In this study, the prevalence, effectiveness of diagnosis, and treatment based on vaginal discharge score (VDS) of clinical endometritis in cattle were evaluated. To detect clinical endometritis and classify its severity,
vaginoscopy was performed during 21 to 60 days postpartum in 164 Holstein cows consisting of 229 lactations. Groups were defined using the 4-point VDS scale. Study groups included the following: non-endometritis (VDS=0; no/clear
mucus; NEM group; n=168); mild endometritis, no treatment (VDS=1; mucus containing flecks of white/off-white pus; NTR group; n=30); and severe endometritis, treated with PGF2α (VDS≥2; discharge containing <50% pus; and VDS=3;
discharge containing >50% pus, and fluid or uterine horn asymmetry; TEM group; n=31). Cows treated with PGF2α that did not recover (VDS≥1, n=5) received intrauterine procaine penicillin and streptomycin. Prevalence of clinical
endometritis (VDS≥1) was 26.6%. The NTR group required significantly more artificial inseminations per pregnancy than NEM and TEM groups (2.8 ± 1.8 vs 2.0 ± 1.3, 1.9 ± 0.8, P<0.05). In survival analysis, the
proportion of non-pregnant cows was higher in the NTR group compared to the NEM (P=0.012) and TEM (P=0.076) groups. In the TEM group, calving to first artificial insemination interval tended to be
higher in cows treated 41 to 60 days postpartum than cows treated 29 to 40 days postpartum (97.2 ± 27.1 vs 74.4 ± 19.7, P=0.084). Our study suggests that cows with VDS=1 may require treatment to recover fertility.
Diagnosis and treatment of clinical endometritis based on a VDS grading system may improve dairy herd reproductive performance.
This study investigated the efficacy of intrauterine infusion of a chitosan solution (CHT) on uterine recovery in early postpartum dairy cows with or without endometritis, and their subsequent reproductive performance. In Experiment 1, cows with endometritis at 3 weeks postpartum were administered CHT (n = 5) and prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) (n = 4). Untreated cows (n = 7) served as the control group. In Experiment 2, 18 cows with a normally recovered uterus at the fresh cow check (mean, 35 days postpartum) were assigned to the CHT (n = 10) and control (n = 8) groups, and intrauterine infusion was conducted in the CHT group. Overall, in Experiment 1, the percentage of polymorphonuclear leukocytes significantly declined in the CHT group (32.3 ± 10.2 to 5.5 ± 2.4, p < 0.05) from week 3 to week 5, but no decline occurred in the PGF2α and control groups. In Experiment 2, the CHT and control groups showed no significant differences in reproductive parameters, suggesting the absence of adverse effects of CHT on fertility. These results suggest that intrauterine infusion of CHT in the early postpartum period effectively accelerates uterine recovery from endometritis and might be a suitable replacement for PGF2α administration.
The present study aimed to determine possible risk factors affecting reproductive performance, especially time taken to establish pregnancy in dairy cows, using Cox’s proportional hazard
model. The data were collected from 154 Holstein Friesian cows (199 lactations). Cows diagnosed with a vaginal discharge score (VDS) of one or calving abnormality showed significantly
delayed pregnancy: hazard ratio (HR)=0.654 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.436–0.983; P=0.041) and HR=0.457 (95% CI: 0.270–0.774; P=0.004), respectively.
Our study suggested that the occurrence of VDS of one or calving abnormality might be possible risk factors increasing the number of days open and affecting reproductive performance in dairy
cows.
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