Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Larson, Jamie

Committee Member

Rude, Brian J.

Committee Member

Lemley, Caleb O.

Date of Degree

5-9-2015

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Animal Science

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences

Abstract

Fescue toxicosis is a common problem in beef cattle grazing endophyte-infected (E+) tall fescue. Symptoms include decreases in feed intake, weight gain, and reproductive efficiency along with vasoconstriction. The mechanisms by which fescue toxicosis affects the bovine reproductive tract have yet to be discovered. The objective of this study was to determine if the onset of fescue toxicosis conditions would alter the blood perfusion observed in the CL and peripheral concentrations of progesterone in cattle. We hypothesized that during fescue toxicosis, the vasoconstrictive symptoms would lead to a reduction in CL blood perfusion thus decreasing peripheral concentrations of progesterone. Overall, fescue toxicosis was induced as cows fed an E+ treatment diet had greater rectal temperatures and reduced pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure measurements; however, total blood perfusion of the CL and peripheral concentrations of progesterone did not differ in cattle under fescue toxicosis compared to those without.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18194

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