CATTLE BREEDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 190, 13 August 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

CATTLE BREEDING

STERILITY IN BULLS CAUSES OF IMPOTENCE. Sterility was the name given to the manifestation of some disease in the cow or bull which prevented the occurrence of pregnancy in the cow, said Mr. T. A. Blake, Government veterinary surgeon, in a recent address, writes the Waikato correspondent of the Weekly News. The physiology of reproduction was explained, and the many diseases of the cow which prevented normal pregnancy were fully demonstrated. Anything up to 7 or 8 per cent, of cows were considered temporarily or permanently sterile on account of these diseases. There were various treatments advised for these troubles, some of them efficacious in some cases. Granular vaginitis, as distinct from ulcerative vaginitis, which latter was not very common, did not appear to be of any importance in this matter, the well-known granules at the entrance to the vagina calling for no treatment. The few cows that were sterile on account of the above-named diseases did not constitute the very serious menace to the dairy industry that herd sterility did. By herd sterility he meant those cases in which most of the cows returned two or three times. This form of sterility was the one in which he was particularly interested and was now, luckily, well on the way to being brought to light. The actual cause of impotence in the bull was thought to be understood, but exactly how and why some bulls should become so was not definitely known, continued the speaker. Infection with streptococcus, a first cousin to the germ which caused mammitis and so many other diseases of man and animals, was believed to be the actual cause of much impotence. The abortion bacillus also caused serious trouble in the bull as in the cow.

About 250 bulls had been examined and the results, while not perfect, were too constant to be far wrong. Instances in which farmers were having serious trouble and in which their bull or bulls were found to be more or less useless on laboratory examination were quoted, the speaker saying that in some of these cases the cows held straight away when mated with another bull.

The lecture was concluded with the advice to try the bull on a few cows early in the season so that an idea could be formed of his usefulness, and with the final reminder that there were many bad bulls about, so that if many cowg were returning, the bull must at least be suspected.