Acta Vet. Brno 2017, 86: 51-57

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201786010051

Ovarian activity and embryo yield in relation to the postpartum period in superovulated dairy cows

Luděk Stádník1, Jiří Bezdíček2, Alexander Makarevich3, Elena Kubovičová3, František Louda4, Ivana Fellnerová2, Zdeňka Hegedüšová5, Radek Holásek5

1Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Department of Animal Husbandry, Prague, Czech Republic
2Palacký University Olomouc, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Olomouc, Czech Republic
3Research Institute for Animal Production Nitra, National Agricultural and Food Centre (NAFC), Lužianky-near-Nitra, Slovak Republic
4Research Institute for Cattle Breeding Rapotin, Ltd., Department of Feed, Nutrition, Breeding and Reproduction, Vikyrovice, Czech Republic
5Taura ET Ltd., Litomyšl, Czech Republic

Received March 15, 2016
Accepted February 17, 2017

The aim of this study was to evaluate superovulation response in cows at various postpartum periods (early postpartum period up to 3.5 months; middle postpartum period 3.7–7 months; later postpartum period above 7.5 months after calving). The data included observation of 55 Holstein cows superovulated at one farm in the Czech Republic during the years 2010 and 2013. Reproduction traits (dependent variable) were represented as number of the corpora lutea, number of transferable embryos, morulae, blastocysts, total number of embryos and embryo recovery. For statistical evaluation we used the PROC GLM of SAS® with fixed effect - breeding value of milk production. The study results show significant differences (P < 0.05–0.01) in the three postpartum periods (early, middle, and later postpartum periods) and the number of corpora lutea (4.6; 7.4; 10.8), number of total embryos (3.2; 2.9; 6.5) and transferable embryos (1.8; 1.7; 4.4). Effective timing of embryo transfer in the later postpartum period resulted in greater ovarian activity and embryo yield compared to early lactation periods.

Funding

This work was supported by “S” grant of MSMT CR and the research project NAZV QI91A061.

References

27 live references