Anomalias congênitas em fetos bovinos abortados no Sul do Brasil / Congenital anomalies in aborted bovine fetuses in Southern Brazil

Abortos e mortes neonatais são causas importantes de perdas reprodutivas na bovinocultura. Abortos causados por anomalias congênitas são esporádicos, mas podem ocorrer de forma epidêmica. Um levantamento retrospectivo realizado no setor de Patologia Veterinária da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul incluiu 307 casos de aborto bovino submetidos de setembro de 2001 a março de 2007. Em dez casos (3,5 por cento), foram observadas anomalias congênitas, das quais, artrogripose, Amorphus globosus e fenda palatina (palatosquise) foram as mais freqüentes. Causas infecciosas foram investigadas, mas somente infecção por BVDV foi detectada por imunoistoquímica em um aborto com porencefalia.

Abortion, stillbirth and neonatal death are important causes of production losses to the livestock industry. Abortions caused by congenital anomalies may occur sporadically, or appear in epidemics. This retrospective study was conducted at Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and included 307 cases of bovine abortion submitted for diagnosis from September 2001 to March 2007. Most of them were from southern Brazil. Ten cases (3.25 percent) of congenital anomalies were seen. The most frequent congenital anomalies were artrogryposis, Amorphous globosus, and cleft palate (palatoschisis). Infectious causes were investigated, but only BVDV infection was detected by immunohistochemistry in one case, which was affected with porencephalia.

Pregnancy loss in dairy cows: the contributing factors, the effects on reproductive performance and the economic impact

This study investigated the effects of the herd, cowparity, the insemination protocol and season on the incidenceof pregnancy loss (PL) in dairy herds. Furthermore, wedetermined the downstream effects of PL on reproductiveperformance and its economic impact. The overallincidence rate of PL was 6.9% in 1,001 pregnant cows andits incidence peaked (p<0.01) during the second trimesterof gestation. GLIMMIX analysis revealed that cow paritywas the important risk factor for the PL. The odds ratioshowed that the likelihood of PL in cows with parities of 1or 2 was decreased by 0.6 or 0.5 fold compared to the cowswith a parity of 3 or higher. Following PL, the mean rateof endometritis was 23.2% and endometritis was morecommon (p<0.05) when PL occurred during the thirdtrimester than during the first and second trimesters. Themean culling rate was 46.4% and this did not differ withthe period of PL. The overall mean intervals from PL tothe first service and conception were 63.4 and 101.8 days,respectively. The mean interval from PL to first servicewas longer (p<0.01) for cows with PL during the thirdtrimester than for the cows with PL during the first andsecond trimesters. The economic loss resulting from eachPL was estimated at approximately $2,333, and this waslargely due to an extended calving interval and increasedculling. These results suggest that cow parity affects theincidence of PL, which extends calving interval and causessevere economic loss of dairy herds.