Ultrasonography and physiological description of essential events for reproductive management in dairy cattle. Review

Abstract

The ultrasound allows to visualize the female reproductive tract and helps to understand some of the most relevant reproductive events such as follicular and corpus luteum development, ovulation, pregnancy diagnosis, uterine infections, embryo and fetal growth, among others. Nowadays, there is a massive amount of information regarding the physiology and ultrasonography of the reproductive events mentioned above. However, the overwhelming number of available papers review technical aspects of ultrasonography, physiology and reproductive management separately. Therefore, the objective of the present review is to merge a physiological description with reproductive management and technical aspects of original ultrasound pictures of the most relevant reproductive events in dairy cattle to promote ultrasound use during dairy cattle reproductive management by practitioners and researchers.