Metritis and endometritis in high yielding dairy cows

Abstract

Dairy cows have shown a steep increase in milk production, which is unfortunately characterized by a dramatic decline in reproductive performance. In these modern high yielding cows authors worldwide mention a higher number of puerperal problems, such as retained placenta, acute metritis and abnormal vaginal discharge. All of which are known to negatively influence reproductive capacity of these animals. Cows affected by retained placenta and/or acute metritis are furthermore at a significantly higher risk of other typical ‘dairy cow diseases’ such as acetonaemia, displaced abomasum and cystic ovarian disease. It is therefore important that the management of the cows during the transition period should be optimized in order to prevent cows from these disease complexes. Furthermore, during the immediate postpartum period, cows should be looked after properly in order to identify animals that are affected by clinical uterine disease as soon as possible so that treatment should not be delayed. High numbers of cows are furthermore reported to suffer from clinical and subclinical endometritis, both giving rise to significant problems to get in calf. At the moment, there is a lot of debate concerning both the diagnosis as well as the first choice treatment of cows suffering from clinical and subclinical endometritis. Therefore, also for these diseases prevention is far more effective than treatment.