Physiology and Endocrinology IV.

This article presents abstracts of various papers related to animal physiology and endocrinology, that were presented during the symposium held on July 26, 2005, Cincinnati, Ohio, which was organized by the American Dairy Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science and the Canadian Society of Animal Science. One of the papers presented is "Prediction of Reproductive Performance on Large Commercial Dairies," by D. Caraviello and others. Data from Holstein cows in large commercial herds that participated in the Alta Genetics' Advantage progeny testing program were analyzed to explain factors affecting conception at first, second, and third services, pregnancy status at 150 days in milk, and days open. Another paper discussed is "Fatty Acid Composition of the Porcine Conceptus in Response to Maternal Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation," by A. E. Brazle and others. Maternal omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is reported to increase litter size in pigs. Therefore we evaluated the hypothesis that omega-3 sources would affect the fatty acid composition of pig concept uses and that the effects would differ with the omega-3 source.