Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Bovine endometritis is a common disease in post-partum cattle, causing decreased fertility and reduced profitability. The treatment and definitions of the disease have been the subject of many discussions. This study aimed to research how veterinarians in the field treat, diagnose and prevent the disease, with the purpose of identifying areas in need of further research or treatment recommendations and to estimate the respondents’ knowledge about the diagnoses An anonymous survey was conducted in Sweden and Italy during the fall of 2025. The participants were asked about demographic information, case load, and management preferences for endometritis. The results were subsequently presented using descriptive statistics.

In total 260 participants started the survey, of which 112 in Swedish and 148 in Italian. There was a total of 146 complete responses. Almost every respondent had treated endometritis in the last year, but the case load varied greatly between respondents. The Swedish veterinarians worked more in mixed practice than the Italian veterinarians, who worked mainly with cattle. Even though the most used treatment was prostaglandins in both countries, there were some major differences in preferred management options between the groups. The most prominent difference was that Italian veterinarians used intrauterine treatments while Swedish veterinarians did not treat endo-metritis locally. Overall, the most used treatments in both Italy and Sweden were in line with the Swedish treatment recommendations, with the exception of local antibiotic treatment. While Penicillin was the most used antibiotic in both countries, a greater variety of antibiotics seemed to be used in Italy compared to Sweden. The most used diagnostic methods were clinical examina-tion, rectal palpation, and clinical history in both countries, but only Italian veterinarians used the metricheck device, possibly related to a more specialized population of veterinarians responding from Italy. Most Italian veterinarians re-visited their cases, while follow-ups were rarely carried out by Swedish veterinarians. The most common preventative action recommended to farmers was hygiene at calving, which is a factor with little scientific evidence as a specific risk for endometritis, but is associated with other postpartum diseases.

In conclusion, prostaglandin was the most used treatment for endometritis in both countries. Italian veterinarians commonly used intrauterine antibiotics and a larger diversity of antibiotic substances compared with Swedish veterinarians. The Italian veterinarians were more specialized in bovine medicine, had a larger case load and followed up on their treatments more than Swedish veterinarians.