Efficacy of progesterone supplementation during early pregnancy in cows: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractProgesterone is a critical hormone during early pregnancy in the cow. As a result a number of studies have investigated the effects of progesterone supplementation on pregnancy rates. In this study, a meta-analysis using a univariate binary random effects model was carried out on 84 specific treatments reported in 53 publications involving control (n=9905) and progesterone-treated (n=9135) cows. While the results of individual studies showed wide variations (-40 to +50 percentage point changes), progesterone treatment resulted in an overall increase in pregnancy rate (OR = 1.12; P<0.01). Improvements in pregnancy rate were only observed in cows treated at natural estrus (OR = 1.41, P<0.01) and not following synchronization of estrus or ovulation. While treatment between days 3-7 post-insemination was beneficial (OR = 1.15; P<0.01) treatment earlier or later than this was not. Progesterone supplementation was beneficial in cows of lower fertility (< 45% control pregnancy rate) but not in cows with higher fertility. These results indicated that the benefit of progesterone supplementation on fertility of cows required exogenous progesterone supplementation to start between day 3-7 and the appropriate reproductive status (i.e. lower fertility, natural estrus) of the treated cows.

Basic and practical aspects of pregnancy establishment in cattle

“…Insufficient plasma progesterone concentrations have been linked to poor embryo development and maternal-embryonic signaling in terms of decreased INF-t production by the embryo (Mann and Lemming, 2001), and high levels of progesterone have shown to advance conceptus elongation (Carter et al, 2008). Several studies have investigated the effect of exogenous post-insemination progesterone treatment in heifers and cows, but results differ with regard to a potential beneficial effect on embryo development and pregnancy outcome (Sreenan and Diskin, 1983;Mann and Lamming, 1999;Yan et al, 2016).…”

Interactions of human chorionic gonadotropin with genotype and parity on fertility responses of lactating dairy cows

“…In cattle, one type of therapy that could potentially be made more effective through use of personalized medicine is hormonal administration to improve fertility. There is a great deal of between-study variation in effectiveness of some hormonal treatments administered after AI for improving fertility including GnRH (Peters et al, 2000), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG; Nascimento et al, 2013), and progesterone (Yan et al, 2016). Some of this variation is likely due to small sample size, but environmental or genetic differences may also be present between herds, affecting efficacy of treatment.…”

Effect of PRID administration post-insemination on the establishment of pregnancy of dairy cows under commercial farm conditions

“…Administration of GnRH (Franco et al 2006), hCG (Torres et al 2013), or progestagen releasing intravaginal devices (PRID ®, CIDR ® ) (Lopez-Gatius et al 2004;Forro et al 2012) seem to contribute to P4 concentration and consequently, facilitate embryonic survival. CIDR ® or PRID ® are usually placed 4-5 days post insemination (p.i) (Yan et al 2015) and remain in situ until 17-18 day p.i. (Forro et al 2012).…”

“…P4 supplementation with PRID ® or CIDR ® alone between D5 to D18 in order to improve pregnancy rates has been previously tested with beneficial (Larson et al 2007;Forro et al 2012) or inconsistent results (Villarroel et al 2004;Stevenson et al 2007). Based on a recent meta-analysis from Yan et al (2015), there are conditional effects instead of an overall positive effect from progesterone supplementation p.i. Specifically, it seems that the administration of progesterone post insemination had a positive effect only in cows of lower fertility and after natural estrus (Yan et al 2015).…”

“…Based on a recent meta-analysis from Yan et al (2015), there are conditional effects instead of an overall positive effect from progesterone supplementation p.i. Specifically, it seems that the administration of progesterone post insemination had a positive effect only in cows of lower fertility and after natural estrus (Yan et al 2015). We hypothesized that the administration of a progesterone-releasing intra-vaginal device between Day 5 and Day 17 after insemination would improve pregnancy per AI (P/AI).…”