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Subfertility in high yielding dairy cows: how to bring science into practice?

2006; Ghent University; Volume: 75; Issue: 2(S) Linguagem: Inglês

10.21825/vdt.88869

0303-9021

Geert Opsomer, J. Leroy, Tom Vanholder, Philippe Bossaert, A. de Kruif,

Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock

The pre sent ar ti cle aims to 'translate' the cur rent -most ly the o re ti cal -know led ge on fer ti li ty dis or ders in mo dern high yiel ding dai ry cows, to wards the ac tu al si tu a ti on in the sta ble.Whi le some de tai led re search has recent ly been done at our de part ment to elu ci da te the as so ci a ti on be tween a high le vel of milk pro duc ti on and the re pro duc ti ve per for man ce of the cur rent dai ry cow, the next chal lenge is to 'translate' this know led ge into practi ce and to of fer pos si bi li ties and stra te gies to mi ni mi ze the ef fects of the de cre a se in fer ti li ty.As the ne ga ti ve ener gy ba lan ce and ge ne ral he alth sta tus af ter cal ving are known to be pa ra mount fac tors ham pe ring fer ti li ty, it is ap pa rent that avoi ding both is among the most im por tant pre ven ti ve me a su res to be ta ken.Impro ve ment of the ener gy sta tus by achie ving a high dry mat ter in ta ke and the pro vi si on of op ti mal and well ba lan ced nu tri ti on du ring the trans iti on pe ri od as well as du ring ear ly lac ta ti on are key goals in this ef fort.To achie ve the se goals, we should not only cal cu la te the ra ti ons on pa per, but should also check in the sta ble to de ter mi ne whe ther the cal cu la ted amount is re al ly being con su med by the cows.Fur ther mo re, ve te ri na ri ans should use their 'clinical eyes' as well as ot her di a gnos tic tools to as sess the ge ne ral he alth sta tus of the cows and to as sess at which as pect of the pro cess things are going wrong and need to be ad ju sted.Be si des the con trol of the ne ga ti ve ener gy ba lan ce and he alth sta tus, ot her ma na ge ment fac tors that need to be maxi mi zed in clu de heat de tec ti on, cow com fort, inse mi na ti on tech ni que, time of in se mi na ti on du ring es trus and sperm qua li ty.Only if ma na ge ment is on a very high le vel can high milk pro duc ti on and good fer ti li ty be a fe a si ble com bi na ti on!SAMENVATTING