72 EFFECT OF PROGESTERONE SUPPLEMENTATION ON DAY 4 AFTER TIMED ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION ON PREGNANCY RATE OF LACTATING DAIRY COWS

Abstract

Progesterone plays an important role in the maintenance of pregnancy. It is hypothesised that insufficient progesterone early in pregnancy may result in embryonic loss, and that supplemental progesterone would decrease pregnancy loss in dairy cows. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of progesterone supplementation after timed AI on pregnancy rate of dairy cows. The experiment was conducted in a single commercial herd, in Sao Paulo State (Brazil), during a period of 1 year (January–December 2016). The cows were assigned at a nonpregnancy diagnosis 32 ± 3 days after AI to 1 to 6 resynchronization treatments. They were submitted to the same fixed time AI protocol: Day 0, 0.1 mg of gonadorelin, 2 mg of oestradiol benzoate, and an intravaginal device of 1.9 g of progesterone; Day 7, 25 mg of dinoprost tromethamine; Day 8, 25 mg of dinoprost tromethamine, 1 mg of oestradiol cipionate, and device withdrawal; Day 10, AI. At Day 14, the cows were alternately arranged in 2 groups. Group 1 received a 900-mg progesterone supplementation IM injection, and Group 2 did not receive progesterone supplementation. Then, 32 ± 3 days after insemination, pregnancy diagnosis was performed by transrectal ultrasonography, and the data were tabulated. Full statistical analysis will be done at the end of the study, when more than 500 cows will be allocated to the 2 groups. From January until April 2016, 230 lactating dairy cows were submitted to the experiment. Both groups had similar average days in lactation (166), average number of lactations (1.95), and average number of inseminations (4.3). Group 1 had a pregnancy rate of 25% (29/116), and group 2 had a pregnancy rate of 15.8% (18/114) (P = 0.01, one-way ANOVA). Based on these preliminary data, pregnancy rates of lactating dairy cows may be improved with progesterone supplementation on Day 4 after insemination. These results need to be confirmed on larger numbers of cows.