Volatile fatty acids in urine and vaginal secretions of cows during reproductive cycle

Abstract

Levels of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in vaginal secretions (VS) of cows were nearly independent of concentration changes of acids in the gastrointestinal tract, while levels in urine showed marked dependence. During three-week cycles, the VFA concentrations in VS increased shortly before heat and decreased to one third on days 19-22. Some cows showed an immediate increase after heat while in others the increase was slow and gradual. Moderately increased levels at midcycle were probably related to interovulatory follicle growth. Content of VFA in VS of pregnant cows was significantly above the level of the postestrus drop. Some pregnant cows in the first two thirds of gravidity had substantially higher levels of VFA than the other cows. Changes in VFA levels have a potential value for estrus detection and pregnancy diagnosis in cows. The gas chromatographic method used is too slow and tedious for practical application, but a reliable semiquantitative test for rapid proof of VFA or acetic acid in VS would be a very useful device for field use. It would have a substantial impact on the economy of cattle production by minimizing the loss of time due to delayed breeding.

Dynamics of putative sex pheromone components during heat periods in estrus-induced cows

“…Amounts of these 2 acids decreased sharply 4 to 11 h before ovulation and remained low until sampling was completed. Similar to our findings, the presence of 6 VFA (including acetic, propionic, butanoic, and pentanoic acids) in diestrous fecal samples of naturally cycling cows was reported by Hradecký (1986). Most likely, butanoic and pentanoic acids were not detected in postestrous samples by Sankar and Archunan (2008) because of the less sensitive quantification method they used.…”

“…To our knowledge, acetic and propionic acids, 2 putative sex pheromone components, were reported as estrus-specific compounds in vaginal fluids (Sankar and Archunan, 2011) and saliva (Sankar at al., 2007), whereas 1-iodoundecane was the only putative sex pheromone component identified in estrous cow urine (Kumar et al, 2000). However, the data presented by Hradecký (1986) indicated the presence of both acetic and propionic acids in vaginal secretions and urine samples during both the diestrous and estrous phases of naturally cycling cows. In addition, our early data show that both estrous and diestrous urinary samples contain acetic and propionic acids, whereas 1-iodoundecane was not detected in these samples (R. Mozūraitis, unpublished data).…”

Identification of electrophysiologically‐active compounds for New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, in larval wound fluid

“…This was particularly important, because many of the components of the currently used synthetic attractant of Chorninivorax, swormlure-4, are highly volatile compounds. This problem can be overcome by determining recovery factors for individual compounds (Spoelstra, 1977;Hradecky, 1986) and calculating the amounts recovered in the extracts. However, this assumes that the identities of the compounds lost through evaporation are known, which was not necessarily the case with the larval wound fluid.…”

Baby on board: olfactory cues indicate pregnancy and fetal sex in a non-human primate

“…[5,6]); nonetheless, there is growing recognition of reproductive signalling via olfactory channels [7]. As in several non-primate species [8][9][10], olfactory cues of pregnancy occur in humans, possibly facilitating mother-infant recognition [11]; otherwise, the potential for olfactory gestational cues in primates has been ignored. Here, we investigate pregnancy effects on olfactory cues in a promiscuous, non-human primate, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).…”