with increasing THI (measured from an outdoor weather station).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…High temperatures are associated with a greater incidence of heat stress in livestock, which can have negative effects on milk yield (Bohmanova et al, 2007;Hammami et al, 2013), fertility (Hansen, 2009) and health , and increase the risk of mortality (Vitali et al, 2009). Heat stress occurs when animals experience conditions above their thermal comfort zone and are unable to dissipate enough heat to maintain † E-mail: davina.hill@sruc.ac.uk Animal (2015), 9:1, pp 138-149 © The Animal Consortium 2014 doi:10.1017/S1751731114002456 animal 138 thermal balance (Kadzere et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dairy cattle in a temperate climate: the effects of weather on milk yield and composition depend on management

Hill

Wall

2015

Animal

116

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A better understanding of how livestock respond to weather is essential to enable farming to adapt to a changing climate. Climate change is mainly expected to impact dairy cattle through heat stress and an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. We investigated the effects of weather on milk yield and composition (fat and protein content) in an experimental dairy herd in Scotland over 21 years. Holstein Friesian cows were either housed indoors in winter and grazed over the summer or were continuously housed. Milk yield was measured daily, resulting in 762 786 test day records from 1369 individuals, and fat and protein percentage were sampled once a week, giving 89 331 records from 1220 cows/trait. The relative influence of 11 weather elements, measured from local outdoor weather stations, and two indices of temperature and humidity (THI), indicators of heat stress, were compared using separate maximum likelihood models for each element or index. Models containing a direct measure of temperature (dry bulb, wet bulb, grass or soil temperature) or a THI provided the best fits to milk yield and fat data; wind speed and the number of hours of sunshine were most important in explaining protein content. Weather elements summarised across a week's timescale from the test day usually explained milk yield and fat content better than shorter-scale (3 day, test day, test day −1) metrics. Then, examining a subset of key weather variables using restricted maximum likelihood, we found that THI, wind speed and the number of hours of sunshine influenced milk yield and composition. The shape and magnitude of these effects depended on whether animals were inside or outside on the test day. The milk yield of cows outdoors was lower at the extremes of THI than at average values, and the highest yields were obtained when THI, recorded at 0900 h, was 55 units. Cows indoors decreased milk yield as THI increased. Fat content was lower at higher THIs than at intermediate THIs in both environments. Protein content decreased as THI increased in animals kept indoors and outdoors, and the rate of decrease was greater when animals were outside than when they were inside. Moderate wind speeds appeared to alleviate heat stress. These results show that milk yield and composition are impacted at the upper extreme of THI under conditions currently experienced in Scotland, where animals have so far experienced little pressure to adapt to heat stress.Keywords: climate change, fat percentage, heat stress, protein percentage, THI ImplicationsClimate change is expected to bring about drier, hotter summers and an increased frequency of extreme weather events across Europe. Here we show that milk yield and quality decline at the upper extremes of temperature and humidity even under conditions currently experienced in Scotland. We identify the values of temperature and humidity, and of other weather elements, at which performance begins to decrease. These estimates could be used in conjunction with climate projections to help policy makers un...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dairy cattle in a temperate climate: the effects of weather on milk yield and composition depend on management

Hill

Wall

2015

Animal

116

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“…Incubation of spermatozoa at 398C for 24 h before fertilisation has been reported to decrease blastocyst developmental competence (Lechniak et al 2003), which we confirmed in the present study using spermatozoa incubated at 418C for 4 h. It is conceivable that the quality of blastocysts produced after fertilisation of oocytes with heatstressed spermatozoa is compromised because of the increased level of sperm DNA damage. Similarly, several studies have reported that mice exposed to scrotal heat stress have an increased percentage of spermatozoa with high levels of DNA damage and, as such, insemination using these spermatozoa ultimately resulted in impaired blastocyst formation (Jannes et al 1998;Paul et al 2008;2009). Further in vitro studies in cattle have confirmed these findings: Walters et al (2005aWalters et al ( , 2005b observed less blastocyst development with higher ACR after fertilisation of oocytes with semen collected from scrotalinsulated bulls.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Heat stress has long been identified as a possible cause of subfertility in farm animals, especially in hot and humid climates (for a review, see Hansen 2009). However, the molecular basis of heat stress-induced toxicity has not been entirely characterised.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bovine spermatozoa react to in vitro heat stress by activating the mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 signalling pathway

Rahman

Vandaele²,

Rijsselaere

et al. 2014

Reprod. Fertil. Dev.

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Abstract. Heat stress has long been recognised as a cause of subfertility in farm animals. The objectives of the present study were to elucidate the effect of heat stress on sperm function and involvement of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) 14 signalling pathway. Spermatozoa incubated for 4 h at a physiological temperature (38.58C) exhibited significantly (P , 0.05) reduced motility, plasma membrane integrity and mitochondrial potential compared with nonincubated spermatozoa; the reductions in these parameters were more severe following incubation at a hyperthermic (418C) temperature (P , 0.01). Percentages of fertilisation and embryo development were highly affected in spermatozoa incubated at 418C compared with non-incubated spermatozoa (P , 0.01). Similarly, embryo quality was adversely affected by sperm incubation at 418C, as indicated by a higher apoptotic cell ratio in Day 7 blastocysts compared with that in the non-incubated control group (14.6% vs 6.7%, respectively; P , 0.01). Using SB203580 (10 mg mL À1 ), a specific inhibitor of the p38 MAPK pathway, during sperm hyperthermia reduced MAPK14 activation (24.9% vs 35.6%), increased sperm motility (45.8% vs 26.5%) and reduced DNA fragmentation (16.9% vs 23.4%) compared with the untreated control group, but did not improve subsequent fertilisation and embryo development. In conclusion, heat stress significantly affects the potential of spermatozoa to penetrate oocytes, as well as subsequent embryo development and quality. Notably, the data show that the MAPK14 signalling pathway is largely involved in heat-induced sperm damage. However, further research is needed to elucidate other signalling pathways possibly involved in heat-induced sperm damage.Additional keywords: functional parameters, mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 phosphorylation, terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick end-labelling.

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“…Heat stress has been recognized as a leading cause for subfertility in farm animals due to sperm damage (Hansen 2009). MAPK signal transduction, which is activated in response to several environmental stressors, promotes the inhibition of cell growth and apoptosis (Wada and Penninger 2004); specifically, MAPK signaling pathway has been shown to be involved in heatinduced sperm damage (Rahman et al 2014).…”

Section: Effect Of Heat Stress On Fertility Through Mapk Signaling Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of genes and pathways that respond to heat stress in Holstein calves through transcriptome analysis

Srikanth

Kwon

Lee

2017

Cell Stress and Chaperones

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This study aimed to investigate the genes and pathways that respond to heat stress in Holstein bull calves exposed to severe ranges of temperature and humidity. A total of ten animals from 4 to 6 months of age were subjected to heat stress at 37°C and 90 % humidity for 12 h. Skin and rectal temperatures were measured before and after heat stress; while no correlation was found between them before heat stress, a moderate correlation was detected after heat stress, confirming rectal temperature to be a better barometer for monitoring heat stress. RNAseq analysis identified 8567 genes to be differentially regulated, out of which 465 genes were significantly upregulated (≥2-fold, P < 0.05) and 49 genes were significantly downregulated (≤2-fold, P < 0.05) in response to heat stress. Significant terms and pathways enriched in response to heat stress included chaperones, cochaperones, cellular response to heat stress, phosphorylation, kinase activation, immune response, apoptosis, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, Pi3K/AKT activation, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, interferon signaling, pathways in cancer, estrogen signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway. The differentially expressed genes were validated by quantitative realtime PCR analysis, which confirmed the tendency of the expression. The genes and pathways identified in this analysis extend our understanding of transcriptional response to heat stress and their likely functioning in adapting the animal to hyperthermic stress. The identified genes could be used as candidate genes for association studies to select and breed animals with improved heat tolerance.

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Effects of heat stress on mammalian reproduction

Cited by 579 publications

References 96 publications

Dairy cattle in a temperate climate: the effects of weather on milk yield and composition depend on management

Dairy cattle in a temperate climate: the effects of weather on milk yield and composition depend on management

Bovine spermatozoa react to in vitro heat stress by activating the mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 signalling pathway

Characterization of genes and pathways that respond to heat stress in Holstein calves through transcriptome analysis

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