Strategies for the treatment of dairy cows at high risk for postpartum metritis and for the treatment of clinical endometritis in Argentina

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of (1) administering ceftiofur hydrochloride in dairy cows with calving-related disorders to prevent metritis and (2) a combination of GnRH and PGF2α for the treatment of clinical endometritis, under Argentinean dairy farming conditions. Cows at high risk (HRC) for metritis (dystocia, RFM >12h postpartum, hypocalcaemia, twins, or stillbirth) were randomly assigned to receive either 1.1mg/Kg of ceftiofur hydrochloride on three consecutive days (HRC treated group HRCT, n = 110) or remained untreated (HRC control group HRCC, n = 126). Cows with low risk (LRC, no calving-related disorders, n = 868) did not receive any treatment (LRC group, n = 868). All cows were examined for metritis between days 4 and 10 and for clinical endometritis between 24 and 30days postpartum. The body condition score (BCS) was recorded at both examinations. Cows with endometritis at days 24 to 30 postpartum received either 1.5mg of D-cloprostenol (PGF; n = 129) or 100μg of GnRH followed by D-cloprostenol after 7days (GnRH+PGF, n = 119). There was no overall effect of treatment on the incidence of metritis or on time to pregnancy. Treatment, however, reduced the incidence of metritis in cows with high BCS (HRCT = 24.0%, HRCC = 38.5%) but had no effect in cows with low BCS (HRCT = 38.7%, HRCC = 37.5%). The proportion of pregnant cows by days in milk was greater (P < 0.01) in LRC group compared with that of the HRCT and HRCC groups. No significant differences were found between groups PG and PG+GNRH. GnRH+PGF treatment, however, tended (P = 0.06) to increase pregnancy rate in cows with a moderate loss of BCS (76.5 vs 65.2%) but tended to reduce pregnancy rate (54.5 vs 76.0%) in cows with a more pronounced loss in BCS (>0.75 points).