Risk factors, diagnosis, impacts, and therapies for postpartum uterine diseases in dairy cows

This thesis is an investigation of the risk factors, diagnostic methods, and impacts of uterine diseases in postpartum dairy cows, an investigation of the efficacy of prophylactic treatment with ceftiofur for preventing uterine diseases, and an investigation of the efficacy of prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF) for the treatment of uterine diseases. Metritis (<21 days after parturition; DAP), cytological endometritis (≥21 DAP), and purulent vaginal discharge (≥21 DAP) were the uterine diseases targeted in this project.;Cows were classified 24 hours after parturition as being at high (HRUD) or low (LRUD) risk of uterine disease, based on having retained placenta, dystocia, or twins. Cows in the HRUD group (n=956) were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a prophylactic treatment of ceftiofur for the prevention of uterine disease. Overall, ceftiofur treatment did not prevent metritis in most cows, but reduced the incidence of PVD.;All cows were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial investigating the efficacy of PGF, at 35 and 49 DAP, for the treatment of CYTO and PVD. There was no benefit of PGF treatment on prevalence of CYTO or PVD at 56 DAP, and on subsequent reproductive performance, whether cows had an active corpus luteum (serum progesterone >1 ng/ml) on day of PGF injection or not.;A total of 2178 Holstein cows, from 6 commercial dairy herds, were enrolled in a field study between September 2007 and November 2008. Cows were examined at 35 and 56 DAP for cytological endometritis (CYTO; cytobrush technique) and purulent vaginal discharge (PVD; Metricheck technique). Diagnostic criteria were determined based on survival analysis of subsequent reproductive performance. The prevalence of CYTO and PVD at 35 DAP was 19.9 % and 16.1 %, respectively; 63 to 65 % of these cows had recovered at 56 DAP. Cytological endometritis and PVD were found to be distinct, because there was a poor agreement between them, their risk factors were different, and their impacts on reproduction were additive.