Maternal recognition of pregnancy in livestock animals

Abstract

The maternal recognition of pregnancy is the period when the conceptus signals its presence to the mother. This is an important moment of pregnancy, which can be decisive for the progress of pregnancy. During gestation, there is a series of events involving progesterone and prostaglandins produced by corpus luteum, a temporary gland formed from a single ovulation follicle. The progesterone produced by corpus luteum is a steroid involved in both ovarian cyclicity and the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy in most mammals. Some peculiarities of the events involved in the maternal-fetal relationship during pregnancy recognition among domestic species have been discussed in this review, one of them is the key role of interferon-tau protein (INF-T) protein that has proven antiluteolytic function and that is associated with maternal recognition of pregnancy in ruminants; the movement of the equine embryo in order to maintain its signaling; the estrogens produced by the pig fetuses, which have luteotrophic function for this species, but also has luteolytic function in others species.