postpartum, which was the consequence of the higher IgA transfer from maternal milk to neonates. The number of IgA ASC in the mammary gland in maternal mice fed whey was higher than that of control mice, but intestinal IgA concentration of neonatal mice was not affected by treatments. Supplemental β-carotene with whey drastically increased serum β-carotene concentration in calves at 14 and 42 days postpartum. Supplemental β-carotene with whey had no effects on fecal IgA concentration and fecal water in calves. These results suggest that β-carotene supplementation with whey to maternal mice during pregnancy and lactation enhances IgA transfer from maternal milk to neonates, but supplemental β-carotene has little effect on mucosal IgA induction in neonatal mice and calves.

Abstract. The objective of this study was to examine whether high concentrations of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and/or insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) would have a beneficial effect on bovine embryo development in vitro and to obtain normal calves by using an ovum pick up method and embryo culture in a chemically defined medium. When compared with controls, EGF (100 or 200 ng/ml) or IGF-I (50 or 100 ng/ml) significantly increased the rate of embryos that developed into blastocysts during an 8-day culture after the in vitro fertilization of oocytes obtained from ovaries from a slaughterhouse. IGF-I induced a dose-dependent increase in cell number in both the inner cell mass and the trophectoderm, whereas EGF stimulated proliferation only in the inner cell mass. A combination of EGF (100 ng/ml) and IGF-I (50 ng/ml) produced an additive effect, and embryos developed into blastocysts at a comparatively high rate (27.9%) compared with controls (12.0%). A similar rate of development was achieved using a combination of EGF and IGF-I in the culture of embryos following ovum pick up by ultrasound-guided transvaginal follicular aspiration and in vitro fertilization, and 5 blastocysts that developed after the culture were transferred into uteri; two embryos implanted, and normal calves were born. These results suggest that the combined use of EGF and IGF-I makes bovine embryo culture in a chemically defined medium a practical and useful procedure for producing blastocysts, and its application to embryo culture following ovum pick up and in vitro fertilization could be useful for producing normal calves. Key words: Bovine embryo, Chemically defined medium, Epidermal growth factor (EGF), Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), Ovum pick up (OPU) (J. Reprod. Dev. 58: [140][141][142][143][144][145][146] 2012) R ecently, a number of calves have been produced by the ovum pick up (OPU) method and in vitro culture (IVC) systems. Since the OPU method can be repeatedly applied to the same cow and can be used in pregnant [1] or problem cows in which embryos have not been obtained by uterine flushing after artificial insemination [2], this technology is effective for facilitating the improvement of domestic animals.An IVC system is necessary for the OPU method. Since successful pregnancy by transfer of embryos following the OPU method and in vitro fertilization has been confirmed [3], different protocols and medium conditions for oocyte maturation and embryo development have been tested [4][5][6][7]. However, there are some problems associated with the IVC system, such as a skewed sex ratio [8,9] or large offspring syndrome [10,11]. It has been suggested that factors in the culture medium such as serum used for embryo development may be involved in these problems. Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is widely employed as a supplement in the media used for culturing in vitro fertilized bovine embryos, but the subsequent rate of development of the fertilized oocytes to the blastocyst stage is known to vary among serum lots. There is thus a...

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Data from 62 Japanese Black calves were collected to clarify the effects of dam's parity on serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and fecal immunoglobulin A (IgA) in calves at 2 days of age and to evaluate the relationships among serum IgG, fecal IgA and fecal water in calves. Mean serum IgG in calves at 2 days of age was 18.8 mg/mL, ranging from 2.2 to 37.8 mg/mL, whereas mean fecal IgA was 13.8 mg/g, ranging from 0.004 to 59.3 mg/g. Except for one calf which contained 90.1% of fecal water, diarrhea did not occur in 61 calves, because the fecal water contents were below 80%. Serum IgG and serum total protein tended to be lower in calves born from primiparous cows, and there was a positive correlation between serum IgG and serum total protein in calves. Serum IgG concentrations in calves increased with the increased fecal water contents, but there were no relationships between fecal IgA and serum IgG nor fecal water in calves.

14 days of age, which was thought to be the increased mucosal IgA induction in the gut. Serum cholesterol concentration tended to be lower in calves fed whey than in control group, but feeding whey protein had no clear effects on serum glucose, NEFA, total protein and urea-N concentrations. These results suggest that feeding whey protein enhances mucosal IgA induction in calves, but feeding whey protein has little effect on growth rate and fecal consistency in calves.