Endocrine control of ovarian function in dogs and other carnivores

Ovarian function in dogs is minimally but successfully evolved and adapted for fertility, and represents a basic model for examining the more complex evolution of ovarian activity in other carnivores and mammals in general. Canids are monoestrous, polytocous, spontaneous ovulators with a spontaneous luteal function producing progesterone for the duration of a normal 2-month pregnancy and unaffected by hysterectomy. They have no acute luteolytic mechanism in the absence of pregnancy although PGF is luteolytic and participates in prepartum luteolysis. The cellular mechanisms of luteal and follicular tissues appear unlikely to differ meaningfully from those described in other species, with th