History Shines New Light on Recipient Care
By Nate Dorshorst
Portions of this article were originally published in Holstein World 2013 and are reproduced here with their consent.
Recipient management is probably the most overlooked aspect of any embryo transfer program but can probably have the greatest impact on success with a modest financial investment. There is a new emerging science originating from the human realm, which is now becoming heavily investigated at universities throughout the country with significant application to bovine reproduction and genomics. To better understand how this applies to bovine advanced reproduction, it is helpful to understand the historical context leading to its discovery.
The Dutch famine of 1944, also known as the “Hunger Winter,” was a brief but severe famine near the end of World War II when the Germans occupied the Netherlands. In order to punish the Dutch for their reluctance to aid the Nazi war effort, the Germans placed a food embargo to the farming areas in the western region of the Netherlands. This embargo was partially lifted in early November 1944, but unfortunately an unusually early and especially harsh winter had already set in. The canals froze over and became impassable for barges, leaving the cities in the western Netherlands with a scarce food supply. Within a very short time period the food was gone and a population desperate to survive had their diet reduced to bread, potatoes, sugar beets, and tulip bulbs, receiving as little as 400 to 800 calories/day. From September 1944 until early 1945, malnutrition was the primary cause of death of 18,000 Dutch people, and it was considered a contributing factor in the deaths of many more. When the Dutch Famine ended with the liberation of the western Netherlands in May 1945, around 22,000 had died and 4.5 million were otherwise affected.
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