(1) Subclinical endometritis is a prevalent uterine disease affecting approximately 30% of dairy cows that can decrease fertility. It occurs when the uterus is inflamed without visible discharge. (2) Risk factors for subclinical endometritis include retained placenta, difficult births, and poor management practices around calving which allow infectious agents to enter the uterus. (3) Subclinical endometritis increases the number of services per conception and reduces milk yield and profitability through decreased reproductive performance and increased culling rates. Proper hygiene, diagnosis, and treatment are recommended to control its impact on dairy cow fertility and productivity.

1. Subclinical Endometritis and Its
Effect on The Fertility of Dairy
Cattle
BY:
Habtamu Kenide
March, 2013
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2. Introduction
 Reproductive performance is one key component of
dairy production and the aim of reproductive management
in cows is …..; so to achieve this goal a cow must be
pregnant 85 days postpartum.
 Reproductive disease are the main causes of failure in
reproductive performance of cows, especially those
which affect the uterus such as….
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3. Cont…
 Endometritis is inflammation of the endometrium with
the presence of vaginal discharge… ,while subclinical
endometritis is….
 Subclinical endometritis is the most prevalent of all
uterine diseases; it affects approximately 30% of lactating
dairy cows, with the prevalence ranging from 11 to >70%
in some herds.
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4. Cont…
Therefore the objectives of this paper are:
To highlight the risk factors for subclinical endometritis
To review the diagnostic and treatment options of
subclinical endometritis and
To highlight recent information’s on the effect of
subclinical endometritis on fertility of dairy cattle
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5. Postpartum period in bovine
 Post partum period is the time interval from parturition to
complete uterine involution
 Postpartum period is divided in to three sub periods. These are:
Puerperal
intermediate and
postovulatory
During the PP period cows are at risk of developing
calving related disease such as…..
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6. Postpartum uterine involution
 It is normal process of the post partum uterus to return to
its non-gravid state.
 For the cow to return to normal reproduction condition, PP
uterus should be involuted 45-50 days post partum.
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7. Postpartum ovarian activity and
utero-ovarian relationship
 Ovarian activity exerts an important influence on the
ability of the uterus to resist or eliminate infections. This
is because during estrus…
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8. Causes of endometritis
There are many infectious causes of endometritis which
enters uterus at different periods.
Pathogens enter uterus mainly at:
calving process
post partum period and
mating process
Especially at PP period if special care is not given to the
cleanness of the house and the environment cows will
be…….
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9. Cont…
The most common infectious causes of endometrits are:
 Arcanobacter pyogenes
 E. coli
 Campylobacter fetus
 Fusobacterium necrophorum
 Bovine Herpes Virus -4 (BOHV-4)
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10. Predisposing factors of
subclinical endometritis
 These are factors which makes the uterus of cows….
 Some of the known predisposing factors of endometritis are:
 Retained Fetal Membrane
 Dystocia
 Management Factors
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11. Retained fetal membrane
 Placenta is said retained when the placenta
remains attached to the uterine carancules for
more than 12-24 hrs after calving.
 It services as a favorable media for many
infectious agents growth and multiplication, which
intern…..
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12. Classification of endometritis
 Endometritis in bovine is classified as clinical and
subclinical.
Subclinical endometritis
 It is more economical among other problems of the
uterus.
 It usually occurs over a long period of time rather
than progressing quickly as endometritis.
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13. Effect of subclinical endometritis
on fertility of dairy cows
Subclinical endometritis is economically the most
important to the dairy industry in that it :
 decrease reproductive performance
 increased feed intake per lactation
 reduced milk yield
 increased culling rate
Increase the NSPC
to a lesser extent to the cost of treatment
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14. Cont…
Increased NSPC
 A study on cross breed dairy cows at Debre Zeit showed
that a mean of 2.4 services per conception was required
for cows that were positive for SCE at the 4th week
postpartum where as 1.7 services per conception was
required for cows negative for SCE.
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15. Diagnosis options of subclinical
endometritis
The diagnosis of SCE is very important due to the
economic impact it cause, but…..
Some of the diagnostic methods used for Dx of SCE are:
 Ultrasonography
 Endometrial Cytology
 Endometrial Biopsy
 Vaginoscopy
Among these endometrial cytology is …
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16. Treatment options of subclinical
endometritis
 In Vet. Medicine to treat animal should…..
 For the treatment of SCE the widely used treatments
are:
 antibiotic treatment
 treatment by prostagldin F2 alpha
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17. Conclusion and recommendations
Conclusion
 There are many factors, which will contribute for
the Inability of dairy cows to have maximum
productivity, among these uterine disease such as
endometritis and subclinical endometritis takes the
major part.
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18. Cont…
Infectious agents that could invade the uterus during
parturition may contaminate the maternal reproductive
tract and lead to uterine disease; therefore, it needs to have
maximum care at the time of calving, for the cleanness of
the calving area and at the time of helping the cow at
dystocia through caesarian section strict sanitation
measures should be taken.
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19. Cont…
SCE causes great impact on the fertility of dairy
cows in that it causes:
 decreased reproductive performance,
 increased feed intake per lactation,
 reduced milk yield,
 increases NSPC and
 increased culling rate
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20. Recommendations
 Based on the above conclusions the following
recommendations are given:
 Proper attention to sanitation and peripartiurent hygiene
should be given especially during assisted calving.
 The owners must be responsible to keep sanitation of
dairy cows through improved housing system and nutrition
to reduce bacterial exposure of cows at parturition and
increase the pregnancy of cows after calving.
 Proper diagnosing and treatment measures should be
taken to minimize the economic impact of subclinical
endometritis.
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