7 Pregnancy rates in suckled beef cows synchronized with a shortened progesterone/oestradiol-based protocol (J-synch) and inseminated with conventional or sexed-sorted semen

Abstract

An experiment was designed to evaluate pregnancy rates (P/AI) in suckled beef cows synchronized with a progesterone (P4)/oestradiol-based protocol (J-Synch) and inseminated (AI) with sexed or nonsexed (conventional) semen. Angus or Angus crossbred cows (n = 877), 60 to 90 days postpartum, with a body condition score of 2.5 to 3.5 (scale of 1 to 5) and a corpus luteum or a follicle >8 mm in diameter detected by ultrasonography, were randomly allocated to be AI with sexed-sorted or nonsexed (conventional) semen. The experiment was performed in 4 farms, and the sexed-sorted (SexedUltra™ 4 M, with 4 million sperm; ST Genetics, Navasota, TX, USA) and conventional (25 million sperm) semen were from split ejaculates from 5 Angus bulls. All cows received a P4 device (DIB 0.5, Zoetis, Villa Adelina, Argentina) and 2 mg of oestradiol benzoate (Gonadiol, Zoetis) on Day 0. On Day 6, cows received 400 IU of eCG (Novormon 5000, Zoetis) and 500 µg of cloprostenol (Ciclase DL, Zoetis) and DIB was removed. All cows were also tail painted and observed for signs of oestrus (i.e. >30% of the tail paint rubbed off) at 60, 72, and 84 h after DIB removal. Cows with the tail paint rubbed off by 60 or 72 h after DIB removal were artificially inseminated at 72 h with either sexed or conventional semen. Those not showing oestrus by 72 h received 100 µg of gonadorelin acetate (Gonasyn GDR, Zoetis) at that time and were artificially inseminated with either sexed-sorted or conventional semen 12 h later (i.e. 84 h). Pregnancy was diagnosed by ultrasonography 30 days after AI. Data were analysed by general linear model for binary data with a logit link. Overall, 76.4% (678/877) of cows showed oestrus 60 to 84 h after DIB removal, and there were differences in P/AI between sexed-sorted and conventional semen (P < 0.01; Table 1); however, there was no farm effect (range: 52-59%) and no interactions. Fertility differed (P < 0.05) among bulls and ranged from 25.8 to 55.3% for sexed-sorted semen and from 53.1 to 73.9% for conventional semen. In cows artificially inseminated with sexed-sorted semen, P/AI was the highest in cows showing oestrus and AI at 84 h; however, no differences were detected among cows artificially inseminated with conventional semen (Table 1). Although P/AI was lower for sexed-sorted than conventional semen, tail painting for oestrus detection can be successfully applied to AI beef cows with sexed-sorted semen synchronized with a shortened P4/oestradiol-based protocol.

Table 1.  Effect of semen type (sexed-sorted or conventional) and time of oestrus and AI on P/AI in suckled beef cows synchronized with a shortened P4/oestradiol-based protocol

Research was supported by Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (FONCYT PICT 2017-4550) and UNVM.