Endocrine and pregnancy protein changes during periparturient period with correlation of stillbirth in dairy cow

Abstract

Over the last fifty years a decline in fertility in high yielding Holstein dairy cattle is observed as well as a steady incline of the stillbirth rates during the last years is detectable, especially in Holstein-Friesian heifers. Both dystocia and stillbirth can be affected by several factors such as birth weight of the calf, gender of the calf, parity, age and breed of the dam, season of calving, gestational/calving length, and furthermore number of calves. Infections (e.g. BVD), insufficient placenta development, metabolic disorders of the cow, and congenital malformations of the calf belong to causes of stillbirth which are not related to calving difficulties. This present study focus primarily on analysing the periparturient levels of progesterone (P4), estradiol (E2) and pregnancy associated glycoprotein (PAG) to investigate the possible effects of hormonal and pregnancy protein disturbances on the incidence of stillbirth in Holstein- Friesian dairy cows.