Short communication: Morphometric characterization of Lidia cow (Bos taurus) reproductive apparatus

Abstract

To study Lidia cow reproductive apparatus traits, a total of 90 organs were collected after slaughtering the cows from different Bos taurus breeds: (i) Lidia cattle breed - Brava dos Açores population (n=10) and Domecq lineage (n=11); (ii) Holstein Friesian females – 10-14-month-old heifers (n=15); 15-20-month-old heifers (n=10), 21-19-month-old heifers (n=18), and (iii) cows ≥ 30 months (n=26). The length and width were measured for five portions of the female reproductive apparatus (vulva and vagina, cervix, uterine body, uterine horns and ovaries). One-way ANOVA was performed with Tukey test. The level recognized to assume differences was p<0.05 to less. Differences were not shown between Lidia groups. In general, the Lidia cow reproductive apparatus was small in size that that of the matured cows in terms of all traits, with the exception of cervix rings (5.10 ± 0.17 rings) with p≤0.01 for all the groups (averages ranged from 3.33 ± 0.11 rings to 3.50 ± 0.15 rings). The vulva and vagina (L= 27.31 ± 0.53 cm; W=2.07 ± 0.14 cm), the uterine body width (3.01 ± 0.18 cm) and the uterine horns (L= 12.24 ± 0.32; W= 1.13 ± 0.10) showed were smaller in size than those of the evaluated heifers from HF breed that ranged in age from 10 to 14 months (p≤0.01). This study was the first to perform a morphometric characterization on the Lidia cow reproductive apparatus, and the results provide useful information for understanding reproductive approaches to be used with this breed.