A three-year prospective study of the incidence of Dystocia in dairy cows in Gatsibo District, Rwanda
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Date
2017
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Abstract
The Rwandan government launched the Girinka ('One Cow Per Poor Family') program in 2006 through the use of Friesian/Holstein bulls and semen to inseminate indigenous, cross-bred and exotic breed dairy cows in a bid to reduce childhood malnutrition and alleviate poverty. Reproductive failure was one of the challenges encountered in this program. The current study was undertaken to determine the factors affecting the incidence of dystocia and postpartum complications in the dairy cows of Gatsibo district over a three year period (2011-2014). Materials and Methods: The breed, method of insemination, parity, sex of calf, postpartum complications and mortalities of calves or dams were recorded for a total of 5611 parturitions from 3007 cows between 2011 and 2014 in the Kiziguro sector of Gatsibo. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.
Chi-square contingency tables were used in data analysis and p values <0.05 were considered significant. Results: Higher incidence of
dystocia (p<0.05) was reported in indigenous (17.31%) than in crossbred (5.47%) and exotic breeds (4.61%). Artificially inseminated cows had a higher incidence of dystocia (16.67%) than those serviced by bulls (4.96%) (p<0.05). In addition, primiparous cows showed a
significantly higher dystocia incidence (11.34%) than pluriparous cows (5.95%) (p<0.05). The incidence of dystocia was significantly higher
in dams carrying male calves (11.54%) than in those with female calves (6.80%) (p<0.05). Moreover, retained placenta (53.09%) was
significantly the most common complication of dystocia in comparison to postpartum bleeding (19.14%) and calf death (20.37%) (p<0.05).
Whilst calf death and postpartum bleeding had a significantly higher incidence (p<0.05) than cow death (3.09%) and hind limb paralysis
(4.32%). There was, however, no significant difference between the incidence of postpartum bleeding and calf death (p>0.05), nor
between cow death incidence and hind limb paralysis (p>0.05). The revenue losses resulting from dystocias encountered in this study
amount to US$11 323.08. Conclusion: The study concluded that artificially inseminated primiparous indigenous cattle with male calves
had the highest incidence of dystocia, suggesting that the introduction of high quality dairy bulls or semen was counter-productive if
indigenous cows were not upgraded. More so, the use of pedigree semen or bulls in indigenous dairy herd improvement programmes
in Gatsibo, Rwanda resulted in a significant increase in incidence of dystocia and postpartum complications.
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Keywords
Crossbreeds, Parity
Citation
Mushonga, B., Tumushime, J.C., Bhebhe, E., et al. (2017). A Three-year Prospective Study of the Incidence of Dystocia in Dairy Cows in Gatsibo District, Rwanda. Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 12, 261-167.