Pregnancy and stillbirth losses in dairy cows with singleton and twin pregnancies.

Zoltán Szelényi,Dorottya Győri,Szabolcs Boldizsár,Ottó Szenci,Attila Répási,László Molnár,Levente Kovács

doi:10.1556/004.2019.013

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of twin pregnancy, fetal laterality, the number of corpora lutea (CL) and cavitary CL on pregnancy losses in Holstein-Friesian cows with a positive pregnancy diagnosis based on ultrasonography between days 29-42 after AI. Pregnancy was confirmed by transrectal palpation between days 57-70 after AI and at the time of drying-off as well. Twin pregnancy rate was 8.4% at the time of the early pregnancy examination. Pregnancy loss did not differ between singleton- and twin-carrying animals either between days 57-70 of gestation or at drying-off. More losses occurred in singletons between days 29-42 and 57-70 in cows with cavitary than in cows with noncavitary CL (12.1% vs. 3.6%; P < 0.05) and in cows with double CL than in cows with single CL (7.3% vs. 3.6% %; P < 0.05). Between days 57-70 of gestation and drying-off this difference was still significant (20.7% vs. 3.7%; P < 0.001), while it was non-significant between cows with one CL (5.7%) vs. double CL (3.7%). Cavity occurrence was not affected by hormone therapy prior to AI (either PGF2α or OvSynch; 4.4% vs. 5.4%, respectively); however, the number of CL was reduced by the treatments (11.6 vs. 19.6%; P < 0.0005). In twin pregnancies there was no difference in the pregnancy losses between bilateral and unilateral pregnancies at any time point. The length of gestation was 278.2 ± 10.5 (singleton) and 267.4 ± 31.2 (twin) days, respectively (P < 0.01). The stillbirth ratio was higher in twin carriers than in singleton carriers (19.5% vs. 5.3%; P < 0.001).

Highlights

Reproductive efficiency is severely affected by embryonic and fetal mortality on intensive dairy farms
Twin pregnancy rates were similar for the three farms [Farms were visited once a week (Farm A): 7.6% (23/304), Farm B: 8.6% (58/674) and Farm C: 8.7%
We compared the outcome of singleton and twin pregnancies in order to evaluate gestations in terms of pregnancy losses

Summary

Introduction

Reproductive efficiency is severely affected by embryonic and fetal mortality on intensive dairy farms. As an economically unwanted phenomenon in dairy cattle, was demonstrated to increase losses either in the late embryonic and/or the early fetal period (Day et al, 1995; López-Gatius et al, 2004; Silva-Del-Río et al, 2009; Mur-Novales et al, 2018). Because of the occurrence of late embryonic/early fetal losses, primary pregnancy diagnoses must be confirmed (Santos et al, 2004) in order to achieve reliability and to manage herd health issues. This confirmation is usually performed around Day 60 of pregnancy when placentation is completed (Ball, 1997). It was examined whether laterality or CL with a cavity affect the prevalence of losses in cases of singleton pregnancies

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