Fertility of dairy cattle following oestrus and ovulation controlled with cloprostenol, oestradiol benzoate and progesterone or progesterone and cloprostenol

Abstract

There have been several approaches to the control of the timing of the oestrous cycle and ovulation in dairy cattle in the last three decades. The first phase involved the use of progestins which were administered in various forms for prolonged periods. Although the timing of oestrus was controlled in most animals after withdrawal of the treatment, this control was not very precise and pregnancy rates from insemination at the first oestrus after treatment were reported to be below normal. Attempts were then made to combine short-term progestin treatments with oestrogens as luteolytic agents to gain better control of the timing of oestrus and ovulation. These studies resulted in some cases in better synchronization of oestrus and improved pregnancy rates. The discovery that prostaglandin F 2α (PGF 2α) and its synthetic analogue, cloprostenol were potent luetolytic agents in the cow led in the past decade to the use of these agents for oestrus and ovulation control in cattle. Prostaglandins for this purpose are ineffective in anovulatory cows, in cows with deficient luteal function and in the first 5 days of the oestrus cycle when a new corpus luteum is being formed. This limitation in their use has encouraged investigations into the combined use of short-term progestin treatment with prostaglandins to give more effective control of the timing of oestrus and ovulation and to avoid the adverse effects on fertility of long-term progestin treatment. Short-term progestin treatment combined with prostaglandins should mean that fewer cows would have ovulation suppressed for long periods and fertility of treated cows should be improved. A comparison of three procedures of ovulation control and fertility results shows the short-term progestin treatment combined with prostaglandin to be the most effective.