Treatment of cystic ovarian disease with Naloxone in high production dairy cows

Abstract

Cystic ovarian disease (COD) is an important cause of abnormal oestrous behaviour and infertility in dairy cows. Ovarian cysts are defined as follicle-like structures of diameter >25 mm persisting for at least 10 days in the absence of a corpus luteum (Garverick, 1997). The prevalence of COD in dairy herds has been reported to vary from 5% to 30% (Vanholder et al., 2006) and this condition may result in significant economic losses to the dairy industry because of increased calving to conception and inter-calving intervals (Peter, 2004).