Studies on Lactation Disorders and Culling Pattern in Haryana Cattle

Abstract

The present study was carried out on 258 Hariana cows for their 983 calving records spread over a period of 25 years from 1992 to 2016 maintained at State Livestock cum Agriculture Farm, Hastinapur (Meerut) UP. The overall incidence of abnormal births was observed to be 4.7 percent which included abortion, still births, premature births and dystocia. The incidence of abnormal calving was significantly higher among summer calvers than those calved in other seasons. The overall incidence of utero-vaginal disorders in the study averaged to be 3.35 percent prolapse, 5.80 percent retention of placenta and 7.22 percent metritis. The parity of calving had significant effect on the incidence of metritis which was significantly higher among first and second calvers than older cows. The season of calving had also significant effect on the incidence of metritis, being higher among rainy calvers and lowest during cold and summer months. Among the reproductive problems, the incidence of anoestrus and repeat breeding were 23.60 and 12.21 percent, respectively. Among first calvers, the incidence of anoestrus and repeat breeding were found to be significantly higher than in later calves. The season of calving had significant effect on the incidence of both the breeding problems. The incidence of both the problems was higher among summer and winter calvers. The overall incidence of udder disorders had been found to be as 16.68 percent mastitis and 3.66 percent blood in milk. The parity order had significant effect only on the incidence of mastitis. It was found that cows initiating lactation during rainy months had significantly higher incidence of mastitis . On an average, each cow produced 3.81 total calves out of which 3.67 were born as alive and 1.92 calves were females. The maximum number of total calves produced were 10 by only 2.0 percent of total cows and the maximum numbers of female calves produced were 7 by only 1.2 percent of the total cows. About one seventh (14%) of the total cows could not produce any female calf. It was observed that 16.7 percent of total cows produced either one or two abnormal calves and rest 83.3 percent cows had no abnormal calf. It was observed that out of 258 cows comprising the herd, 181 (70.16 %) left the herd out of which 71 cows died (27.52 %) and 110 cows were culled (42.64 %). The effect of parity order was found to be highly significant on mortality, culling and total losses. The mortality and culling rates varied highly significantly among years. The overall replacement index was observed to be 1.27 during the entire period of study. The heritability and repeatability of abnormal births were found to be 0.07 and 0.18, respectively. The heritability of prolapse, retention of placenta and metritis were 0.23, 0.21 and 0.16 whereas the repeatability estimates were 0.41, 0.29 and 0.19, respectively. The breeding problems viz. anoestrus and repeat breeding had low estimates of heritability (0.09 and 0.06) as well as of the repeatability (0.13 and 0.19). The mastitis and blood in milk had the heritability estimate as 0.09 and 0.10, respectively whereas the repeatability was 0.2 and 0.12 for the two disorders. The results on the breeding values of sires for different lactation disorders have indicated that nearly 50 percent of the total sires had breeding values less than herd average and hence there was a scope for improvement in these traits through sire selection. The rank correlation worked out among the ranks of sires based on breeding values for lactation disorders with milk yield have indicated negative and significant correlation of milk yield with abnormal calving(-0.51), mastitis (-0.41) and blood in milk (-0.32). The rank correlation of breeding value of sires for abnormal calving were positive and moderate with prolapse (0.58), retention of placenta (0.50), metritis (0.33) and blood in milk (0.39) but negative and moderate with repeat breeding (-0.22). The rank correlation of prolapse were also positive and moderate with retention of placenta (0.32), metritis (0.29) and blood in milk (0.42) whereas with mastitis and both the breeding problems were low. The retention of placenta had moderate and positive rank correlation with metritis (0.41) and blood in milk (0.32) while with mastitis and with breeding problems had low correlation. The rank correlation of metritis was positive and moderate with mastitis (0.28), blood in milk (0.33) and repeat breeding (0.22). The rank correlation of mastitis with blood in milk was moderate and positive (0.42) but low and positive with both the breeding problems. The rank correlation of blood in milk was low but positive with anoestrus (0.17) and repeat breeding (0.12). The rank correlation of anoestrus with blood in milk was found very low. On an average, a cow remained under treatment for a period of 3.16 days for abnormal calving, 7.1 days for metritis and 5.04 days for mastitis. The treatment cost per cow incurred were Rs. 349.3 for abnormal calving, Rs. 402.7 for metritis and Rs. 451.0 for mastitis. The 305 days milk yield of cows following abnormal calving was 41.50 percent less (613.2 kg) compared to those which had normal calving (1047.9 kg). An overall reduction in 305 days milk yield was observed for the cows which experienced metritis to the extent of 18.52 percent (859.57 kg milk) compared to resistant cows (1054.93 kg milk). The cows suffering from mastitis had produced 8.8 percent less quantity of 305 days milk (959.4 kg) in comparison to the resistant cows (1052.4 kg).