Clinical Approach to the Repeat Breeder Cow Syndrome

Dairy cattle production requires great intensification, which has been demonstrated to affect negatively on the reproduction. One calf by cow and year is the reproductive objective in these animals. It means that cows must get pregnant after AI, maintain the pregnancy, have parturition after 270 days approx., and wait for a period of 40-50 days to be successfully inseminated again. Nevertheless, this is not always attained and cows must be reinseminated during several consecutive cycles. In this context appears the Repeat Breeder Cow syndrome (RBC), comprising a heterogeneous group of subfertile cows, without anatomical abnormalities nor infections, that exhibit a variety of reproductive disturbances in a consistent pattern during the course of 3 or more consecutive estrous cycles of normal duration (17-25 days). Any of these disturbances may affect the delicate interplay of estrous behavior, hormone patterns, and ovarian dynamics, which in synchrony with the uterine functions finally determines the outcome of mating or artificial insemination (AI) (Bage et al., 2002). Epidemiological studies of RBC prevalence have shown disparate results, ranging from a 5% described by Ayalon (1984) in Jordan, to a 36% observed by Zambrano et al. (1982) in Cuba. Nevertheless, considering the great demands on dairy cow production (which ideally requires obtaining a calf per cow per year), RBC has an important impact on dairy cattle economics (Figure 1).