Special Issue "Animal Perinatology: Behavior and Health of the Dam and Her Offspring"
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Reproduction".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2022.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Animal perinatology; facial expressions and emotions; animal welfare; thermoregulation; fetal distress; asphyxia; quality of death and pain
Interests: Meconium Aspiration Syndrome; veterinary perinatology; respiratory pathology; asphyxia; stillbirths; neonatal infectious diseases; Apgar scores; hypothermia; hypoxia; pain
Interests: Animal welfare; maternal behavior; suckling motivation; cross-suckling; allo-suckling; behavior; weaning
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The health and behavior of females during the birthing process in both altricial and precocial species, together with the survival of the newborn of domestic animals and those that live freely in the wild or captivity, are important topics in this Special Issue entitled “Animal Perinatology: Behavior and Health of the Dam and Her Offspring”. Experimental and review articles in the mothers will be of enormous interest due to the importance of the mother’s health in the perinatal stage, which spans the final phase of gestation, parturition, and lactation period. Themes analyzed in these papers should include obstetric processes, premature births, gynecologic and obstetric pathology, fetal and uterine electronic monitoring, parturition in mammals in wild or captivity (delivery in companion, farm or laboratory animals), pain management during labor, the use of labor stimulators or accelerators, maternal ability, understanding the mechanism of placentophagia, mother–young bonding, imprinting neurophysiological mechanisms, neurotransmitters involved in imprinting, strategies of maternal care (allo-suckling and communal rearing), and the adverse effects of dystocia on the health of the mother and milk production.
In the case of neonates and infants, articles can focus on subjects such as reduced vitality, factors predisposing to stillbirths, colostrum consumption, neonatal respiratory disorders, causes of perinatal death, suckling motivation, and abnormal or redirected behaviors, all of which are extremely significant in today’s scientific community. Examples of conditions that can be analyzed include the physiopathology of intrauterine asphyxia, meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), low birth weight, hypothermia, neonatal thermoregulation mechanisms, and natural suckling behavior of the offspring.
Studies based on animal models are essential for understanding the physiopathology of the various respiratory alterations that can affect newborns, predictors of mortality in neonates, neonatal infectious diseases, and the implementation of several vitality scales applied to evaluate neonatal neurological responses in domestic and wild mammals. Also of interest are infrared thermographic studies of the thermoregulating mechanisms and dermal (cutaneous) microcirculation changes that allow newborns to regulate their body temperature, and behavioral problems associated with the peripartum, as well as studies about animal welfare in mother and offspring around this period.
We send our best wishes as we look forward to receiving your proposals.
Dr. Daniel Mota-Rojas
Dr. Julio Martínez-Burnes
Dr. Agustín Orihuela
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- veterinary perinatology
- parturition in mammals in wild or captivity (delivery in companion, farm or laboratory animals)
- gynecologic and obstetric pathology
- dystocia and reproductive disorders
- pain at delivery and analgesia in obstetrics
- fetal distress and electronic monitoring
- stillbirths and Apgar scores
- hypothermia; hypoxia and vitality
- mother-young bonding and imprinting neurophysiological mechanisms
- allo-suckling and redirected behaviors
- animal welfare in mother and offspring
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Pathophysiology of Perinatal Asphyxia in Mammals: Human and Animal Research News
Authors: Daniel Mota-Rojas 1*, Dina Villanueva-García 2, Alfonso Solimano 3, Ramon Muns4, Daniel Ibarra-Ríos2, and Andrea Mota Reyes5
Affiliation: 1 Neurophysiology, behaviour and animal welfare assessment. DPAA. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM). Mexico City, Mexico.
2 Division of Neonatology, National Institute of Health Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez, Mexico City, Mexico.
3 Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
4 Division Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Livestock Production Sciences Unit, Hillsborough BT26 6DR, Northern Ireland.
5 Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud. TecSalud del Tecnológico de Monterrey. Monterrey. N.L. México.
Abstract: Perinatal asphyxia is caused by the lack of oxygen delivery (hypoxia) to end organs due to a hypoxemic or ischemic insult occurring in temporal proximity to labour (peripartum) or delivery (intrapartum). Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy is the clinical manifestation of the hypoxic injury to the brain, and is usually graded as mild, moderate or severe. The search for useful biomarkers to precisely predict the severity of the lesion in perinatal asphyxia and hypoxic-ischemic encepha-lopathy (HIE) is a field of increasing interest. As pathophysiology is not fully comprehended the gold standard for treatment remains an active area of treatment research. Hypothermia has proven to be an effective neuroprotective strategy and has been implemented in clinical routine. Current studies are exploring various add-on therapies including erythropoietin, xenon, topiramate, melatonin and stem cells. This review aims to perform an updated integration of the pathophysiological processes after perinatal asphyxia, examining in detail recent investigations reported both on animal and human models to allow us to answer some questions and providing an interim update on progress in this field.
Title: Parturition in Mammals: Pain and Distress
Authors: Julio Martínez-Burnes1, Ramon Muns2, Hugo Barrios-García1, Adriana Olmos-Hernández3, Dina Villanueva-García4
Affiliation: 1Animal Health Group. Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Victoria City, Tamaulipas, México.
2Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, Co Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
3Division of Biotechnology - Department of Bioterio and Experimental Surgery, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación-Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra (INR-LGII), México City. México.
4Division of Neonatology, Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez, CP 06720, México DF, México.
Abstract: Parturition is a complex physiological process, and involve many hormonal, morphological, physiological and behavioural changes. Labour is a crucial moment for numerous species and is usually the most painful experience in females. Contrary to the extensive research in humans, in domestic animals, there is a limited existence of pain studies associated with the birth process, reflecting the little interest in the subject. Although it is widely acknowledged that the birth process is a critical moment in any animal species, pain associated with it has received little focus in domestic animals. Nonetheless, during the recent years, awareness of the process of labour, its impact on welfare, health and even economic return in domestic animals has increased among the public, owners and the scientific community. The current knowledge about human labour pain, the contribution of the rat model to neurophysiological and neuropharmacological human labour pain, and the current clinical and experimental knowledge of parturition pain mechanisms in dogs and pigs, support the fact that both monotocous and polytocous species experience parturition pain. Currently, both for women and domestic animal species, the pain associated with parturition represents a potential welfare concern, and it should be prevented and treated. This review's focus is to provide the main elements that labour-related pain generates in different species, the indicators, and the appropriate analgesic therapy.
Title: Maternal Behavior of Zebu Type Cows Around Calving, and Effect on Their Reproduction and Well-being of Mother and Calves
Authors: Agustín Orihuela1* and Carlos S. Galina2
Affiliation: 1 Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Av. Universidad 1001, Colonia Chamilpa, Cuernavaca 62210, Morelos, Mexico
2 Departamento de Reproducción, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico.
Abstract: The behaviors associated with domestic cattle maternal care are for the most part like those observed in wild ungulates. These behaviors allow the cow to bond with her calf, protect and provide it with nourishment and ultimately break down this bond at weaning. Although maternal behavior is an important factor influencing survival and early development of the newborn calf, the study of zebu type cows around calving has been virtually unstudied. Herein we consider four main aspects of maternal behavior in cattle and particularly Bos indicus cows and calves. Firstly, we provide a brief description of the behaviors of the cows around parturition and the behavior of the first stages of the calves´ life. In the second part, the protective behavior of the mother is analyzed. Subsequently, examples of animal welfare implications followed by the analysis of some factors that affect calves´ survival like mother experience and weather conditions are discussed, and in the last part, reproduction and well-being of mother and calves is examined. We concluded that the knowledge of the interaction between mother and offspring might contribute to enhance the welfare of the offspring and to improve the reproductive efficiency of the cow.