Assessment Of Reproductive Health Disorders In Dairy Cattle And Its Associated Risk Factors In Melka Belo Woreda Of East Hararge Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Reproductive disorder is one of the most important factors impacting the profitability of the cow-calf operation. A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine reproductive health disorders in dairy cattle and its associated risk factors in Melka Belo Woreda East Haraghe Zone from March, 2022 to August, 2022. Of a total of 50 respondents 6 (12.0%) were AI professionals, 14 (28.0%) were animal health professionals and 1 (5.88%) were doctors of veterinary medicine all of them worked in veterinary clinics were interviewed in this study area. From the total of cows examined, 127 (31.99%) had at least one of the reproductive problems identified by both retrospective (n=384) and regular follow-up (n=13) of individual cows. The major reproductive problems identified in the present study were dystocia (9.5%), retained fetal membrane (7.233%), repeat breeder (4.99%), prolapse of the uterine and vagina (4.22%), anestrous (3.5%) and abortion (2.24%) respectively. The prevalence of assessed reproductive problems revealed significant differences (p<0.05) concerning age and body condition of dairy cattle while breeds and parity were not statistically significant (p>0.05) on the occurrence of the reproductive problems in dairy cattle. Generally, the current finding revealed that reproductive health problems commonly exist in the study area through their percentage and types with variety from time to time. This study showed that reproductive disorders were highly found to affect the reproductive performance of dairy cows. Hence, regular reproductive health management and proper husbandry practices could be possible solutions to alleviate the problems encountered in different production systems. Also, further detailed studies should be carried out on the major reproductive health disorders in the study area.

Keywords: Dairy Cattle, Melka Belo, Reproductive Problems, Risk factors