Incidence of Major Clinical Reproductive Health Problems of Dairy Cows at Bako Livestock Research Farm over a Two-Year Period (September 2008-December 2010)

Abstract

A prospective follow up study was carried out on 372 dairy cows at Bako Agricultural research center between September 2008 and December 2010 to determine the incidence of reproductive problems and associated risk factors in the cows. The animals were continuously followed from insemination/mating until 45 days postpartum for occurrence of clinical reproductive problems. Data were collected during farm visits by observation and clinical examination of animals. The cumulative incidence of clinically observed major reproductive problems was 35.2% (131/372). No statistically detectable effect (p>0.05) of breed was shown on the occurrence of clinical reproductive problems evaluated. In addition, number of parities, body condition score (BCS), age of dams, calf sex and service type were not found to have a significant influence on the occurrence of reproductive problems in the study farm (p>0.05). The most common reproductive problems recorded in the present study were retained fetal membrane (8.3%), dystocia (6.7%), abortion (5.9%), uterine infections (5.6%) and stillbirths (4.8%). In this study, the incidence of dystocia, uterine infections, stillbirths and repeat breeding were more common in crossbred cows whereas abortion was more common in local cows but the effect of these factors was not significant (p>0.05). This study revealed that nearly one cow out of every three cows encountered at least one type of clinical reproductive problems indicating the widespread occurrence of the problems among dairy cows at Bako Agricultural Research Center. However, considered plausible factors such as breed, parity number, body condition score (BCS), age of dams, calf sex and service type had no significant influence on the occurrence of reproductive problems in the study farm indicating that some other factors are responsible for precipitating the conditions. It is, therefore, recommended that other factors that precipitate the occurrence of the problems in the farm should be investigated and appropriate interventions implemented in order to minimize the occurrence of these problems and associated losses in the farm.