A clinical trial was performed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of osaterone acetate (OSA) in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in dogs. Osaterone acetate (Ypozane, Virbac) was administered orally at a dose of 0.25 mg/kg body weight once a day for seven days to 23 dogs with BPH. During the 28-day trial, the dogs were monitored five times for their clinical signs and prostate volume. The OSA treatment promoted rapid reduction of clinical scores to 73.2% on day 7 and to 5.9% on day 28 (p⟨0.05). Osaterone acetate induced the complete clinical remission in approximately 83.0% of the dogs on day 28. The prostate volume regressed to 64.3% of the pretreatment volume after two weeks of the treatment (p⟨0.05) and to 54.7% at the end of the trial (p⟨0.05). In conclusion, OSA quickly reduced clinical signs and volume of the prostate glands in dogs with BPH.

The retained placenta is a common pathology of dairy cows. It is associated with a significant drop in the dry matter intake, milk yield, and increased susceptibility of dairy cows to metritis, mastitis, and displaced abomasum. The objective of this study was to identify metabolic alterations that precede and are associated with the disease occurrence. Blood samples were collected from 100 dairy cows at −8 and −4 weeks prior to parturition and on the day of retained placenta, and only 16 healthy cows and 6 cows affected by retained placenta were selected to measure serum polar metabolites by a targeted gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) metabolomics approach. A total of 27 metabolites were identified and quantified in the serum. There were 10, 18, and 17 metabolites identified as being significantly altered during the three time periods studied. However, only nine metabolites were identified as being shared among the three time periods including five amino acids (Asp, Glu, Ser, Thr, and Tyr), one sugar (myo-inositol), phosphoric acid, and urea. The identified metabolites can be used as predictive biomarkers for the risk of retained placenta in dairy cows and might help explain the metabolic processes that occur prior to the incidence of the disease and throw light on the pathomechanisms of the disease.

Probiotic feed additives have attracted considerable research interest in recent years because the effectiveness of probiotics can differ across microbial strains and the supplemented macroorganisms. The present study was conducted on 16 lambs divided equally into two groups (C—control and E—experimental). The examined lambs were aged 11 days at the beginning of the experiment and 40 days at the end of the experiment. The diet of group E lambs was supplemented with a multi-strain probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus plantarum AMT14, Lactobacillus plantarum AMT4, Lactobacillus rhamnosus AMT15, and Bifidobacterium animalis AMT30), whereas group C lambs did not receive the probiotic additive. At the beginning of the experiment (day 0) and on experimental days 15 and 30, blood was sampled from the jugular vein to determine and compare: phagocytic activity (Phagotest) and oxidative metabolism (Phagoburst) of peripheral blood granulocytes and monocytes by flow cytometry. An analysis of the phagocytic activity of granulocytes and monocytes revealed significantly higher levels of phagocytic activity (expressed as the percentage of phagocytic cells and mean fluorescence intensity) in lambs that were administered the multi-strain probiotic formulation compared with lambs in the control group. The probiotic feed additive also exerted a positive effect on the oxidative metabolism of both granulocytes and monocytes (expressed as the percentage of oxidative metabolism and mean fluorescence intensity) after stimulation with Escherichia coli bacteria and with PMA (4-phorbol-12-β-myristate-13-acetate). These findings suggest that the tested probiotic formulation may have a positive effect on the immune status of lambs.

Elevated BHB levels are hypothesized to influence hepatic antioxidant enzyme expression and activity, contributing to oxidative response. However, the impact of BHB between 0.8 and 1.2 mmol/L on these mechanisms remains unclear. We hypothesized that elevated serum BHB levels would influence the hepatic expression of antioxidant genes (SOD1, SOD2, SOD3, and GPX3) and blood antioxidant enzyme activity, contributing to oxidative response. The primary objective was to evaluate the correlation between serum BHB levels, hepatic antioxidant gene expression, and blood antioxidant enzyme activity in high-yielding dairy cows during the postpartum period. The study involved 23 healthy high-yielding Holstein-Friesian dairy cows, divided into experimental (EXP, n = 12) and control (CONT, n = 11) groups based on serum BHB levels during the first three weeks postpartum. The EXP group maintained BHB levels between 0.8 and 1.2 mmol/L, while the CONT group remained below 0.8 mmol/L. All animals were monitored up to 9 weeks postpartum. This cohort study utilized weekly blood samples from 7 days prepartum to 9 weeks postpartum and liver biopsy samples from 4 to 7 weeks postpartum. Serum BHB concentrations, blood SOD and GSH-Px activities, and hepatic expression of SOD1, SOD2, SOD3, and GPX3 genes were analyzed. The EXP group exhibited a significant increase in hepatic SOD2 expression at 4 weeks postpartum (p < 0.05) and higher blood SOD activity at 6 and 7 weeks postpartum compared to controls. This suggests an oxidative activity response to elevated BHB levels. By week 7, hepatic SOD2 expression began to normalize, indicating a transient response or adaptation. No significant changes were observed in hepatic SOD1, SOD3, or GPX3 expression between groups. Persistently high serum BHB levels in postparturient dairy cows significantly impact hepatic SOD2 expression and blood SOD activity. The specificity of this response, primarily involving SOD2, highlights the complex interplay between metabolic changes and oxidative mechanisms during the transition period. These findings underline the importance of BHB concentration monitoring and suggest potential reevaluation of current BHB thresholds for identifying at-risk cows. Furthermore, SOD2 could potentially serve as an early biomarker.

After parturition, the uterus undergoes significant reconstruction, allows the endometrium to create an environment for subsequent embryo development. Here, we used an unsupervised algorithmic approach to select characteristic endometrial mRNA expression patterns of proposed markers and investigate each marker’s role as an individual indicator of reproductive success. Clinically healthy cows at a sixth week postpartum were examined, the percentage of neutrophils (PMNs%) in the cytological smear was calculated, and an endometrial biopsy was taken for qPCR. Based on pregnancy examination, cows were divided into three groups: Pregnant before 100 days postpartum (P100, n = 11), pregnant between 100–200-day (P200, n = 14), and culled (C, n = 10). Animals were also classified based on two PMNs% thresholds > 5% PMNs and > 10% PMNs. The expression of IL1B, IL6, CXCL8, and IL17A was higher in >10%PMNs. The expression of PTGS1 was higher in the P200 compared to P100. Upregulation of inhibin A subunit (INHA) and downregulation of inhibin β A subunit (INHBA) were observed in the P100. INHBA/INHA ratio was the most accurate linear predictor of the calving-to-conception interval. The application of the k-means algorithm allowed the identification of five unique expression patterns. The sensitivity and specificity of predicting allocation to P100 were 81% and 79%. We also documented the low efficiency of genes associated with subclinical endometritis and PMNs% in determining reproductive capability. These results suggested the presence of distinctive expression patterns in 6 weeks postpartum, correlated with cows’ reproductive capacity. Furthermore, we proposed the INHBA/INHA ratio as an indicator of calving-to-conception interval length.