Bull Vet Inst Pulawy 49, 53-58, 2005
INFLUENCE OF HEALTH STATUS OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS
ON UTERINE INVOLUTION IN DAIRY COWS
JAROSLAV HAJURKA, VLADIMÍR MACÁK AND VLADIMIR HURA
Clinic of Animal Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Andrology,
University of Veterinary Medicine, 041 81 Košice, Slovakia
e-mail: [email protected]
Received for publication August 23, 2004.
Abstract
The effect of parity and pathology of the uterus and
ovaries on uterine involution was investigated in 57
primiparous and 258 pluriparous dairy cows under dairy farm
conditions. Involution of the uterus was determined by
gynaecological examination including ultrasonography at 2-3 d
intervals from the end of the first week postpartum till its
completion. A significant effect of parity at normal and
pathological puerperium and of puerperal complications
(retained placenta and/or puerperal endometritis, ovarian cysts)
on the course of uterine involution was observed. Animals with
normal puerperium showed complete involution in 23.0±5.3 d
on average in primiparous and in 27.3±5.5 d in pluriparous
cows. The pathological puerperium involving retained placenta
and/or puerperal endometritis and ovarian cysts prolonged
uterine involution in both primiparous and pluriparous cows by
approx. 10 d. By day 40 postpartum the uterine involution was
completed in all the primiparous and in 97.1% pluriparous
cows with normal puerperium. By this time only 86.2% of
primiparous and 70.6% of pluriparous cows with puerperal
complications showed complete uterine involution. Serious
postpartum endometritis with cervical discharge lasting longer
than 3 weeks significantly prolonged uterine involution beyond
day 40. We may conclude that the uterine involution in dairy
cows, kept under farm conditions, is lengthened significantly
by the parity, retained placenta, and/or puerperal endometritis
and ovarian cysts.
Key words: dairy
disorders, uterus involution.
cows,
reproductive
The postparturient period, termed also
puerperium, is characterized by uterine involution and
the restoration of ovarian functions. From the
economical point of view it is desirable that cows with
combined production deliver one calf every 12-13
months. Because of that, the mating should start on day
40 after parturition (4). However, the next pregnancy
depends on the completion of uterine involution and the
cyclic function of ovaries.
The time needed for the restoration of the
reproductive organs in cows is affected by many factors.
Among them the parity, periparturient diseases, breed,
herd management including the level of nutrition, and
environmental factors are very important (10, 12, 17, 18,
21).
The average time needed for uterine involution,
as evaluated clinically by rectal palpation, has been
found to take from 18-25 d (3, 5, 17) up to 40-50 d (7, 9,
13). By the ultrasound monitoring it ranged from 23 to
42 d (11, 19, 25). This indicates wide temporal variations
in the completion of uterine involution. Under the
practical conditions, early and fertile insemination
requires sufficient knowledge of individual variations in
completion of uterine involution in the herd because the
clinical involution is not completed by day 40
postpartum in all dairy cows.
Our study focused on the investigation of
individual variations, influence of parity and most
frequent puerperal complications on uterine involution
under commercial dairy herd conditions.
Material and Methods
Animals. Examinations were carried out in two
commercial dairy herds with 300 and 500 adult cows and
first calved heifers milked twice a day. Altogether we
observed 57 first calved cows and 258 older cows of
Slovak spotted and Lowland black spotted breeds with a
milk yield of 4000 - 4500 kg. The calving took place in a
calving house or in separate stalls in the delivery area of
the cowshed. The investigations were conducted from
September to June. In the winter months the animals
were housed in stanchion houses and from May to
October they spent the nights in a cowshed and the days
in cattle runs or on fenced pasture lots. As a rule, the
cows were kept in the calving stalls for 10-14 d or in
cases of pathological puerperium until the end of the
treatment.
Puerperal complications included retained
placenta and acute puerperal endometritis to metritis.
Individual complications were determined according to
the following criteria:
1- retained placenta – the persistence of the placenta in
the uterus for more than 12 h following the second
stage of parturition;
54
2- acute puerperal endometritis to metritis were
diagnosed on the basis of the cervical discharge of
pathologically changed lochia. Pathological lochia
were thin to watery with dirty-blood colouration
and strong odour;
3- subacute and chronic endometritis was assigned
according to purulent, mucopurulent (approximately
50% pus), mucus with flecks of pus (<50% pus) or
cloudy mucus cervical discharge. Duration and
degree of endometritis was based on the following
criteria:
- pathological uterus discharge ≤ 14 d after
calving = slight degree of uterus inflammation,
- pathological uterus discharge ≤ 21 d after
calving = moderate degree of uterus
inflammation,
- pathological uterus discharge > 21 d after
calving = serious degree of uterus
inflammation;
4- ovarian cysts were characterised as follicular
structures bigger than 2.5 cm persisting for more
than 7 d without the presence of a corpus luteum if
this condition occurred and was detected within 30 d
postpartum.
The cows with retained placenta were treated
for the first time on day 3 postpartum and then in 2-day
intervals until its spontaneous detachment and expulsion
or separation by pulling lightly the placenta. Other cows
were examined gynaecologically (vaginal and rectal) at
the end of the first week postpartum. On the basis of
gynaecological examination and the course of
puerperium the cows were divided to four groups:
uncomplicated
puerperium,
retained
placenta,
endometritis and ovarian cysts. The group of cows with
endometritis was divided further according to the degree
of inflammation to the subgroups with slight, moderate
and serious inflammation. The cows with acute puerperal
endometritis were treated by intrauterine administration
of oxytetracycline suppositories at a dose of 2-3 g at 48 h
intervals. The cows with puerperal endometritis were
treated in the same way till the disappearance or
adjustment of the pathological discharge. Uterine
complications were treated without the administration of
uterotonics. The cows with ovarian cysts were not
treated during our investigations. No other concurrent
pathological condition was observed.
Evaluation of uterine involution and
analyses. The uterine involution was assessed by
gynaecological examination at 2 to 3 d intervals
(Monday, Wednesday, Friday) according to the
following procedures: a) recording the general health
status and character of fluid determined during vaginal
examination, b) palpation of the uterus, cervix and
ovaries (23), c) ultrasound scanning of the uterus and
ovaries using a 5 MHz rectal linear probe (Aloka SSD
500, Aloka, Japan). Uterine body diameter was measured
from cranial to anterior cervical limit using built-in
callipers.
The monitoring of uterine involution started at
the end of the first week postpartum and ended after the
complete uterine involution. The completion of uterine
involution was determined retrospectively on the basis
of the:
- stabilization of uterine dimensions (reduction in
size of uterine body and horns and return of the
horns to a more uniform size),
- location in the body cavity (more forward in to
the pelvic cavity),
- normal tonus and consistency (less “meaty “ –
large, soft, pliable, and more turgid),
- absence of pathological cervical discharge.
Statistical analysis was carried out using
software GPPP, Version 2.01,1996. The differences were
evaluated by a non-paired Student´s t-test and Chisquare test. Significance was defined as P<0.05.
Results
Normal puerperium resulted in the completion
of uterine involution in 23.0±5.3 d in primiparous and
27.3±5.5 d in pluriparous cows (P=0.0003; Table 1). A
similar difference (about 4 d, P=0.035) was observed for
pathological puerperium when evaluating the influence
of parity on uterine involution. Puerperal complications
due to retained placenta and/or uterine inflammation
prolonged uterine involution by about 10 d in both
primiparous and pluriparous cows (P<0.0001; Table 1).
Another puerperal complication, i.e. the formation of
ovarian cysts within the first 30 postpartum days,
significantly prolonged (P<0.001) the uterine involution
as did uterine inflammation (Table 2). The longest time
needed for morphological involution of the uterus was
observed in cows with retained placenta in combination
with acute endometritis (Table 2).
In the case of non-complicated puerperium the
uterine involution was complete within 25 d in 75% of
primiparous and in 46.7% of pluriparous cows (P>0.05).
Of all the animals with the normal course of puerperium
the morphological involution was completed by day 40
post-parturition in 100% of first calved cows and in
97.1% of pluriparous cows (P>0.05; Table 3). Puerperal
complications consisting of retained placenta and/or
acute puerperal endometritis to metritis prolonged
uterine involution. By day 25 postpartum, the involution
was complete only in 6.9% of primiparous and 2.5% of
pluriparous cows. By day 40 postpartum about 86.2% of
primiparous but only 70.6% of pluriparous cows showed
complete uterine involution (Table 4).
The higher degree of uterus inflammation
prolonged uterus involution in both primiparous and
pluriparous cows (Table 5). Uterine involution with a
slight degree of inflammation was 28.1±3.6 d in the
primiparous and 32.6±6.2 d in the older cows (P=0.05).
The completion of uterus involution gradually increased
with the time of cervical discharge and uterus
inflammation. Serious endometritis prolonged uterus
involution beyond day 40 and was similar in both
primiparous and pluriparous cow groups (43.0±7.4
versus 43.4±11.0 d). Difference between slight and
serious inflammation were 14.9 d in primiparous
(P=0.001) and 10.8 d in pluriparous cows (P<0.0001;
Table 5).
55
Table 1
Mean time (days) for the completion of uterine involution in dairy cows in relation to the course of puerperium (t-test)
Puerperium
Non-complicated
Parity
Number
of cows
28
Complicated
Differences
Number
of cows
29
Statistical
significance
P < 0.0001
10.7
Primi23.0 ± 5.3
33.7 ± 7.4
parous
Pluri139
27.3 ± 5.5
119
37.3 ± 8.2
parous
Total
167
26.5 ± 5.7
148
36.6 ± 8.1
Statistical evaluation of primiparous versus pluriparous cows;
± SD
10.0
P < 0.0001
10.1
P < 0.0001
Table 2
Time (days) for the completion of uterine involution in dairy cows in relation to the course of puerperium (t-test)
Puerperium
Total
Complicated
complicated
Endomet
RP ± endomet
OC
n
69
53
24
7
84
mean
24.6a
33.3 b
35.6 b
32.9 b
33.9 b
SD
4.9
7.6
7.0
8.4
7.5
a-b
P<0.001; b-b P>0.05; endomet - acute endometritis; RP - retention of placenta; OC - ovarian cysts
Group
Non-complicated
Table 3
Completion of uterine involution in dairy cows with uncomplicated puerperium (Chi-square test)
Days
<20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
>40
Total
a
P<0.05; b P<0.0001
Number of
cows
14
7
3
3
1
0
28
Primiparous cows
Frequency
Cumulative
(%)
(%)
50.0
25.0
10.7
10.7
3.6
0
100.0
50.0
75.0
85.7
96.4
100.0
100.0
Number of
cows
7
58
44
17
9
4
139
Pluriparous cows
Frequency
Cumulative
(%)
(%)
5.0
41.7
31.7
12.2
6.5
2.9
100.0
5.0b
46.7
78.4a
90.6
97.1
100.0
100.0
Table 4
Completion of uterine involution in dairy cows with complicated puerperium: puerperal endometritis
and/or retention of placent(Chi-square test)
Days
a
<20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
>40
Total
P<0.05
Primiparous cows
Number of
Frequency
Cumulative
cows
(%)
(%)
0
2
11
7
5
4
29
0
6.9
37.9
24.1
17.3
13.8
100.0
0
6.9
44.8
68.9
86.2
100.0
100.0
Number of
cows
0
3
20
30
31
35
119
Pluriparous cows
Frequency
Cumulative
(%)
(%)
0
2.5
16.8
25.2
26.1
29.4
100.0
0
2.5
19.3a
44.5
70.6
100.0
100.0
56
Table 5
Mean time (days) of the uterus involution in dairy cows with respect to the type of uterus inflammation
Primiparous cows
Inflammation
of uterus
Slight
Moderate
Serious
Total
Pluriparous cows
Number
of cows
%
Time
Number
of cows
%
Time
8
16
5
29
27.6
55.2
17.2
100.0
28.1 ± 3.6 a
33.6 ± 5.3 b
43.0 ± 9.5 c
33.7 ± 7.4 g
24
38
57
119
20.2
31.9
47.9
100.0
32.6 ± 6.2 d
33.8 ± 4.7 e
43.4 ± 11.0 f
37.3 ± 8.2 h
± SD;
slight - pathological uterus discharge
≤ 14 d
moderate - pathological uterus discharge ≤ 21 d
serious - pathological uterus discharge
> 21 d
a-b
P=0.01; a-c; b-c P=0.001; a-dP=0.05; d-e; b-e; c-f NS; d-f; e-f P<0.0001; g-h P=0.035
Discussion
The influence of parity on the process of uterine
involution has been described already by some authors
(2, 21, 25) and has been proved also by our study. First
calved cows with normal and pathological puerperium
required significantly shorter (P<0.0001 and P=0.035,
respectively) time for uterine involution than older cows
(Table 1).
The published data show a relatively wide
range of mean time needed for uterine involution. This
range extends from 18 to 50 d and Malven (14) ascribed
this to different criteria for clinical evaluation. The rectal
palpation of the uterus and use more objective
ultrasound measurement of uterus body diameter are
sufficient methods for the evaluation of the rate of
decreasing uterine dimension. In our study crosswise
and lengthwise decreasing and stop of dimensions of the
uterus and also disappearance of pathological discharge
from the uterus are a very reliable and sufficient
features for the evaluation of uterus involution in the
cows in a morphological aspect. From this point of view
range of variation of uterine involution process are more
dependent on parity and presence of inflammation of the
uterus.
Average time of uterine involution in animals
with normal puerperium was 23.0±5.3 d in primiparous
and 27.3±5.5 d in older cows (P=0.0003; Table 1).
Recently Zain et al. (25) observed slightly longer time
for the ending of uterus involution during the normal
puerperium. The detailed investigation of the time
needed for completion of uterine involution in individual
primiparous and pluriparous cows (Table 3) showed
that up to the average time observed by us in
primiparous cows, i.e. within 25 d postpartum, 75% of
them showed complete involution. After the same
number of days only 47% of pluriparous cows exhibited
complete uterine involution but almost the same
cumulative proportion completed involution by day 30
postpartum (P>0.05; Table 3).
Within 40 d postpartum the uterine involution
was completed in all primiparous and in 97.1% older
cows without puerperal complication of the uterus
(P>0.05). Zain et al. (25) found that uterus involution
was completed in 29.2% of the animals of the herd by
day 28, in 51.4% (80.6% cumulative) and in 19.4%
(100% cumulative) at day 36 or later.
Puerperal complications significantly prolonged
the uterine involution in primiparous and pluriparous
cows (P<0.0001, Table 1; P<0.001; Table 2). The
completion of uterine involution was delayed most in
the group of cows with retained placenta combined with
acute puerperal endometritis to metritis (11 d difference,
P<0.001). The influence of postparturient complications
on uterine involution was studied by a number of
authors. Morrow et al. (18) mentioned that the uterine
involution was prolonged by 3-5 d in cows with
dystocia and retained placenta. Marion et al. (15)
observed prolongation of uterine involution by 10.4 d in
primiparas and 6.5 d in pluriparas with retained
placenta. More recently in the observation of Zain et al.
(25) cows with abnormal puerperal condition had
prolonged uterus involution by 8.2 d. Our observations
showed almost identical prolongation in primiparous
and pluriparous cows by 10.7 and 10.0, respectively
(P<0.0001; Table 1).
The influence of cystic changes in ovaries on
uterine involution has not been mentioned in the
literature. Our
investigations
showed
similar
prolongation as that
caused by acute puerperal
endometritis (primary, difference 8.3 and 8.7 d,
respectively, P<0.001; Table 2). The influence of cystic
ovaries on the uterus is related probably to ovarian
hormones produced in the cystic structures. According
to the character of cysts, oestrogens are involved in
follicular cysts and progesterone in luteal cysts (6).
Eighty percent of cysts observed in our study were
follicular. Although Marion et al. (15) did not deal with
the influence of cystic ovaries on uterine involution,
they observed prolonged uterine involution following
parenteral administration of 17 β-oestradiol to
57
ovariectomised cows. Similar conclusions were drawn
by Sexton and Bristol, (22) after repeated treatment of
mares with progesterone and oestradiol-17 β within 18 h
postpartum and Tian and Noakes (24) which observed
delayed uterine involution by 6.2 d after treatment of the
cows with oestradiol, which was determined by
transrectal ultrasound measurement. These observations
are in accordance with other results (20). The diameter
of the uterus is the greatest during the period associated
with oestrus. Recently Bekana et al. (1) and Hajurka et
al. (8) performed ultrasonographic studies and found a
slight increase in the diameter of the uterine cervix and
uterus along with the growth of pre-ovulation follicles,
and ovulation.
Bacterial infections and inflammation damage
to the endometrium prolong the uterine involution
processes in cows (16). In our study inflammation of the
uterus with cervical discharge prolonged the time for
uterus involution by 1-6 d (NS and P=0.01) in moderate,
and by 11-15 d (P=0.001 and P<0.0001) in serious
cervical discharges lasting longer than 21 d after calving
(Table 5).
In conclusion, uterine involution evaluated
clinically and ultrasonographically in cows is affected
significantly by parity, retained placenta, puerperal
endometritis and ovarian cysts which develop during the
involution process. By day 40 postpartum, all
primiparous and almost all pluriparous cows with
normal puerperium showed morphologically complete
involution of the uterus. As for the animals with uterine
inflammation, 14% of primiparous and about 29% of
pluriparous cows showed complete involution after
more than 40 d. The prolongation of uterine involution
in cows depends on the degree of infection, damage to
the endometrium and pathological discharge, and then
clinical uterine involution can be prolonged to 50-60 d.
In the case of increased incidence of uterine
inflammation in the herd one must consider the
prolongation of uterine involution, delay in the onset of
mating, and an increase in the interval to the first
insemination.
Acknowledgments: This study
supported by VEGA grant No. 1/0590/03.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
was
17.
18.
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