Theriogenology
Theriogenology
4 years ago

Prevalence, causes, resolution and consequences of bovine dystocia in Italy

The aim of this study was to report prevalences and causes of dystocias in dairy and beef cattle, in primiparous and multiparous cows, as well as the mortality rate of calves and cows, obtained after 11 years of records across various farms in Italy. On a total of 14,575 records from dairy Italian Friesian cows, beef Romagnola and Marchigiana cows, a prevalence of 5.6% was observed, with a significant higher prevalence in primiparous (p < 0.0001), and dairy cows (p < 0.0001). Dystocias of fetal origin were higher than the ones of maternal origin (p < 0.0001). Dystocia management, performed with manual correction in 96% of the cases, was associated with the 25% of calf mortality and the 11% of maternal mortality. When the combined effects of attitude and parity were assessed in relation to each fetal or maternal dystocia cause, dystocia resolution method and on calf, cow and calf-and-cow mortality, results showed a stronger association of dairy primiparous and multiparous cows than beef cows to several dystocia causes and calf-and-cow mortality. Taken together the results from the present study highlighted, once more, the importance of a correct breeding herd management and genetic selection programmes, especially in dairy cows, as well as the prompt diagnosis and correction of difficult calvings, for the effective management of dystocias aimed to reduce calf mortality.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0093691X17305356

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.