The Behavioral Repertoire of Cattle Used for Vaquejada Races Does Not Indicate Chronic Stress in Transport and Races

There is little information about the bovine behavior and welfare during transportation and vaquejada race competitions. To test the hypothesis that the transport and racing of bovines produce chronic stress during these events, a study was performed to evaluate the behavior of bovines used for vaquejada races. Evaluations of cattle (n = 80) occurred on transportation (before, immediately, and 8 hours after transportation), and three days at Vaquejada Park (1 hour before, immediately, and 1 hour after the vaquejada race). Evaluators used a behavioral repertoire based on an ethogram for bovines and were previously trained. They used an observational and noninvasive method for one hour and applied a visual scanning method at transportation and for three days at the races. The results for pre-transport had greater idleness (102.9%), head/tail movements (57.4%), and agitation (49.8%). After transport, idleness (69.7%) was reduced, and agitation (79.5%) increased. Eight hours after this, sodomy/mounting/dominance (118.1%) was higher, followed by head/tail movements (92.8%), lying down (63.3%), and fatigue (53.3%). The results of vaquejada races revealed high feeding rates before and after races on the three evaluation days (53.6% - 30.0%), followed by rumination (72.0% - 44.5%). On all the evaluation days at the races, agitation was higher immediately after the races (87.9% - 66.1%). In conclusion, it was observed that the animals increased the frequency of behaviors indicative of acute stress immediately after transport and races but were able to recover the characteristic behavior a few hours after acute stress when transport and races followed the current official rules for both. Maintaining management standards for transport and vaquejada races, currently adopted, can reduce the impact on welfare and can be improved with regular scientific evaluations of the cattle involved to improve welfare through good practices.

Impact of hormonal modulation at proestrus on ovarian responses and uterine gene expression of suckled anestrous beef cows

Background： This study evaluated the impact of hormonal modulation at the onset of proestrus on ovarian response and uterine gene expression of beef cows.Methods： A total of 172 anestrous beef cows were assigned to one of four groups according to the treatment with estradiol cypionate（ECP） and/or equine chorionic gonadotropin（eCG） [CON（n = 43）, ECP（n = 43）, eCG（n = 44）and ECP ＋ eCG（n = 42）].Results： ECP-treated cows（ECP and ECP ＋ eCG groups） presented greater occurrence of estrus（44.6% vs. 65.4%; P = 0.01） and pregnancy per AI [47.1% vs. 33.3%; P = 0.07], but similar progesterone（P4） concentration at subsequent diestrus than cows not treated with ECP（CON and eCG groups）. Nonetheless, eCG-treated cows（eCG and ECP ＋ eCG groups） presented larger follicle at timed AI（12.6 ± 0.3 vs. 13.5 ± 0.3 mm; P = 0.03）, greater ovulation rate（96.5%vs. 82.6%; P = 0.008） and greater P4 concentration at d 6（3.9 ± 0.2 vs. 4.8 ± 0.2 ng/mL; P = 0.001） than cows not treated with eCG（CON and ECP groups）. Next, cows with a new corpus luteum 6 d after TAI were submitted to uterine biopsy procedure. Uterine fragments [CON（n = 6）, ECP（n = 6）] were analyzed by RNA-Seq and a total of 135 transcripts were differentially expressed between groups（73 genes up-regulated by ECP treatment）. Subsequently,uterine samples were analyzed by q PCR（genes associated with cell proliferation）. ECP treatment induced greater abundance of PTCH2（P = 0.07） and COL4 A1（P = 0.02）, whereas suppressed EGFR（P = 0.09） expression. Conversely, eCG treatment increased abundance of HB-EGF（P = 0.06）, ESR2（P = 0.09）, and ITGB3（P = 0.05）, whereas it reduced transcription of ESR1（P = 0.05）. Collectively, supplementation with ECP or eCG at the onset of proestrous of anestrous beef cows influenced ovarian responses, global and specific endometrial gene expression.Conclusion： Proestrus estradiol regulate the endometrial transcriptome, particularly stimulating proliferative activity in the endometrium.