Abstract
Metabolic disorders cause severe losses to dairy farmers, with adverse effects on milk yield and dairy cattle's reproductive efficiency. Hypocalcemia is the most common metabolic defects affecting dairy cows during transition periods and affecting reproductive efficiency. This research aimed to study the relationship between the most common metabolic disorder (hypocalcemia) and the reproductive efficiency in dairy cows. Fifty-three dairy cows were grouped based on blood calcium level into normal and subclinical hypocalcemic cows. Body condition scours and reproductive disorders were recorded. Moreover, reproductive efficiency was reported until 280 days in milk. Results reported a significant increase and positive correlation between reproductive disorder (dystocia, stillbirth, retained placenta, metritis, and vaginitis) in animals suffering from subclinical hypocalcemia. These results conclude that subclinical hypocalcemia impairs reproductive efficiency in dairy cows and subsequently it lowers the benefit from dairy farming.
Highlights
Most pre-parturient abnormalities originate from some metabolic disturbance of elements causing clinical diseases
These results conclude that subclinical hypocalcemia impairs reproductive efficiency in dairy cows and subsequently it lowers the benefit from dairy farming
Cows with normal blood Ca level at day 10 post-partum showed 7.6% dystocia and 33% in cows with subclinical hypocalcemia (Table 3)
Summary
Most pre-parturient abnormalities originate from some metabolic disturbance of elements causing clinical diseases. Borsberry and Dobson (1989) suggested that hypocalcemia might reduce fertility in dairy cows. Where, it affects uterine muscle contractility, prolongs uterine involution, and decreases blood flow to the ovaries; it has indirect effects on fertility through dystocia, retained placenta, and endometritis (Jonsson and Daniel 1997). Whiteford and Sheldon (2005) reported that cows with clinical milk fever had large size of the gravid and non-gravid uterine horn between 2 weeks and 6 weeks post-partum and a significantly reduced luteolysis of corpus luteum than normal cows. Karmgarpour et al (1999) found that, cows with milk fever have fewer ovulatory sized follicles than normal cows
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