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Stress is the condition where there is undue demand for physical and mental energy due to excessive and aversive environmental factors (stressors) and cause deformations those are identifiable through physiological disequilibrium. Temperature stress imparts physical and economical losses to livestock production in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. Each species, breed or animal with its physiological state, has a comfort zone, in which the energy expenditure of the animal is minimal, constant and independent of environmental temperature. When environmental temperatures move out of the thermo-neutral zone (or comfort zone) dairy cattle begin to experience heat stress. Thermo-neutral zone depends on the age, breed, feed intake, diet composition, previous state of temperature acclimatization, production, housing and stall conditions, tissue (fat, skin) insulation and external (coat) insulation, and the behaviour of the animal. The ranges of thermo-neutral zone are from lower critical temperature (LCT) to upper critical temperature (UCT). LCT is the environmental temperature at which an animal needs to increase metabolic heat production to maintain body temperature. UCT is the environmental temperature at which the animal increases heat production as a consequence of a rise in body temperature resulting for inadequate evaporative heat loss. Heat stress negatively impacts a variety of dairy parameters including milk yield and reproduction and therefore is a significant financial burden in many dairy-producing areas of the world. Advances in management (i.e. cooling systems) and nutritional strategies have alleviated some of the negative impact of thermal stress on dairy cattle, but production continues to decrease during the summer. In this review an attempt has been made to bring forth the effect of heat stress and to discuss their impact on dairy cows.

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Pyometra, either open or closed cervix, inevitably progresses to systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), if ovariohysterectomy is not done timely. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of pyometra led SIRS on certain serum biochemical and prostaglandin metabolite, 13,14-dihydro-15-keto PGF2 alpha (PGFM) and oxidative stress indices in the canine. The pyometra positive bitches were categorized as SIRS+ (n=29) and SIRS- (n =16) based on temperature (<100.5 or >102.5°F), respiration rate (>20/min), heart rate (>102/min), and total leukocytes count (<6×103 or >16×103 per μL). The SIRS+ bitches showed hypoalbuminemia, hyperglobulinemia, elevated blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, decreased super oxide dismutase (SOD) activity with moderate increase in the lipid peroxidation. Further, the SIRS+ bitches had significantly higher serum PGFM concentration (6.83±0.7 vs. 4.12±0.4 ng/mL) than SIRS- and the level was influenced by cervical patency. It was concluded that elevated serum PGFM along with hyperglobunemia, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine would be useful in diagnosis and monitoring of pyometra led SIRS in bitch.

In the past decade, kisspeptin research was primarily focussed on the regulation of GnRH release in hypothalamus. Present study was designed to explore the expression of extra-hypothalamic kisspeptinergic (Kiss1- Kiss1r) system in the follicular compartment of buffalo ovary. Buffalo genitalia (n=32) were collected immediately after exsanguinations and categorized into early luteal (EL), mid luteal (ML), follicular (FL) and acyclic (n=8 per group), based on the gross ovarian morphology. Ovarian follicular tissue samples were subjected to total RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and qPCR amplification of Kiss1, Kiss1r, follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) and luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) along with an endogenous control (β-actin) gene. The expression of ovarian Kiss1 transcripts was abundant in the cyclic than acyclic stage. The fold change was significantly upregulated in ML (66.79 fold) followed by EL (28.64 fold) and FL (14.09 fold) stages against the acyclic stage (calibrator). Similarly, the Kiss1r expression was highest at ML (77.26 fold). The expression of FSHR was upregulated at FL (15.08 fold) stage in response to follicular activity and subsequently observed to be down regulated at EL (0.09 times) and ML (0.27  times). Further, the expression of Kiss1 was positively correlated with FSHR only at ML and FL. From this study, it could be concluded that Kiss1 and Kiss1r are expressed in the buffalo ovarian follicle and their expression is associated with the stage of estrous cycle.