Bovinos taurinos, em clima tropical, mostram menores índices de fertilidade devido ao estresse térmico e oxidativo testicular. Essa alta incidência de alterações espermáticas é potencializada pela grande quantidade de ácidos graxos poli-insaturados (PUFA) presentes nos espermatozoides taurinos. Embora os PUFA aumentem a sensibilidade celular à peroxidação lipídica, são essenciais para a maleabilidade de membrana e promovem maior proteção celular durante a criopreservação. Devido aos relatos de que animais e vegetais de clima frio possuem maior concentração de PUFA nas células, o presente estudo teve como objetivo comparar o efeito da estação do ano sobre a qualidade espermática de taurinos e zebuínos. Foram avaliadas amostras criopreservadas de 10 touros da raça Nelore (Bos taurus indicus) e 10 da raça Simental (Bos taurus taurus), coletadas durante inverno e verão. Após a descongelação, foram realizados testes espermáticos de motilidade e vigor, testes de integridade de membrana plasmática (MPI–Eosina/Nigrosina), integridade acrossomal (MAI-POPE), grau de fragmentação de DNA (DNAf-Ensaio Cometa) e atividade citoquímica mitocondrial (ACM-DAB). Adicionalmente, avaliou-se a suscetibilidade das células espermáticas à peroxidação lipídica induzida, pela mensuração das substâncias reativas ao ácido tiobarbitúrico (TBARS) e malondialdeído (MDA). No grupo Nelore, foi observada maior motilidade espermática pós-descongelação (26,50% inverno; 13,30% verão) e maior ACM (22,34% inverno; 13,30% verão) durante o inverno. No grupo Simental, não houve diferença de época do ano nas variáveis. Concluiu-se que, apesar de sofrerem maior estresse térmico, nos animais taurinos não foi observado efeito da estação do ano sobre a qualidade espermática, o que pode estar relacionado a uma maior concentração de PUFA em sua composição seminal.

Animal welfare expert reports may support court decisions when animal abuse or maltreatment is suspected. The objective of this work is to adapt animal welfare assessment protocols to identify companion animal abuse. The proposed protocol includes four indicator categories: nutritional, comfort, health and behavioral. To reach the overall conclusion regarding the situation evaluated, the final decisions for each group of indicators, classified as inadequate, regular and adequate, must be integrated into a single result, which will be the final welfare degree. This protocol employs a simple integration method, based on thresholds for inclusion in each of the five animal welfare degrees reported as overall conclusion for the assessment: very low, low, regular, high or very high welfare. Low and very low degrees are considered non-acceptable and are reported as abuse or maltreatment. Regular welfare is considered acceptable if corrective measures are assured. High and very high degrees are considered desirable for animal welfare. The protocol allows differentiation of animal welfare status to better decide whether an animal is under abuse, maltreatment or negligence. We hope that the refinement of the recognition of crimes against animals, especially considering cases where no physical lesion is present, coupled with a standardized protocol will improve perception of animal suffering, facilitate the field work of those involved in this type of investigation, and offer a contribution to the improvement of animal welfare in our society through proper action and crime reduction.

There is currently an obvious discrepancy between the officially reported data for seroprevalence of human and animal Brucellosis in Egypt and the data obtained from scientific reports. The present study gives a preliminary data about the seroprevalence of Brucella infection in dairy cattle herds from three large Egyptian Governorates located in the Nile Delta region. The study population consisted of 2.830 dairy cattle from private farms in Dakahlia, Damietta and Port- Said Governorates. Serum samples were randomly collected from 811 cows (203 animals showed reproductive disorders group 1); while 608 cows were apparently healthy (group 2). The collected sera were tested by Rose Bengal Test (RBT), Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay (ELISA) and Fluorescent Polarization Assay (FPA). The overall seroprevelance among the tested cows in the first group was 52.2% (106/203). ELISA showed the highest number of positive reactors (n = 138; 67.9%) followed by FPA (n = 120; 59.11%) and RBT (n = 109; 53.7%); while in group 2, the number of positive animals were 25 (4.2%), 20 (3.3%) and 11 (1.8%) by using RBT, ELISA and FPA, respectively. It is very likely that brucellosis Could poses a great risk to consumers in the study region and Could be a potential source of infection to animal keepers, veterinarians and slaughterhouse workers. Further studies are warranted to unravel the epidemiological situation of human, animal and environmental brucellosis in other regions of Egypt.