[The current obstetrics situation in cattle - a retrospective evaluation of data from clinics]

The aim of the study is to describe the situation concerning dystocia in cattle using a retrospective analysis of hospital data.1345 cases of cows with dystocia presented at a university obstetrics clinic between 2007 and 2019 were evaluated retrospectively. The age, breed or direction of use, causes for the difficult birth, the chosen intervention, complications that occurred and mortality rates were recorded. In addition, correlations between individual parameters were analyzed.29.9% of the affected cows were younger than 2.5 years and 49.0% were in their first parity. The most common causes consisted of the following: anomalies in position and posture (46.3%), large fetus (41.3%), uterine torsion (26.5%) as well as an inadequately opened cervix (19.3%). Missed miscarriage births occurred in 7.6% of cases. Uterine torsion particularly affected dairy breeds (p<0.0001) and cows between 2.5 and 3.5 years of age (p<0.0001). Large fruits (p<0.0001) and narrowing of the soft (p=0.0082) and bony birth canals (p<0.0001) occurred mainly in cows younger than 2.5 years and in beef breeds (p<0.0001). Cervical cuffs were most common in the age groups<2.5 years (18.5%),>2.5-3.5 years (19.7%) and>3.5-4.5 years (18.5%) and in the group of>6.5-year-old cows (20.6%) (p<0.0001). Twin pregnancy was most frequently detected in cows older than 6.5 years (p<0.0001).The cows' mortality rate amounted to 9.4%. When complications occurred during the procedure, the mortality rate was increased (p<0.0001). The mortality rate for calves after removal and caesarean section was 46.0%. The proportion of calves that survived was higher following conservative obstetrics than caesarean sections (p=0.005). 41.7% of the stillborn calves had been dead for a longer period of time.The data show that there is a need for optimization with regard to the prevention of problematic births. This applies in particular to the high proportion of excessively young cows with large fetuses. Avoidable risk factors include too early mating. The high proportion of calves that had been dead for some time suggests that numerous dystocias are recognized too late in the course of parity. The risk of missed miscarriage births should therefore be reduced by intensifying birth monitoring.