Hormonal and ovarian responses to a 5-day progesterone treatment in anoestrous dairy cows in the third week post-partum

Abstract

Primiparous cows with low body condition at calving have an extended anovulatory period. Induction of ovulation and oestrus is possible with progesterone treatment but the response to this treatment differs between Friesian and Jersey breeds. The objective of this study was to describe changes in pulsatile LH secretion and the synchrony of developing ovarian follicles that occur during a progesterone treatment period of 5 days in primiparous anovulatory cows. The experimental model compared the progesterone treatment with spontaneous post-partum changes as well as a breed comparison in a factorial design. Thirty-six cows (Jersey n=19 and Friesian n=17) were managed to calve with a low body condition score (BCS<4.5). Daily changes in ovarian follicle size were observed with transrectal ultrasonography in each cow from 8 days post-partum. Thirty of these cows were diagnosed to be anovulatory at 12–18 days post-partum (day 0) and allocated to a treatment ( n=16) or a control group ( n=14), balanced for breed. Each treated cow had a progesterone-releasing controlled internal drug-releasing (CIDR) device inserted vaginally for 5 days while control cows were left untreated. Changes in plasma LH concentrations were measured with intensive blood sampling over 8 h on days −1, 1, and 4. Blood samples were also collected daily (06:00 h) for determination of plasma progesterone as well as oestradiol concentrations on days 6 and 8. Treatment with progesterone was associated with a transient initial decrease (day 1) in both LH pulse frequency and mean LH concentrations after device insertion, but both had returned to pre-treatment levels by day 4. Jersey cows had a greater pulse frequency, but there was no breed difference in mean LH concentrations. Patterns of ovarian follicle growth were affected by progesterone treatment with an increase in diameter of the dominant follicle (DF) identified after treatment initiation. This followed an earlier emergence of a new DF after device insertion. Follicular response to progesterone was dependent on the diameter of the DF present at treatment initiation. Those follicles ≥9 mm were replaced by a new DF during treatment such that the DF observed at the time of device removal was large (≥9 mm) and growing in 13/16 cases. Progesterone was not effective for the induction of an LH surge, ovulation and oestrus in anovulatory cows with a low BCS. However, treatment was associated with synchronous development of a DF so that it was large and growing at the end of the treatment period in most cases. This synchronous development may be due to the transient suppression of LH and the presence of an LH-dependent DF.