E F F E C T S O F W H E A T G E R M OIL ON R E P R O D U C T I V E E F F I C I E N C Y

I N R E P E A T - B R E E D E R COWS 1

@. B. ~IARION Department of Dairy Science, Kansas State University, Manhattan

S U I ~ I ~ A R ¥

Clinically normal repeat-breeder cows that had failed to maintain pregnancy after three or more services were alternately assigned to the experimental or control group. The experimental cows received 2 oz of wheat germ oil on their feed once a week for six consecutive weeks. A significantly higher percentage of the 79 treated cows maintained pregnancy after the first post-treatment service than of the 88 untreated cows. The difference in post-treatment con- ception between treated and untreated cows that had three unsuccessful services before treatment was not significant; however, there was a highly significant difference in favor of the treated cows that had been bred four or more times before initiation o£ treatment.

The effects of wheat germ oil on reproductive efficiency in cattle and swine have received considerable attention. However, most of the original work was concerned with the vitamin E content of the oil (4). Since it is difficult to obtain an animal diet deficient in vitamin E, its addition to normal, well-balanced animal diets has proved to be of no value. Some in- vestigators have reported favorable results from adding wheat germ oil to normal diets. Unfor- tunately, most of those studies were not ade- quately controlled to permit accurate interpre- tation of the results.

In the field of hunmn medicine, Watson and Tow (10) and Silbernagel and Patterson (8) reported wheat germ oil to be a valuable thera- peutic agent in reducing the incidence of the complications of pregnancy. Compton (2, 3) concluded from a 2-yr study that no benefits resulted from adding wheat germ oil to the ration of pregnant sows. ttowever, sows that received wheat germ oil farrowed larger pigs, and a greater percentage of their pigs sur- vived. Salisbury (6) found no effects on the reproductive performance of daix T bulls re- sulting from feeding 1 oz of solvent process wheat germ oil daily for 1 yr. Bay and Vogt- Moiler (1), Tutt (9), and Pacini (5) have re- ported beneficial results from treating repeat- bre.eder cows with wheat germ oil. Paeini (5)

Received for publication December 8, 1961.

1 Furnished by ¥ioBin Corporation, Monticello, Ill.

suggested that the favorable results might not have been entirely due to vitamin E.

E X P E R I i ~ E N T A L PROCEDURES

This study was conducted during a 3-yr period at intervals to include all seasons of the year, using clinically normal, parous, repeat- breeder cows representing four dairy breeds in the Kansas State University herd. All cows that had been bred two or more times and had been determined to be clinically normal were arbitrarily assigned to either the experimental or the control group. All cows were checked for estrus twice daily and were inseminated approximately 8 hr after being detected in estrus. Semen from bulls of known reproduc- tive capacity was used, and every effort was made to use semen from the same bulls in both the experimental and control groups, and to have all inseminations performed by one indi- vidual.

All cows of both groups were fed and man- sged in the same nmnner. During the 3-yr period that this study was conducted, the ra- tion fed to the cows varied considerably, de- pending on availability of feeds. The roughage varied from alfalfa hay fed ad libitum and small quantities of silsge to ad libitum feeding of sorghum silage and limited quantities of hay. Some brome pasture was available during the pasture season. A grain mixture containing approximately 16% crude protein was fed ac- cording to production. In addition to the ration received by all cows, the experimental cows received 2 oz of wheat germ oil per week for

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WI~IEAT GEI%M OIL EFFECTS ON REPRODUCTION 9 0 5

6 wk. The oil was added to one feed ing of g r a in each week. A l t e r n a t e cows t h a t had beeu bred two or more t imes were ass igned to the expe r imen ta l g roup and received the first feed- ing of whea t ge rm oil on the same day or the day fol lowing r e t u r n i n g in estrus. A s imi la r cow of tile same ~ge and breed, t h a t r ep re - sented an equal n u m b e r of repeat-services , was ass igned as he r control . The n u m b e r of cows t ha t conceived to the service concur ren t wi th the in i t i a t ion of t r e a t m e n t was calculated. I t is doub t fu l t ha t these cows could have been in- fluenced by the first t r e a t m e n t ; therefore , i f concept ion occurred a t this service the cows were not included in the analyses. The n u m b e r of p o s t - t r e a t m e n t services requi red f o r con- cept ion by each expe r imen ta l and each of the control cows was calculated. The da ta f o r bo th g roups of cows were ana lyzed s ta t is t ica l ly by use of the I~olmogorov-Simirnov tes t (7 ) . Al l cows t h a t were de te rmined to be cl inical ly ab- n o r m a l were excluded f r o m the study.

RESULTS AI~ID DISCUSSION

The da ta p re sen ted in Table 1 are a r r a n g e d to ind ica te the d i s t r ibu t ion of cows a m o n g the pos t - t r e a tmen t service groups . The Kolmo- g o r o v - S m i r n o v tes t was used to de te rmine the significance of differences in the d i s t r ibu t ion of the cows among the serv ice-per-concept ion groups . The analyses ind ica ted no s ignif icant difference between the t r ea t ed and u n t r e a t e d cows t h a t had been b red three t imes p r e t r e a t - men t (D = 0.14, P > .30). A h ighly s ignif icant difference existed between the d i s t r ibu t ion of t r ea ted cows bred f o u r or more t imes before t r e a t m e n t in i t i a t ion and s imi lar u n t r e a t e d cows (D ---- 0.46, P < 0.001). Poo l ing da ta f o r all

cows on expe r imen t gave h igh ly s ignif icant (D = 0.30, P < 0.001) differences in d is t r ibu- t ion in f a v o r of the whea t -ge rm- t r ea t ed cows. A much h ighe r pe rcen t age of the t r ea ted t h a n u n t r e a t e d cows set t led as a resu l t of the first p o s t - t r e a t m e n t service.

Only 22 or 2 2 % of 101 cows t h a t h a d been b red two or more times, which were to be as- s igned to the expe r imen ta l g roup conceived to the service concur ren t wi th the in i t i a t ion of t r ea tmen t , as compared to 19 or 18% of 107 s imi la r cows t h a t were to serve as controls . This low ra te of concept ion is a t least pa r t i a l l y exp la inab le by the f ac t t h a t a t th is t ime the he rd was be ing used fo r art if icial insemina t ion pract ice .

The pe rcen t age of cows b red t h a t conceived to a specific p o s t - t r e a t m e n t service a n d the n u m b e r of services p e r concept ion were calcu- l a t ed ; however, the l imi ted n u m b e r of an imals in each group would no t p e r m i t an accura te i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of the results . I t is also real ized t ha t the biological significance of this s tudy would have been improved wi th a cons iderably g r e a t e r n u m b e r of animals .

I t h a s been adequa te ly p r o v e n t h a t v i t amin E, f o u n d in h igh concen t r a t ion in whea t -ge rm oil, has no favorab le influence on the repro- duct ive efficiency of cat t le on n o r m a l diets (4) . The resul t s r epo r t ed in this s tudy suggest t ha t o ther subs tances in whea t ge rm oil m a y be capab le of beneficially inf luencing r ep roduc t ion in some clinically no rnml r epea t -b reede r cattle.

REFERENCES

(1) BAY, Y., AND VOGT-MOLLEa, P. Continued Studies on Treatment of Steri l i ty in Cows and Breeding Sows with Wheat Germ Oil. Vet. J., 90: 288. 1934.

TABLE 1

Effects of wheat-germ oil on the reproductive performance of r epea t -b ree~r dairy cows

Post-treat- ment serv- Cows bred 4×

ice on Cows bred 3× or more Total cows which con- before t reatment before t rea tment on experiment

ception occurred Treated Untrea ted Treated Untrea ted Treated Untrea ted

(No.) (% of (No.) (% of (No.) (% of (No.) (% of (No.) (% of (No.) (% of total) total) total) total) total) total)

1st 28 68 23 52 30 80 15 34 58 73 38 63 2nd 9 2~ 15 34 2 5 13 30 11 14 28 32 3rd 3 7 0 0 1 3 10 23 4 5 10 11 4th 0 0 3 7 2 5 1 2 2 3 4 5 5th 1 3 2 5 1 3 3 7 2 3 5 6 6th 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 4 0 0 3 3 7th 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 2 3 0 0

41 64 38 49 79 88

906 G. B. MARION

(2) Co~P~ON, E. W. A Study of the Nutritional Value of Wheat Germ Products for Swine. Sci. Agr., 21: 12. 1941.

(3) C o M P ~ , E. W. A Study of the Nutritional Value of Wheat Germ Products for Swine. II . Sci. Agr., 23: 3. 1942.

(4) GULLIeKSON, T. W., PALMEt~, L. S., BOYD, W. L., N~L,so~, J. W., OLSON, F. C., CAL- Xr~aL~Z, C. E., AND BOYE~., P. D. Vitamin E in the Nutrition of Cattle. I. Effect of Feeding Vitamin E Poor Rations on Re- production, Health, Milk Production, and Growth. J. Dairy Sci., 32: 495. 1949.

(5) PAClNI, A. J. " S a t u r a t i o n " Method for Treatment of Breeding Failures with Wheat Germ Oil. J. Am. Med. Assoc., 93: 236. 1939.

(6) SAL]SBUI~Y, G. W. A Controlled Experiment in Feeding Wheat Germ Oil as a Supple- ment to the Normal Ration of Bulls Used for Artificial Insemination. J. Dairy Sci., 27: 551. 19=t4.

(7) SIF;(~AL, SII~NE~¥. Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. 1956.

(8) SI~BRNAG~L, W. M., AND PATerSON, J . B. Reduction of the Incidence of the Compli- cations of Pregnancy. Ohio J. Sci., 49: 195. 1949.

TuT% J. F. Treatment of Sterility in Cows with Wheat Germ Oil. Vet. J., 89: 416. 1933.

W~Tso~, E. M., ~ ] ) TL~v, W. P. Wheat Germ Oil Therapy in Obstetric. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol., 31: 352. 1936.

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