Uterine bacterial
Uterine bacterial infection during postpartum delays the
recrudescence of the reproductive traits in dairy cows
Faisal
Omer Ahmed1, Adil Salim Elsheikh1, 2
1Department of Reproduction and obstetrics, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, Shambat, Sudan
2Department of Applied Medical Sciences, Community
college, Najran University, Saudi Arabia
Email: [email protected]
Abstract: This
study was designed to determine the intensity of bacterial load in the uteri of
postpartum (PP) dairy cows and the effects of this uterine bacterial infection
on some of their reproductive traits. Six reproductive traits were evaluated.
These traits were uterine involution (UI), appearance of the first dominant
follicle (DF), recrudescence of the first oestrus (FO), length of the days open
(DO), calving interval (CI) and the rate of service per conception (RS).
Uterine endometrial swabs were collected on day 5 PP from 130 dairy cows and
were cultured within 2 hours of collection onto blood agar and MacConkey agar
media. The uteri of 120 cows (93%) were found infected. From the total infected
cows 40 cows were used to evaluate the effect of bacterial uterine infection on
their reproductive performance. Twenty cows were severely infected and the
remaining cows (20 cows) were mildly infected. The result of this experiment
showed that dairy cows that suffered severe uterine bacterial infection had a
significantly (P<0.001) extended uterine involution period, long time for
the appearance of the first DF and the FO, the length of DO and CI
compared to the dairy cows that suffered mild uterine bacterial infection.
Moreover, the dairy cows which suffered severe uterine bacterial infection had
a significantly (P<0.001) increased rate of service per conception compared
to the cows with mild uterine bacterial infection. It is concluded that,
the reduced reproductive efficiency of cross-bred dairy cows in the Sudan is
likely to be due to early PP uterine bacterial infection.
[Faisal Omer Ahmed, Adil Salim Elsheikh. Uterine
bacterial infection during postpartum delays the recrudescence of the reproductive
traits in dairy cows. J Am Sci 2013;9(6):593-598]. (ISSN:
1545-1003).http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 75
Keywords: Uterine infection, postpartum, reproductive
performance, cow Full Text 75
