Accuracy of early pregnancy diagnosis and determining pregnancy loss using different biomarkers and machine learning applications in dairy cattle.

This study aimed to compare the accuracy of IFN-τ stimulated gene abundance (ISGs) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), CL blood perfusion by Doppler ultrasound (Doppler-US), plasma concentration of P4 on Day 21 and pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (PAGs) test on Day 25 after timed-artificial insemination (TAI) for early pregnancy diagnosis in dairy cows and heifers. Holstein cows (n = 140) and heifers (n = 32) were subjected to a hormonal synchronization protocol and TAI on Day 0. On Day 21 post-TAI, blood samples were collected for PBMC isolation and plasma concentration of P4. The CL blood perfusion was evaluated by Doppler-US. Plasma samples collected on Day 25 were assayed for PAGs. The abundance of ISGs (ISG15 and RSAD2) in PBMCs was determined by RT-qPCR. Pregnancy was confirmed on Days 32 and 60 post-TAI by B-mode ultrasonography. Statistical analyses were performed by ANOVA using the MIXED procedure and GLIMMIX in SAS software. The pregnancy biomarkers were used to categorize the females as having undergone late luteolysis (LL); early embryonic mortality (EEM); late embryonic mortality (LEM); or late pregnancy loss (LPL). The abundance of ISGs, CL blood perfusion by Doppler-US, and concentrations of P4 on Day 21, and PAGs test on Day 25 were significant (P < 0.05) predictors of early pregnancy in dairy cows and heifers. Dairy cows had a greater (P = 0.01) occurrence of LL than heifers, but there was no difference (P > 0.1) for EEM, LEM, and LPL in heifers compared to cows. Cows with postpartum reproductive issues had a greater (P = 0.008) rate of LEM and a lesser (P = 0.01) rate of LPL compared to cows without reproductive issues. In summary, the CL blood perfusion by Doppler-US had the highest accuracy and the least number of false negatives, suggesting it is the best predictor of pregnancy on Day 21 post-TAI. The PAGs test was the most reliable indicator of pregnancy status on Day 25 post-TAI in dairy heifers and cows. The application of machine learning, specifically the MARS algorithm, shows promise in enhancing the accuracy of predicting early pregnancies in cows.

Changes in the Current Patterns of Beef Consumption and Consumer Behavior Trends-Cross-Cultural Study Brazil-Spain-Turkey.

This cross-cultural study aimed to determine the main factors behind potential changes in eating habits by analyzing changes in the patterns of beef consumption currently observed in Brazil, Spain, and Turkey. To achieve this aim, 412 regular beef consumers from Brazil, 407 from Spain, and 424 from Turkey answered a self-administered questionnaire. The study surveyed the effects of economic factors, switching from beef to other sources of protein, aspects of credence, health-related concerns, the influence of lifestyle on beef consumption patterns, and purchasing decision factors. The most important factors that changed consumer behavior and resulted in a decrease in consumption, mostly among Brazilian and Turkish consumers, were the economics and accessibility of the products. Beef was replaced by other alternative sources of protein that were likewise derived from animals. The consumers whose purchasing intentions were most significantly influenced by credence factors (e.g., indiscriminate use of agricultural products, substandard animal welfare requirements, among others) were Brazilian and Turkish and, to a lesser degree, Spanish consumers. Lifestyle factors (e.g., consumption of out-of-home meals, available time to cook, among others) were demonstrated to alter consumption patterns and therefore must be carefully considered by the industry, taking into account cultural differences and consumer needs. The population under investigation considered that eating beef had no impact on their health.

Sheep's coping style can be identified by unsupervised machine learning from unlabeled data.

The objective of this study was to define coping style of sheep by using unsupervised machine learning approaches. A total of 105 Norduz sheep (age 3-5 years) were subjected to a 5-minute arena test. Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (HCA) was performed on scores of selected principal components retained from Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on arena behaviors to identify sheep coping style. Initially, the variables retained for the PCA were determined with Bartlett's test for sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sample adequacy. Seven behavioral variables with KMO values greater than 0.5 were used for final PCA: the average distance to group sheep (DTG), the average distance to stimulus (DTS), the duration of locomotion (LOC), the total number of zone boundaries crossed during the test (CRS), the total number of times that tested sheep sniffed stimulus (NSS), latency to the first sniff the stimulus (LSS), and subjective scores (SCR) scored by an observer on a scale from 1 to 5 (1: extremely calm, 5: extremely restless). The first two components, which were the only ones with an eigenvalue greater than one, accounted for 70.32% of the total variation and were used for clustering analysis. Clustering tendency showed that the scores for the first two components were suitable for clustering (Hopkins' H = 0.852). Several cluster validity indexes were used to obtain aggregated results to determine the most appropriate clustering method and number of clusters. Five different clustering methods: k-means and hierarchical clustering with Ward, average, single and complete linkage were compared. Bootstrap resampling was used to evaluate the stability of a given cluster using the Jaccard coefficient. The clustering method and number of clusters corresponding to the highest rank aggregation score from the bootstrap resampling indicate that the hierarchical clustering method with average linkage and 5 clusters is the most suggested clustering method. However, Ward's algorithm identified the strongest clustering structure for hierarchical clustering, as it had the highest agglomerative coefficient value (0.98). When both Jaccard and aggregation scores are considered together, Ward's method with 3 clusters was selected as the most appropriate method. Sheep were classified into three coping styles (CS) based on HCA results as reactive (Cluster 1, n = 71), intermediate (Cluster 2, n = 22) or proactive (Cluster 3, n = 12). Coping style had significant effect on behavioral variables, DTG, DTS, LOC, CRS and NSS (P < 0.05). The individuals that have proactive coping style had the highest mean values for the variables DTG, DTS and LOC and SCR (P < 0.0001). This indicates that proactive sheep are more active then reactive sheep. The CRS, LOC and NSS mean values were higher for intermediate sheep compared to reactive sheep (P < 0.05). The NSS values were higher for intermediate sheep compare to proactive sheep (P < 0.0001). The findings of the current study show that distinct coping styles in sheep may be identified based on behaviors recorded in an arena test. The findings also revealed that sheep's coping style can be objectively identified by unsupervised machine learning from unlabeled behavioral data.

Does the length of time dried distillers' grain with solubles substitution for soybean meal affect physiological indicators and meat quality in finishing lambs?

This study examined how inclusion of dried distillers' grains with solubles (DDGS) in finishing lamb diets for different periods affects some physiological indicators and meat quality. A total of 40 male lambs were divided into four groups according to feeding regimen during the 120-day finishing period as follows: C120: no DDGS included in diet for 120 days; D120: DDGS included in diet for 120 days; D75: no DDGS included in diet for 45 days + DDGS included in diet for 75 days; D45: no DDGS included in diet for 75 days + DDGS included in diet for 45 days. Dietary inclusion rate of DDGS was 27.5%. Fattening performance and rumen parameters were not affected by treatment. Feeding regimens had no significant effect on meat quality except the instrumental tenderness and juiciness score. DDGS fed lambs had higher level of total trans fatty acids and n-6/n-3 ratio in meat. 10t-C18:1, 11t-C18:1 and 9c,11t conjugated linoleic acid contents of adipose tissue were higher in all the DDGS groups compared with C120 lambs (p < .001). These results suggest that soybean meal can be replaced with corn DDGS in lamb diets for up to 120 days during the finishing period with no adverse effects on some physiological response feedlot performance and meat quality.

Number of consumers and days of display necessary for the assessment of meat colour acceptability.

Visual assessment is regarded as the gold standard to evaluate meat colour shelf-life, but it is costly and time consuming. To address this issue, this paper aims to evaluate the number of consumers and days of display that are necessaries in order to assess the colour shelf-life of meat, presented with different methods, all using images. Photographs of thirty-six lamb steaks were taken just after cutting (day 0) and on each of the following days until the 14th day of display under standardized conditions. Images were presented in three different manners: 1) with days of display and animals in random order (Random); 2) days of display in sequential and animals in random order (Sequential); and, 3) days of display and animals in sequential order (Animal); they were presented to 211 consumers who evaluated visual acceptability on a 9-point scale. At day zero, visual acceptability scores were the highest in Animal, followed by Sequential, and then by the Random (P < .05) method. Scores decreased over time for all methods tested (P < .05). The Random method presented the highest standard deviation; however, an increase in standard deviation among consumers along days of display was observed for all methods tested (P < .05). Shelf-life determined by regression varied according to the method of presentation (7.83, 7.00 and 7.54 days for Random, Sequential and Animal, respectively). A minimum number of 4 day points before and 4 day points after neutral scores had been reached (scores = 5.0) were necessary in order to obtain a robust model. The minimum number of required consumers (α = 0.05; d = 0.1 and ß = 0.2 or 0.1) varied according to methodology: it was 81 to 109 consumers for Random, 69 to 92 for Sequential, and 55 to 74 for Animal. Our study indicates that an optimal number of days and evaluators can be calculated depending on the manner of sample presentation. These findings should be taken into account in further studies that aim to balance data reliability with the cost involved in meat colour analyses.

Effect of dried corn distillers' grains with solubles and soybean meal supplements on physiological indicators and reproductive performance of ewes.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of adding dried distillers' grains with solubles (DDGS) to the nutritional regimens of ewes at different time periods on reproductive traits, serum hormones and serum metabolites. In Experiment 1, 100 ewes were divided into 4 groups (n = 25) according to diet. The four diets were grass hay (H) alone (group H), H with barley (group H + B), H with DDGS for the whole feeding period (27 d) (group H + DDGS) or H and DDGS for 5 d (d 8-12 of oestrus cycle) (group H + DDGS5). Serum progesterone concentrations were affected by oestrus cycle (p < 0.001), but not by dietary treatments. However, feeding H + DDGS caused significant increases in serum insulin, leptin and growth hormone concentrations (p < 0.05). In Experiment 2, 30 ewes were divided into 2 groups (n = 15), receiving DDGS or soybean meal (SBM) during the prepartum period. Diets had no significant effect on weights of dams or lambs at birth; however, the weaning weights of lambs born from ewes of group DDGS were significantly higher (p < 0.05). Moreover, serum glucose, blood urea nitrogen, triglyceride and beta hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) concentrations during the prepartum period were affected by dietary treatments and by time (p < 0.001). During the prepartum period, BHBA concentrations of ewes fed SBM were higher, while BHBA levels decreased during the last weeks of pregnancy regardless of diet. Lamb serum immunoglobulin G concentrations increased from 1 h to 24 h after birth (p < 0.001). Colostrum of ewes fed SBM had higher fat-free dry matter (DM) and protein contents in comparison to colostrum of ewes fed DDGS (p < 0.05). In conclusion, DDGS can be included as protein source in pregnancy rations up to 15% of DM to obtain reproductive performance outcomes equal to or exceeding those obtained with SBM.