Tropical Animal Health and Production https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-020-02314-6 REGULAR ARTICLES Effect of flunixin meglumine and aspirin administration on conception rate and estrous cycle characteristics of Egyptian Baladi cows during hot season Ahmed Ismail Damarany1 & Nasser Ghanem2 Received: 7 August 2019 /Accepted: 1 June 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract The current investigation aims to evaluate the effects of flunixin meglumine (FM) and aspirin as non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) administration on estrous cycles characteristics and conception rate of Egyptian Baladi cows during hot season. In the first phase, 30 cows were divided into 3 groups, 10 cows for each treatment. The first group was treated with FM at the rate of 1.1 mg/kg body weight (BW) intramuscular, while the second group was administrated aspirin solution orally at the rate of 50 mg/kg BW. The third group was assigned as control (CG) that has no treatment. The FM group was administrated on day 14 after mating, while aspirin was given on day 14 and day 15 post-mating. All cows were mated naturally after showing estrus signs. Pregnancy diagnosis was carried 60 days after mating by rectal palpation. In the second phase, cows were monitored for estrus behavior by visual observation twice a day. The length of normal estrous cycles was 20, 23, and 22 days in cows treated with FM, aspirin, and control cows, respectively. There was no significant effect of treatment on the length of normal estrous cycles in Egyptian cows (P < 0.05). Proportions of long cycles in Egyptian cows that treated with FM or aspirin and control were 75, 67.7, and 57.1%, respectively. Short cycles were completely absent in cows that treated with FM or aspirin, but it was 29% in CG. Mounting behavior and tail rising were not detected in CG compared to 0 and 33% in FM or 25 and 33% in aspirin treated cows, respectively. Conception or pregnancy rate were 60, 40, and 30%, respectively, in FM, aspirin treated, and CG. Treatment cows whether FM or aspirin group did not influence (P < 0.05) progesterone concentration during the 14 days and 21 days from estrous cycle in pregnant and non-pregnant Egyptian Baladi cows than CG. In conclusion, the results of this study clearly indicated beneficial effect of FM and aspirin administration on intense of displayed estrous behavior and conception rate of Egyptian Baladi cows during the hot season. Keywords Flunixin meglumine . Aspirin . Conception rate . Egyptian Baladi cows Introduction viability of dairy farms. Early research work confirmed incidence of embryonic loss for heifers (40%) and Embryonic loss considered as one of the most important moderate-producing dairy cattle (70 to 80%) between problems in dairy cows that has an impact on the eco- days 8 and 16 post-insemination (Diskin and Sreenan nomic return of cattle breeding. Therefore, research ef- 1980; and Sreenan and Diskin 1986). Although anti- forts should be focused on minimizing embryonic losses inflammatory drugs are used widely in dairy farms, by finding possible treatment, which is essential for many researchers have concerned on the effect of non- steroid anti-inflammatory drugs on pregnancy rate in cattle (Kaveh et al. 2011;Giammarcoetal.2016; * Ahmed Ismail Damarany Barkhori-Mehnietal.2018). Flunixin meglumine (FM) [email protected] and aspirin, considered as a strong non-steroid anti-in- flammatory drugs (NSAIDs), these drugs inhibits syn- 1 Department of Animal and Poultry Production Faculty of Agriculture thesis of cyclooxygenase enzymes (COX-1 and COX- and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt 2) and transformation of arachidonic acid to prostaglan- 2 Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo din F2α (Purcelletal.2005;Gearyetal.2010; University, Giza, Egypt Sanchez-Rodriquez et al. 2011)). Incidence of embryo Trop Anim Health Prod loss during the time of maternal recognition of pregnan- Climatic conditions and farm location cy (MRP) is consequence of embryos to inhibit secre- tion of prostaglandin F2α (Thatcher et al. 1994). Scenna The study was carried out in Aswan governorate. The farm et al. (2004) reported negative effect of PGF2α on via- was located in Kom Ombou city (32°, 31′ 23″ east and 22°, bility and development of bovine embryos produced 28′ 09″ north). Ambient temperature and relative humidity in vitro pre- and post-compaction period. Von Krueger during hot season are presented in Table 1. Temperature hu- and Heuwieser (2010) showed that FM administration in midity index (THI) was calculated using the formula proposed dairy cattle led to delayed luteolysis and enhanced em- by Mader et al. (2006): bryonic survival. Positive trend observed in pregnancy THI ¼ ðÞþ0:8  Tdb ½þðÞÂRH=100 ðÞTdb−14:4 46:4 rate of cows and heifers when administrated NSAIDs (Sanchez-Rodriquez et al. 2011; Heuwieser et al. 2011; Antanaitis et al. 2018). Noteworthy, viability of in vivo Temperature-humidity index (THI) = 0.8 × ambient tem- recovered embryo was reduced from 59 to 27% during perature + [(% relative humidity) 100) × (ambient tempera- the period from day 7 to 14 of pre-implantation devel- ture − 14.4)] + 46.4. opment in the hot season compared with those collected According to livestock weather safety index (LCI in cold season (52 vs. 60%). Furthermore, pregnancy 1970), THI less than 74 and more than 84 are consid- rate was lower (21%) in hot than cold season (36%). ered as normal and emergency, respectively, while THI Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the upto79isalertzoneandbetween79to84isconsid- effects of FM and aspirin administration as NSAIDs ered as danger zone. on conception rate and estrous cycle characteristics of Egyptian Baladi cows during the hot season. Management of animals Material and methods All cows were free from any disease and no manifested pathological signs were observed. The cows were natu- Experimental design ral mated by the bull after displaying signs of estrus during post-partum period (40th day of parturition). Cow’s parity ranged between the 2nd and 5th parity. Experiments were conducted in two phases using 30 local The mean BW at mating was 369.3 ± 43.8 kg. Cows Egyptian cows (Fig. 1). In the first phase, cows were divided were reared in traditional farm as semi-shaded yards. into 3 equal groups of 10 each to evaluate the effect of differ- Cows were fed alfa-alfa, hay wheat, corn fodder and ent treatments on pregnancy rate. The first group injected with concentrate ration consisted corn grain and wheat bran FM at the rate of 1.1 mg/kg BW intramuscularly on day 14 during the period from April to September. The animals after mating according to Geary et al. (2010). The second were fed corn fodder and alfa-alfa ad libitum. All cows group orally administered aspirin solution at the rate of kept under the same managerial and environmental con- 50 mg/kg BW on day 14 (twice) and day 15, 12 h apart, ditions according the farm routine work. post-mating according to Spencer et al. (2016). The final group was untreated and served as a control group. During Heat detection and pregnancy diagnosis second phase, cows were monitored for estrous behavior, such as vaginal mucus discharge, mounting behavior, bellowing, Visual observation of cows was conformed at the morn- tail rising, and standing frequency by visual observation twice ing and night at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. Cows were aday. considered in heat based on any sexual demeanor signs described by El-Wardani (1995). Conception rate was estimated from number of cows that did not return to estrus after first mating over total number of cows mat- ed. Pregnancy was diagnosed by rectal palpation (60 days post-mating) as described by Arthur (1964). Pregnancy rate was calculated as the number of cows, which conceived from the total served post-partum using the following formula: Pregnancy rate¼ðÞNumber of pregnant cows=Total number of mated cows Â100: Fig. 1 Egyptian Baladi cows Trop Anim Health Prod Table 1 Mean of the ambient o temperature (°C), relative Hot months Average ambient temperature ( C) Average relative humidity (RH %) THI humidity (%), and temperature humidity index during the hot Min Max months April 19.1 35.0 18 79.2 May 23.1 41.2 16 83.6 June 25.3 41.3 16 83.7 July 26.2 41.3 18 84.3 August 26.0 41.0 20 84.6 September 24.2 39.4 22 83.8 but it was 29% in CG. There was no significant effect of Analysis of blood progesterone treatment on the length of normal estrous cycles of Egyptian local cows (P < 0.05). Number of cows with estrus signs ob- Blood from jugular vein was collected 10 ml during days 7, served in FM or aspirin and CG was 4, 6, and 7. The greater 14, and 21 after mating in heparinized tubes. Samples were number of animals expressed estrus signs in CG reflects repeat centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 20 min and separated plasma. breeding of animals in this group compared to FM or aspirin Plasma was stored at − 20 °C until estimation of progesterone groups. There was no effect of high THI as indicator of heat (P4) hormone using radioimmunoassay kit (Immunotech, stress on estrus manifestation of Egyptian cattle. Among dif- France). Sensitivity value reported to be according to manu- ferent estrus signs, standing behavior was more frequent being facturer information. The intra- and inter-assay variation co- 100 in control (CG) or treated groups (TGs). The mounting efficients were 5.3 and 11.2%, respectively. behavior and tail raising were not detected in CG compared with cows administrated FM (50% and 33.3%) and aspirin Statistical analysis (25% and 33.3%).