Publication Database

Association of increased physical activity and subsequent fertility of dairy cows receiving first service based on spontaneous estrus detected by an activity monitor or following a protocol for timed artificial insemination (2022)

Art

Vortrag

Autoren

Borchardt, S. (WE 19)

Plenio, J.-L. (WE 16)

Tippenhauer, C. M. (WE 19)

Kongress

ADSA Annual Meeting

Kansas City, 19. – 24.06.2022

Quelle

Journal of dairy science : JDS

Bandzählung: 105

Heftzählung: Supplement 1

Seiten: 215

ISSN: 0022-0302

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-dairy-science/vol/105/suppl/S1

DOI: 10.1016/S0022-0302(22)00577-X

Kontakt

Institut für Veterinär-Epidemiologie und Biometrie

Königsweg 67
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 56034
epi@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between increased physical activity at first artificial insemination (AI) and subsequent pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in lactating Holstein cows following 1) spontaneous estrus or 2) a timed AI protocol. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 included 4,211 AI services from cows equipped with the Smarttag Neck (Nedap Livestock Management) from a dairy farm in Slovakia. In experiment 2, 8,201 AI services from cows fitted with the Heatime collar (SCR Engineers Ltd.) from 8 dairy farms in Germany were included. Cows were inseminated based on the alert of the automated activity monitoring system (AAM cows) or received TAI following a 7-d Ovsynch protocol. Estrous intensity was categorized based on peak activity (PA) of estrus into low (x-factor = ≤ 10), medium (x-factor = 11–20), and high (x-factor > 20) PA (exp1) and into low (activity change = 0–80) and high (activity change = 81–100) PA (exp2). Statistical analysis was performed using a GENLINMIXED model separately for exp1 and exp2. In both experiments, P/AI did not differ between AAM and TAI cows (exp1: 49.5% vs. 51.1% P = 0.48; exp2: 39.6% vs. 42.2% P = 0.19). Overall, cows with high PA had greater P/AI compared with cows with low PA (P < 0.01). Breeding code, however, was associated with the risk of high PA. Within AAM cows, 68.1% (exp1) and 67.8% (exp2) of cows had high PA. Within TAI cows, 36.6% (exp1) and 25.4% (exp2) of cows had high PA. We observed high PA to be even more favorable for fertility of TAI cows compared with AAM cows. In experiment 1, for cows showing spontaneous estrus there was no difference (P = 0.61) in P/AI between low (46.0%) or medium (48.3%) PA. High PA (54.1%) resulted in greater P/AI compared with low PA (P < 0.01) and medium PA (P < 0.01). Cows receiving TAI had decreased P/AI with low (39.9%) PA compared with medium (52.3%; P = 0.01) or high (61.1%; P < 0.01) PA. In experiment 2, AAM cows with low (34.2%) PA had decreased P/AI compared with AAM cows with high PA (45.3%; P < 0.01). Cows receiving TAI with low (32.1%) PA had decreased P/AI compared with TAI cows with high (53.1%; P < 0.01) PA. We conclude that high PA around the time of AI is associated with greater odds for pregnancy especially for cows receiving TAI.