Likelihood of pregnancy in cows identified with different amounts of anechoic intrauterine fluid at the time of insemination
Introduction
A lesser than optimal pregnancy percentage, as a result of artificial insemination (P/AI percentage), leads to a larger number of inseminations required per conception and more days non-pregnant after calving, resulting in an adverse economic effect on the dairy enterprise (Fricke et al., 2014). The identification of cows with a lesser than optimal predicted P/AI percentage at the time of insemination and scheduling of theses cows for insemination in a subsequent estrus when there would be a greater predicted P/AI percentage could be useful for improving the overall P/AI percentage in dairy cattle enterprises (Loeffler et al., 1999; Souza et al., 2011; Luttgenau et al., 2016). Several reproductive tract scoring systems, which are based on manual per rectum or ultrasonic examination findings, have been suggested to predict the probability of pregnancy in heifers (Stevenson et al., 2008; Holm et al., 2015) and cows (Mee et al., 2009). A lack of uterine tone, the presence of unclear mucous on the top of the AI instrument, a relatively larger reproductive tract, and genital discharge that was not clear have been reported to be associated with a lesser than optimal P/AI percentage (Loeffler et al., 1999; Lambertz et al., 2014; Mellado et al., 2015; Young et al., 2017). Based on ultrasonic examinations, the diameter of the dominant follicle (Vasconcelos et al., 2001; Lopes et al., 2007; Luttgenau et al., 2016), thickness of the endometrium, and uterine volume at the time of insemination (Souza et al., 2011; Baez et al., 2016; Luttgenau et al., 2016) have been reported to be associated with the P/AI percentage.
The presence of anechoic uterine fluid when there are no indication s of inflammation could be a typical ultrasonic assessment at the time of insemination in a large proportion of cows (DesCôteaux et al., 2009). During routine ultrasonic examinations of cows submitted for insemination, many cows had varying amounts of uterine fluid. This variation possibly occurs due to factors related to the amount of estrogenic stimulation, extent of secretory function of the endometrium, and/or capacity of cows to excrete the fluid from the uterus (Motta and Andrews, 1976; Roelofs et al., 2010). Effects of the presence of different amounts of uterine fluid on the P/AI percentage were evaluated in a single study where cows that had no uterine fluid and those having 2–10 mm of uterine fluid at the time of insemination had a similar P/AI percentage (Luttgenau et al., 2016). The previous study excluded the data from cows that had >10 mm uterine fluid from the analysis and, therefore, there was not a thorough investigation into the effects of varying amounts of uterine fluid at the time of AI on P/AI percentage. Generating evidence-based information about the association between the amount of uterine fluid and P/AI percentage could provide important information in the decision making about whether to inseminate or not inseminate cows with different amounts of uterine fluid. The hypothesis in conducting the present study was that cows that have a moderate size follicle and a moderate amount of uterine fluid would have a greater likelihood of becoming pregnant because these cows might have optimum estrogenic stimulation and endometrium secretory functions. The objectives of the current study, therefore, were (1) to investigate whether presence, at the time of AI, of different amounts of uterine fluid and size of the largest follicle have a predictive value for pregnancy outcomes (P/AI percentage) at days 30 and 70 post-insemination and (2) to investigate factors associated with the presence of varying amounts of uterine fluid and follicle size at the time of AI.
Section snippets
Study population
A prospective cohort study was conducted in a commercial dairy herd in Egypt between September 2017 and July 2018. The herd was composed of Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Holstein x Brown Swiss crossbred cows. Cows were housed in free stalls and fed ad libitum a total mixed ration, which consisted mainly of corn silage, hay, and/or wheat straw as roughage, and dried ground corn seeds, soybean meal, and rice bran as concentrates. The nutritional requirements of the cows were calculated based on
Study population
The study cohort consisted of 606 cows, that were submitted for insemination on 735 occasions during the study period. A total of 114 cows were examined at more than one timepoint, of which 99 cows were examined at two timepoints and 15 cows were examined at three timepoints. Cows (n = 388) were assigned for use in the present study at the time of the first postpartum insemination and 347 cows were assigned at the time of the second or subsequent inseminations. The inseminations occurred in 571
Discussion
In the current study, 44.9 % of cows had anechoic intrauterine fluid, which is consistent with the results from a previous study where there was intrauterine fluid in 48.8 % of cows at the time of AI (Luttgenau et al., 2016). In the present study, about 24.2 % of cows had >10 mm of anechoic intrauterine fluid. In Luttgenau et al. (2016) study, data from cows with >10 mm anechoic uterine fluid were excluded from the analyses, and no information was provided about the proportion of these cows and
Conclusion
In conclusion, the presence of different amounts of anechoic uterine fluid at the time of insemination was not associated with the likelihood of pregnancy, and the size of the follicle at the time of insemination did not affect the likelihood of pregnancy in cows in which there was AI as a result of detection of a spontaneous behavioral estrus or an estrus that occurred as a result of imposing a hormonal treatment regimen. Cows that had a spontaneous behavioral estrus, primiparous cows, cows
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Hany Abdalla: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Shebl E. Salem: Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Resources, Data curation, Writing - review & editing. Ibrahim Elsohaby: Software, Formal analysis. Ayman A. Swelum: Methodology, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
All authors declare that no conflict of interest could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.
Acknowledgements
The authors did not receive any financial support. The authors are grateful to the Al Kasem Farm owners for the permission to use their farm records. We thank Mr. Mohamed Hussein for his assistance with managing the farm records during the period of the data collection. The authors thank the Deanship of Scientific Research and RSSU at King Saud University for their technical support.
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