Background Current therapies for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are accompanied by unwanted effects. Silibinin; a flavonolignan has pleiotropic activities and favorable safety profile. Purpose To investigate the efficacy of silibinin on estrous cyclicity, inflammation, oxidative stress and ovarian morphology in letrozole-induced PCOS in rats. Methods Forty-eight female Wistar albino rats were divided into 2 sets. Rats of the first set (n = 12), assigned as a negative control (NC) received only the vehicle, rats of the second set (n = 36), assigned as PCOS rats, were given letrozole 1mg/Kg orally for 21 days. On day 21, six rats from the first set and six rats from the second set were euthanized for confirmation of PCOS-induction. The remaining animals from the first set assigned as group 1, those in the second set (n = 30) were equally divided into 5 groups and treated daily for 19 days as follows: group 2 (positive control) received only the vehicle, group 3 treated with metformin 300mg/Kg orally, groups 4 and 5 treated respectively with 100 and 200 mg/Kg silibinin intraperitoneally (IP), and group 6 treated with a combination of metformin 300mg/Kg orally and silibinin 100mg/Kg IP. On day 40, blood samples were examined for luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (TS) and estradiol (EST) levels, the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant parameters, ovarian and uterine morphology. Results Silibinin alone or in combination with metformin was found to be effective in restoring the regularity of estrous cycle by ameliorating the abnormal alterations of LH, TS, EST, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and oxidative status and by resuming the appearance of corpora lutea and decreasing or even total absence of cystic follicles in the ovaries. Conclusion Silibinin was effective in restoring estrous regularities and alleviating hormonal and histomorphological abnormalities of the ovarian and uterine tissues, this could be due to its anti-androgenic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

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The aim of the present study was to evaluate the behaviour of Meriz goats using environmental enrichment technique. Sixteen goats aged two-four years, were divided into two equal groups, one group was placed in a stall without any enrichment (control), while the other group placed in another stall with enrichment. The enriched stall had six objects including canopy, grooming brush, suspended tire, trunk of tree, and plastic PET bottle suspended and freely move on the floor. The goats' behaviours were observed for eighty minutes in the morning and eighty minutes in the evening for fifteen consecutive days. Focal-animal sampling methods were used to record the behaviours, in which each animal was observed for ten-minutes period each day. Results revealed that the animals of enriched environment group displayed lower frequency of stereotypic and abnormal behaviour than control group. The mean frequencies of the groups were significantly different (P<0.001) for all recorded behaviours except for stall interaction which showed similar behaviours frequencies (P=0.56). The highest percentage of frequency interaction for grooming brush and suspended tire was detected (27%). It was also found that the frequency interaction between the goats and objects of the enriched environment increased daily and showed significant difference between 1 st and 15 th days (P<0.001). It was therefore concluded that animals on enriched environment express more behaviours, show greater preference for some objects, and spent more time on objects than non-enriched environment.

Animal welfare science has been focused on how animal express their emotion. The emotion can be either positive or negative. The connections between positive emotion and peripheral temperatures are relatively neglected. Therefore, the current study was designed to measure nasal and ear pinna temperatures as a method to determine positive emotional state in Kurdish cow produced by gentle stroking of the animal body. Twelve Kurdish cows, aged 3-7 years, were used in this study. The cows were stroked in preferred regions (shoulder, neck and withers) to induce positive emotional state. The stroking manner was similar to allogrooming. The temperature data were collected from both nose and ear pinna of the animals in three different stages including pre-stroking, stroking and post-stroking. Each stage lasted five minutes. Focal animal sampling method was used to collect the data. Results showed that the three stages of nasal temperature were significantly different (P<0.001), and significant difference was also seen between the stages of ear pinna temperatures (P<0.05). In addition, strong correlation coefficient (r= 0.91) was found between nasal and ear pinna temperatures. Both nasal and ear pinna temperatures decreased over time. It was concluded that peripheral temperatures in Kurdish cows is a good welfare indicator and provide a useful measure for positive emotional state.