ABSTRACT
Platelet rich plasma (PRP) has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of bovine mastitis, with an action comparable to that of antibiotics. Autologous treatment is feasible in experimental conditions but is difficult to apply in field conditions, particularly in acute mastitis. The ideal scenario would be to have heterologous PRP stored on every farm so that it is readily available when needed. In this paper, we analysed data collected during bovine mastitis treatment with heterologous PRP produced by casual donor cows on several farms. We tried to identify parameters which might be useful to identify the most suitable cows to be used as blood donors, to obtain the highest yield of PRP. Variables considered for each animal were the age, the parity, the date of the last parturition, the season of blood collection, the site of blood collection (jugular or mammary vein) and the reproductive status e.g., pregnant or not pregnant. There were statistically significant differences for all the variables considered from the 135 blood cows, except for the blood collection season. The highest yield of PRP was associated with nonpregnancy blood collection within three months of parturition, parity 3 or 4, and blood collection from the mammary vein.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A repeat breeder cow (RBC) can be defined as an animal that after 3 or more inseminations cannot get pregnant because of fertilization failure or early embryonic death. If no cause is identified precisely, inadequate uterine receptivity is responsible for implantation failures. Since a large number of identified molecular mediators, such as cytokines, growth factors and lipids have been postulated to be involved in early feto-maternal interaction, in this study a different approach to the treatment of RBC syndrome has been employed using a platelet concentrate (PC) that contains a significant amount of growth factors accumulated in its α-granules. METHODS: Three explorative studies were performed. Initially, PC was supplemented in the in vitro embryo culture medium to study its effect on embryo-development. After the pilot study, 4 RBCs were treated with intrauterine administration of PC to evaluate proliferative potential of endometrium by immunohistochemical expression of the antigen Ki-67. Lastly, the effect of intrauterine administration of PC at 48 hrs after artificial insemination in RBCs was evaluated. RESULTS: The in vitro results show that 5 % of PC and 5 % of fetal calf serum (FCS) increase the rate of blastocysts compared with the control containing 10 % FCS only (43.04 % vs 35.00 % respectively). The immunohistochemical study shows more proliferating nuclei in the treated uterine horn compared to the control one. After intrauterine insemination in RBCs, the percentage of pregnant cows in the control group was 33.33 % compared to 70 % of the treated animals. CONCLUSION: We suppose that when embryo descends in uterus could find a more appropriate environment for nesting and subsequent pregnancy.