Comparison of the efficiency of progesterone, ketoprofen, or GnRH administration on the day of fixed-time transfer (FTET) of in vitro produced (IVP) embryos in suckled crossbred beef cows

ABSTRACT

The objective is to treat cows receiving IVP embryos with injectable progesterone, ketoprofen, and gonadorelin on the day of FTET and to compare the reproductive efficiency of untreated cows with that of treated cows, using pregnancy per ET as the response variable. 32 oocyte donor cows were used and 392 embryo transfers were performed in multiparous cows. Recipient cows were synchronised with the protocol: on day zero (d0), an intravaginal progesterone device was inserted (1.0 g P4), and 2.0 mg estradiol benzoate (EB;im) was administered; on d8, the P4 device was removed, and 150 µg of cloprostenol was administered; on d9, 1.0 mg EB was administered; and on d17, embryo transfers were performed. On d17, recipient cows were randomly assigned to one of four groups: those treated with injectable progesterone (iP4G, 150 mg; n = 84), ketoprofen (KetoprofenG, 1000 mg; n = 104), gonadorelin (GonadorelinG, 100 µg; n = 80), or the control (untreated) group (NTG, n = 124). Pregnancy diagnosis was performed 35 days following embryo transfer, showing pregnancy per FTET of 42.8, 57.6, 55.0, and 43.5% for iP4G, KetoprofenG, GonadorelinG, and NTG, respectively. It is concluded that ketoprofen improves FTET pregnancy rates when compared to injectable progesterone and control group. Gonadorelin demonstrated comparable efficacy to ketoprofen.

KEYWORDS:

• Fixed-timed embryo transfer
• IVP
• anti-inflammatory
• GnRH
• long-acting progesterone
• beef cows

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).