Research Article

Negative impact of metritis and endometritis on the reproductive performance in dairy cattle

Hussein M.M., Hassan A.G., Abdel-Halim B.R. , Abdallah S.M.
Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the incidence of metritis and endometritis in dairy cows and to determine their collective impacts on the reproductive performance and milk yield in dairy farms. Therefore, a total of 246 Holstein cows were divided into three groups; a control group (normal cows) and other two groups included cows those diagnosed with acute postpartum metritis and chronic endometritis, respectively. It has been found that endometritis had severe negative effects on the postpartum reproductive performance of diseased cows compared to normal ones. Moreover, the impact of such diseases was higher in premiparous cows compared with their pleuriparous herd-mates. Days to first estrus (P=0.06) tended to be increased in premiparous cows suffering from endometritis (89.19±12.12 days) compared to normal cows (59.45±3.30 days) or those suffering from acute metritis (65.37±4.92 days). In pleuriparous cows, negative effects of endometritis had no tendency for prolonged days to first estrus, compared to normal cows. Endometritis had significantly (P<0.01) negative impacts on the postpartum cyclicity in premiparous cows (89.19±12.12 days) compared to pleuriparous cows (56.32±3.15 days). Significantly (P<0.05), endometritis showed negatively impacted days to the first AI in premiparous cows (105.63±12.95 days) rather than normal cows (65.97±2.63 days) and pleuriparous cows (76.19±3.64 days). More or less similar trend was observed for endometritis and metritis regarding their potential negative impacts on the number of inseminations per conception in both premiparous and pleuriparous cows. Concerning days open, diseases such as endometritis was associated with significantly (P<0.01) higher in both premiparous and pleuriparous cows. Meanwhile, advancing parity was associated with significantly (P<0.05) higher in cows suffering from endometritis only.

Keywords

Metritis, endometritis, milk yield, reproductive performance