Some aspects of the interrelationship nutrition-reproduction in bovine: energy, protein, minerals and vitamins

Abstract

Nutrition is one of the major factors of impact in cattle reproductive performance. A critical period and of great importance in a production system corresponds to the postpartum period, when unbalance between the animal needs and ingestion of nutrients is observed, driving to a negative energy balance, with alterations in all reproductive regulators pathways. The effects of negative energy balance on fertility of bovine females seem to be mediated by metabolic and endocrine alterations; this way, the nutritional status is the key factor in regulating reproduction in bovine, being probable that the most searched aspects of the interaction nutrition-reproduction are the effects of the consumption of energy in the diet and the body energy reserves on sexual maturity and post partum cyclicity. The energy of the diet is the nutrient that most affects reproduction in cattle females and its poor ingestion is highly correlated to low reproductive performance, delays in age at puberty and in the interval to first ovulation and postpartum estrum, along with reduction in conception and gestation rates in cows. Protein has an important paper in reproductive and productive performances of cattle, directly influencing weight gain, milk production and fertility, among other parameters. Some minerals and vitamins have been related as fundamentals in cattle reproductive processes by reducing the incidence of reproductive disorders and improving animal production. Based on that, the improvement in mineral and vitamin status of cows by the end of gestation and beginning of nursing periods is a major factor for improving reproductive performance.