Effect of Nutrition, Lactation and Periparturient Complications on Adrenal, Pituitary and Ovarian Function and Uterine Involution in High-Producing Dairy Cows

Effects of body condition at parturition, purperal complications, milk yield and parity on the sequential changes in postpartum adrenocortical and pituitary functions , ovarian activity and uterine involution were investigated in 44 high-producing Holstein Friesian cows. One half of the cows had normal adrenocortical function and the other half had either enhanced or depressed adrenocortical function 8 days postpartum. The adrenocortical function was found to be normal in all cows 22 days after calving. Pituitary gland response to GnRH was low in 68.2 % of cows 7 days after parturition and 31.8 % still had low response 21 days postpartum. A significant negative correlation (P
American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 1998