Risk Factors For endometritis and its Impact on fertility of postpartum dairy cows in Wolaita Sodo, Southern Ethiopia
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Date
2024
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Despite its significant impact on the dairy industry, there is limited research or documentation on the extent of endometritis, its specific risk factors and its impact on the reproductive performance in postpartum dairy cow in the study area. The present study was aimed to investigate incidence of postpartum endometritis, risk factors contributing to its development and reproductive consequences of endometritis in dairy farms in Wolaita Sodo, Southern Ethiopia, from October 2023 to May 2024. Longitudinal prospective study determined incidence, risk factors and reproductive outcomes prospectively. A study was carried out on 74 dairy cows with 69 clinically healthy and 5 cows diagnosed with clinical endometritis. Subclinical endometritis was diagnosed using endometrial cytology and subclinical mastitis was diagnosed using California Mastitis Test. The clinical, management and reproductive data were obtained from a weekly follow up visit of each cow and from record book of the farm. Incidence of endometritis was 44.59% (33/74) and subclinical endometritis was 40.57% (28/69). Retained fetal membranes (OR=9.23, P=0.007), assisted calving (OR= 5.06, P=0.026), dystocia (OR=7.79, P=0.014), hypocalcaemia (OR=6.49, P=0.027), mastitis (OR=5.06, P=0.026), male calf births (OR=3.06, P=0.04) and poor body condition scores (OR=2.78, P=0.003) were significantly related with subclinical endometritis. Clinical endometritis in this study were reported to be related to retain fetal membrane, vaginal prolapse, and abortion. Cows with endometritis had shown longer (P < 0.001) calving-to-conception interval, extended (P < 0.001) calving-tofirst service interval and higher (P <0.001) number of services per conception. Thus, it could be concluded that endometritis occur at higher incidence and causes a tremendous impact on the reproductive performance of dairy cows in the study area. Therefore, preventive measures should be done to reduce occurrence of endometritis through enhanced reproductive health and management practices and dairy farmers should take awareness creating trainings
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Keywords
Dairy Cows, Endometritis, Clinical endometritis, Subclinical endometritis, Reproductive Performance, Southern Ethiopia, Wolaita Sodo.