The effect of uterine biopsy on reproductive performance of dairy cattle: A case-control study

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of uterine biopsy on the reproductive performance of dairy cows in commercial herds. Fifty four Israeli Holstein cows in four dairy herds were randomly allocated for uterine biopsy before first service and 157 control cows were paired-matched to the biopsy cows. Reproductive performance of biopsy cows was not poorer than that of the control cows. Biopsy cows did not differ significantly from the control cows in the first artificial insemination conception rates, 44.4% and 38.9%, respectively, and for pregnancy rate at 150 Days in Milking (DIM), 55.6% and 45.2%, respectively. Using survival analysis to compare time to pregnancy, biopsy and control cows did not differ significantly in their pregnancy rates until 150 DIM (log-rank test, P =0.246). These results suggest that uterine biopsy done in post involution cows is not a detrimental procedure and does not affect reproductive performance.