Reproductive status of cows slaughtered at the Ngaoundere Municipal Slaughter House and factors responsible for potential losses in herd productivity

The reproductive status (RS) of 2,103 cows slaughtered at the Ngaoundere Municipal Slaughter House (NMSH) in view of highlighting potential losses resulting from the slaughtering of pregnant cows (PC) were assessed. Concurrently, 390 of the cows evaluated for RS were randomly selected for a detailed identification of the possible causes of infertility from the gross reproductive pathologies (GRP) observed in the reproductive tract. Data were collected between July and December, 2004 and analyzed using SAS program (1991). Of a sample of 2,426 animals slaughtered, 2,103 (86.6%) were cows. The prevalence of PC slaughtered was 37.3%. Majority (83%) of the cows slaughtered were below 9 years of age. The PC slaughtered (7.5 years) were significantly (