Case Report: Infertility in Two Dairy Goats

Two female goats with infertility were reported in December during the breeding season. Both patients showed normal physiology on the day of presentation. Patient A, a 2.5-year-old primiparous lactating alpine with a history of blurred signs of estrous behavior, refused to mate with a buck since the breeding season in August. Patient B, a 2-year-old nulliparous alpine, failed to conceive after three times of natural mating and did not return to estrus. Two protocols of estrus synchronization were prescirbed for each patient and the changes of progesterone (P4) profile were monitored. Hormones integrating eCG (400 IU) plus hCG (200 IU) on Day 1, GnRH (0.1Formula: see textmg gonadorelin) on Day 6, PGF2Formula: see text (0.125Formula: see textmg clopostenol sodium) on Day 13, and eCG (400 IU) plus hCG (200 IU) on Day 14 were used in patient A. The increasing P4 concentrations from 0.16Formula: see textng/mL to 24.14Formula: see textng/mL during the treatment course were detected, then an estrous induction was performed, followed by natural mating with a buck for 2 days. Pregnancy was confirmed by abdominal ultrasonography 50 days after mating. Patient B failed to respond to the treatment of 5 consecutive injections of GnRH (a total of 0.5Formula: see textmg gonadorelin) as all the P4 values were less than 1Formula: see textng/mL. Furthermore, vaginal speculum revealed a stenosis of vagina, possibly elucidating a case of infertility in this young goat. Our results demonstrated that an eCG-based protocol without pretreatment of progesterone was beneficial to help restore cyclicity for breeding in an alpine goat with seasonal anestrus.