{"id":56083,"date":"2018-10-04T00:49:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T00:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zinpro.com\/managing-reproductive-tract-inflammation-in-dairy-cows\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:27:11","slug":"managing-reproductive-tract-inflammation-in-dairy-cows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zinpro.com\/en_na\/resource-center\/blog\/managing-reproductive-tract-inflammation-in-dairy-cows\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Reproductive Tract Inflammation in Dairy Cows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking steps to positively impact the dairy cow reproduction system is always a smart economic move. One of those steps is managing inflammation related to calving.<\/p>\n

Following birth, a dairy cow in transition has 60 to 70 days to successfully remodel her reproductive tract.\u00a0During this time, a dramatic shift occurs in the epithelium of the reproductive tract. It is critical for dairy cows to mount an effective immune response to eliminate reproductive tract pathogens that enter during the birthing process and to repair damaged tissues. This helps prepare the animal for subsequent pregnancies.<\/p>\n

If this remodeling process happens in a robust manner and the inflammation quickly goes away, an acute inflammatory response is a good thing. And studies show that Zinpro\u00ae Performance Minerals\u00ae<\/a> are important for a robust immune response, keeping this response moving along and returning the cow reproduction system to normal. However, if the process of moving through the acute inflammation is slowed down, the cow may develop chronic inflammation which can negatively impact milk production and her ability to breed back in an efficient time period.<\/p>\n

Chronic Inflammation Implications<\/h3>\n

Fighting chronic inflammation can require a large amount of nutrients, and it can also cause an animal to struggle to hold a pregnancy or even get pregnant. This happens because nutrient partitioning of the animal is compromised by the ongoing inflammation.<\/p>\n

Research by Lance Baumgard at Iowa State University shows that an animal undergoing an inflammatory response can easily lose more than one kilogram of energy (glucose) to the immune system in a day. If you stack a pregnancy on top of that, the nutrients for the fetus will have a high priority. So, with the inflammation, the amount of nutrients necessary to continue milk production becomes greater, and something will have to give as you look at the economics: You will feed the cow more, which will cost you money, or you will feed the cow the same and have less milk \u2014 or less income.<\/p>\n

Trace Minerals Matter in Cow Reproduction<\/h3>\n

A study investigating how to maximize reproductive efficiency throughout the lifecycle of the cow was conducted by James Ferguson at the University of Pennsylvania. The study assigned 156 pregnant Holstein cows into two blocks; one using a daily supplementation of inorganic trace minerals, and the other replacing a portion of the inorganic trace minerals with Zinpro Performance Minerals<\/a>. Diets were fed from 60 days before the projected calving date through 250 days post-calving.<\/p>\n

The study showed partial replacement of the standard inorganic diet with 4-Plex\u00ae C<\/a> from Zinpro helped improve cow fertility:<\/p>\n