Review Article

Effect of Nutrition on Reproductive Performance of

Postparturient Dairy Cows in the Tropics: A Review

Theera Rukkwamsuk

Abstract

In tropical countries such as Thailand, dairy cows particularly raised in small-holder farms are confronted
by a problem of improper nutritional management and its consequences, which may lead to impair their production,
health and fertility. This review attempted to summarize some nutritional factors influencing reproductive
performance especially during postparturient period. The small-scale farmers have a limited skill on feed and feeding
management for their cows during periparturient period or more specifically transition period. Negative energy
balance during the transition period is more evident; in addition, fatty liver, as a consequence of negative energy
balance, is also frequently observed in Thai dairy cows kept by small-holder farms. Cows with severe negative energy
balance accumulate greater amount of triacylglycerol in the liver and have poor postpartum reproductive
performance. Dairy cows fed with a high rumen degradable protein have an increase in blood urea nitrogen, which
has been proven to reduce fertility. Hypocalcemia also impairs postpartum reproductive performance. Selenium and
vitamin E also play important roles in maintaining reproductive efficiency in dairy cows. In order to optimize
productivity of dairy cows, farmers should pay attention to optimize body condition score at calving, to properly
prepare the rumen function and to offer a good quality and balanced diet to the cows. However, preventive measures
to prevent adverse effects of nutritional mismanagement on reproduction in periparturient dairy cows should be
concerned.
Keywords: cow, negative energy balance, nutrition, reproductive performance
Department of Large Animal and Wildlife Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng
Saen, Nakhon Pathom 73140, Thailand
*Corresponding author E-mail: fvettrr@ku.ac.th

Thai J Vet Med Suppl. 2011. 41: 103-107.

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Introduction
Small-holder dairy farmers in tropical
countries such as Thailand are not well-trained for
nutritional management. Therefore, it is quite
common that problems diagnosed in the farm seem to
associate with feed and feeding mismanagement. One
of the major problems related to nutritional
management in periparturient dairy cows is negative
energy balance (NEB), which is an inevitable
phenomenon that dairy cows are usually unable to
consume enough energy from the feed to meet their
energy demand for lactation. The resulting NEB leads
the cows to a higher risk of metabolic diseases,
infections, suboptimal milk yield and infertility.
Evidence exists that dairy cows with NEB have a poor
postpartum fertility such as anoestrus (Staples et al.,
1990). Lyimo et al., 2004 studied postpartum
reproductive performance of crossbred dairy cattle
raised in small-holder farms in Tanzania, and
suggested that the most likely influencing factor
contributing to the delay in the resumption of
postpartum ovarian activity was the change in the
nutrition level. A cross-sectional study of
reproductive performance of small-holder dairy cows
in Tanzania by Swai et al., 2005 revealed that poor
nutrition, mineral deficiency, high levels of dystocia
and retained placenta might interact as management
causes of long calving intervals. Lanyasunya et al.
(2005) also reported animals with low body weight
had low conception rate and long calving interval.
These researchers also concluded that poor nutrition
contributed to the poor reproductive performance of
dairy cows on small-holder farms. In Thailand, dairy
cows raised in small-holder farms could be suffered
from NEB during periparturient period
(Rukkwamsuk et al., 2004). Furthermore, the cows
might be overfed with a high amount of rumen
degradable proteins, which may affect reproductive
performance of the cows. In addition, minerals and
vitamins might also be imbalanced, which may also
link to impairment of fertility. Therefore, this review
attempted to summarize nutritional factors
influencing reproductive performance especially
during postparturient period.
Negative energy balance and postparturient
reproductive performance
It has been known that negative energy
balance (NEB) is an inevitable phenomenon in dairy
cows during periparturient period. In general,
periparturient dairy cows are not well adapted to
increase their feed intake to cope with the increasing
demand of energy for their requirement of milk
production, resulting in a NEB. In order to maintain
their milk production, dairy cows have to compensate
the energy deficit by increasing fat mobilization.
During the NEB period, dairy cows have to confront a
high concentration of non-esterified fatty acids or
NEFA. These fatty acids are transported to several
organs, particularly to the liver, where these fatty
acids are oxidized to generate energy or to ketone
bodies and are re-esterified to triacylglycerols. In case
that liver could not excrete triacylglycerols as a very
low density lipoprotein to the blood, accumulation of
Rukkwamsuk T. / Thai J Vet Med Suppl. 2011. 41: 103-107.
triacylglycerols could result in fatty liver. The NEB
and its consequences lead the periparturient dairy to
be more susceptible to metabolic disorders, infections
and infertility. High blood concentrations of NEFA
impair postpartum ovarian functions. Jackson et al.
(2011) reported that dairy cows with high NEFA
concentrations at one week after calving showed a
delayed onset of luteal activity. The NEB and fatty
liver have been reported both in commercial farms
and in small-holder farms (Rukkwamsuk et al., 2004;
Rukkwamsuk et al., 2006; Rukkwamsuk, 2010). When
postparturient dairy cows are arbitrarily divided into
mild (liver triacylglycerol concentrations lower than
50 mg/g wet weight), moderate (between 50 and 100
mg/g) and severe (greater than 100 mg/g) (Gaal et al.,
1983), around 54.1% of postparturient dairy cows
sampled from this farm developed fatty liver
(Rukkwamsuk et al., 2004). This study also reported
that cows with severe fatty liver required longer times
to reduce triacylglycerol accumulation in the liver.
This result may impair gluconeogenic capacity of liver
with high TAG levels (Rukkwamsuk et al., 1999a).
Accumulation of triacylglycerol in the liver is
positively correlated with the number of days from
calving to first ovulation (Rukkwamsuk et al., 1999b).
In a field study in Thailand, average day
from calving to first estrus was 72±65 days, which was
longer than a normal range of 30-50 days
(Rukkwamsuk et al., 2010). However, some cows in
that study showed their estrus during expected
period. Pregnancy rates of these studied cows were
28.6%, 11.1%, and 12.0% for first, second, and third
artificial inseminations, which was relatively low.
Grimard et al. (2006) reported that first service
conception ranged from 38% to 50% depending on
lactation number. Suboptimal milk yields, longer days
from calving to first estrus and lower first service
conception rate in this study could be due to some
consequences of NEB during periparturient period.
Although determination of NEFA as an indicator of
NEB is not practical in the field, body condition
scoring (BCS) is widely used to estimate levels of fat
mobilization. The BCS ranges from 1 (too thin) to 5
(too fat). Rukkwamsuk et al. (2006) reported that BCS
of cows at 1 week prepartum was 3.08±0.08, which
was lower than the expected BCS of 3.5 for close-up
dry cows (Ferguson et al., 1994). The changes of BCS
during periparturient period were positively
correlated with serum concentrations of NEFA at 2
weeks postpartum (Rukkwamsuk et al., 2006).
In practices, dairy cows with severe NEB and
fatty liver postpartum experienced more postpartum
problems (Van Dijk el al., 1989), such as a high
occurrence of milk fever (Andrews et al., 1991;
Rukkwamsuk et al., 2007), ketosis (Gröhn et al., 1983;
Lean et al., 1994; Rukkwamsuk et al., 2007), and
displaced abomasums (Muylle et al., 1990;
Rukkwamsuk et al., 2007). There has been evidence
that fatty liver cows have a delayed or impaired
specific immunoreactivity against tetanus toxoid
(Wentink et al., 1997). Therefore, it is likely that fatty
liver impairs the defense mechanism of the cows.
Taking together, some metabolic diseases possibly
due to the consequences of NEB and fatty liver may
Rukkwamsuk T. / Thai J Vet Med Suppl. 2011. 41: 103-107.
impair health status of postpartum dairy cows; and
these sick cows may have suboptimal fertility.
Urea nitrogen and fertility
It is well known that daily intake of high
protein increases milk production in dairy cows
(Grings et al., 1991). However, at the same time, dairy
cows fed high dietary protein increase blood urea
nitrogen (BUN) concentration, which is associated
with reduced reproductive performance (Canfield et
al., 1990) possibly due to alteration of intrauterine
environment (Elrod and Butler, 1993; Elrod et al.,
1993). It is also documented that dairy cows fed high
dietary protein also have low plasma progesterone
concentrations (Sonderman and Larson, 1989). There
might be some links between high protein, particulary
rumen degradable protein, and fertility in dairy cattle.
Ferguson et al. (1993) reported that blood urea
nitrogen concentrations greater than 20 mg/dl were
associated with lowered conception rates in dairy
cows, and the magnitude of the association was likely
to be related to the underlying reproductive
performance between herds. At present, milk urea
nitrogen (MUN), instead of BUN, could be used as an
indicator of urea status in dairy cows and is more
practical in the field (Roseler et al., 1993). Variation of
MUN concentrations in different milk fractions
collected during milking is small (Carlsson and
Bergstrom (1994). It is not only small variation
between milk fractions, the variation in MUN
between cows fed the same diet is also low. Thus,
MUN is a practical and reliable indicator for protein
metabolism in dairy cattle.
Urea nitrogen concentrations in bulk tank
milk have been used to predict protein supply
(Refsdal et al., 1985; Ropstad et al., 1989) and fertility
differences between herds (Ropstad and Refsdal,
1987). Elrod and Butler (1993) reported that heifers fed
high rumen degradable protein increase BUN
concentrations and decrease uterine pH and
pregnancy rate. In addition, according to Elrod et al.
(1993), cows fed excess amount of protein increase
BUN concentration as well as decrease uterine pH.
Excess rumen degradable protein has a deleterious
effect on embryonic development in lactating cows
(Blanchard et al., 1990), but not in nonlactating cows
(Garcia-Bojalil et al., 1994). In Thai dairy herds,
farmers sometimes feed their cows with high urea
levels in the diet and provide insufficient sources of
dietary energy. This may result in increased
concentrations of urea nitrogen in the body fluid and
possibly impair fertility of the cows (Butler et al.,
1996). However, data concerning the concentrations of
BUN or MUN and postpartum fertility are not well
documented in Thailand, and therefore further
research or investigation is required.
Minerals and vitamins and reproductive disorders
In animals, macro-minerals such as calcium
are needed in relatively large amounts, whereas trace
minerals such as selenium are required in very small
amounts. Adequate amounts of all of the indicated
minerals are essential in the diet, and insufficient
supplementation in the diet could have adverse
effects on health, production and especially
105
reproduction. The major function of calcium involves
muscle contraction. In dairy cows, hypocalcemia
usually occurs during periparturient period and
clinical signs are usually developed when blood
calcium concentrations are lower than 4 mg/dl
(Wilde, 2006). Dairy cows under hypocalcemic
condition have reduced motility of abomasum and
strength of contraction (Daniel, 1983), resulting in
decreased feed intake. Reduction of dry matter intake
due to hypocalcemia during periparturient period
enhances NEB of the cows. Hypocalcemia prolongs
calving duration and has a detrimental effect on
placenta expulsion and uterine involution, which
finally impair postpartum fertility in the cows.
Micronutrients and reproduction in farm
animals are reviewed by Smith and Akinbamijo
(2000). Selenium is an anti-oxidant that works in
conjunction with Vitamin E to prevent and repair
cellular damage in the body. Selenium and/or
Vitamin E deficiency has been shown to impair
immune response. In addition, selenium is associated
with thyroid hormone that regulates metabolism,
reproduction, circulation and muscle function.
Selenium could be transferred through the placenta
and milk; therefore, selenium status of the cows will
directly affect the health of their calves. Selenium
deficiency is associated with delayed conception rate
and cystic ovaries in dairy cows (Corah and Ives,
1991; Kommisrud et al., 2005). In a field investigation
(data not published) of 94 dairy cows from 17 small-
holder farms in Nakhon-Pathom, Thailand, average
serum selenium concentrations were 86.0±6.8 (mean±
SEM), 89.0±7.2, 88.4±7.8 and 91.4±5.5 ng/ml for
lactation number 1, 2, 3 and greater than 3,
respectively, which were in a normal range. However,
mean serum selenium concentrations varied among
farms, meaning that individual farm management
effected serum selenium concentrations in dairy cows
raised in small-holder farms. Further research is
required to investigate the link between selenium
status and infertility in small-holder farms with low
versus normal blood concentrations of selenium.
Vitamin E supplementation on the health and fertility
of dairy cows was reviewed by Allison and Laven
(2000). A potential mechanism is that vitamin E helps
the cow improve ability to respond to oxidative stress.
It is possible that the primary effect of vitamin E on
retained placenta is through its effect on the activity of
leukocytes. In tropical countries where feed quality is
a constraint, it may be possible that the dairy cows
raised in small-holder farms may be fed vitamin E
deficient diet, which is one of potential risk factors of
retained placenta. This will finally affect reproductive
performance of dairy cows.
Conclusion
Negative energy balance and its
consequences are directly or indirectly associated with
fertility in postparturient dairy cows. Dairy cows with
severe NEB are prone to suffer from other metabolic
disorders or infections. Feeding high rumen
degradable protein to the cows will result in high
blood urea nitrogen concentration, which may relate
to reproductive performance. Selenium and vitamin E
are closely linked to retained placenta, which is
106
directly associated with postpartum infertility.
Therefore, dairy farmers should pay more attention to
offer a good quality and balanced diet to the cows in
order to prevent adverse effects of nutritional
mismanagement on reproduction particularly during
periparturient period.
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