Major reproductive disorders on Jersey breed dairy cattle at Adea Berga dairy farm, West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Reproductive efficiency of dairy cows is influenced by different factors including gene, season, age, production system, nutrition, management, environment and
disease. This study was conducted with the objectives of determining the   prevalence of reproductive disorders and evaluates reproductive performances of Jersey dairy cattle maintained at Adea berga dairy farm. The retrospective and longitudinal studies were employed through document revision; clinical and laboratory examination from 1996 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2014, respectively. All 97 cows from first to 10th parity which were kept under semi intensive management system in the farm were included in this study. The overall prevalence of reproductive health problems was 54.6% (n=53) and the major ones were found to be prolonged anoestrus, abortion, still birth and retained fetal membrane accounting for 48.5%, 28.9%, 14.4% and 5.2% prevalence, respectively. Of the considered risk factors, age, parity and body condition didn’t show significant (P>0.05) effect on abortion and prolonged anestrous while found to significantly (P<0.05) affect still birth. However, season had a significant (P<0.05) effect on all disorders (abortion, prolonged anestrous and still birth). Pluriparus animal with no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) showed higher prevalence of abortion (29%), still birth (15.1%) and retained fetal membrane (5.4%) than uniparus ones which represented 25%, o%, o% prevalence for abortion, still birth and retained fetal membrane respectively. In contrast uniparus animals showed higher  prevalence (50%) of prolonged anoestrus as compared to the pluriparus ones  (48.4%) and no statistical significant difference was observed (P>0.05) among them. The parasitological, serological and bacteriological test results in this study showed a negative result, where all animals tested were found to be free from brucellosis, trichomonoiasis and other bacterial infections. In this study a mean value for AFS (age at first service), AFCA (age at first calving), ALS (age at last service), ALCA (age at last calving) and CI (calving interval) were found to be (25.8 + 0.76), (35.5 + 0.71), (66.6 + 3.2), (77.1 + 2.6) and (17.7 + 0.4) months respectively. While the mean value for parity, LN (lactation number), NSPC (number of service per conception) and days open were (4.16 + 0.19), (3.09 + 0.2), (2.25 + 0.14) and (270.47 + 14.17), respectively. From this study, it was concluded that the major reproductive disorders responsible for the altered reproductive performance of jersey dairy cows were prolonged anoestrus, abortion, still birth and retained fetal membrane. Routine and periodical examination of cows during postpartum period, awareness creation to farm attendants and employing improved dairy herd management should be implemented. Moreover associated economic losses in this dairy farm and cause of abortion should be exclusively investigated
with other test methodologies for other entities.

Keywords: Adea berga, Jersey breed, Oromia region, Reproductive disorder, West Shewa,