J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019; 17: 2–7

Journal ofInternational Cooperation for
Agricultural Development

Original

Study on the Reproductive Performanceand Problems in Crossbred Cows in
Jalalabad, East of Afghanistan
Assadullah1), Nahoko Ieda1), Darmel Bayer M2), Peer Mohammad Stanikzai2),
Redwanullah Memlawal2), Naoko Inoue1), Yoshihisa Uenoyama1), Hiroko Tsukamura1)
1)2)

Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
Clinic Department, Faculty of Veterinary Science Nangarhar University, Nangahar 2601, Afghanistan

Received January 23, 2018 Acceptd August 1, 2018
Abstract. Livestock production is one of the most important economic and social activities in agriculture in Afghanistan.
The present study aims to survey the reproductive performance of crossbred cows to address any major constraints of theirreproduction in Afghanistan. Body condition, reproductive disorders, and feeding schemes were surveyed in 144 cows of
7 dairy farms in Jalalabad city. In this survey, we found that 55.6% dairy cows had reproductive disorders, among them“anestrus” showed the highest percentage. Cows with a lower body condition score (BCS) showed a greater incidence ofanestrus, with a significant difference in the occurrence of anestrus between BCS 1 and BCS 3. Further, cows fed with only
straw tended to show lower BCS compared with animals fed with both straw and concentrates. In conclusion, the present
study suggests that the low BCS of cows, which is possibly caused by a poor feeding scheme, is closely associated with ahigher occurrence of anestrus in cows. The present study may contribute to proposing improvements in feeding schemes that
may in turn increase the reproductive performance of crossbred cows in Afghanistan.
Key words: Reproductive performance, problems, crossbred cows, Afghanistan

Introduction
Livestock production is one of the most important economic and social activities in agriculture in Afghanistan:
46% of the land area in the country was estimated to be
used for meadows and pastures, which covers up to 79% of
the total agricultural land1). Livestock products contributeto 15% of agricultural GDP and are suggested as one of themost promising industries in Afghanistan2). On the other
hand, the negative impact on food security caused by thearmed conflicts still continues in the country. Approximately 30−40% of the total population are estimated being
under severe or moderate food-insecurity3, 4), of which 4.3
Corresponding author: Hiroko Tsukamura, e-mail: htsukamura@nagoya-u.jp
2 J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019

million people (which counts for 16% of the total population of the country) are in urgent need for assistance toaccess food5). Improvement of livestock production isrequired for the security of nutritious food in Afghanistan,especially in the dry rural areas where the farmers largely
rely on livestock for income.
Cattle provides the largest portion of meat and milk
products among livestock in Afghanistan1). The total
number of cattle kept in Afghanistan was 3.7 million in
2002–20036) and the largest number of cattle were kept in
Nangarhar and Badakshan provinces, where over 0.3 million of cattle are farmed6). According to Zafar7), before thewar in the 1970’s, bulls for exotic breeds and their semen
for crossbreeding with local breed cows had been rearedin governmental farms located in provinces including
Nangarhar. Until now, some of the governmental farms

and artificial insemination centers continue to provide
artificial insemination with the semen from Friesian andJersey bulls7).
Reproductive performance is a key trait for cattle
production, because successful pregnancy, gestation andlactation of cows directly leads to economic return for
the farmers, as well as an increase in animal production,
which could provide efficient nutrients (protein) to people.
In the surrounding countries of Afghanistan, such as Iran8)
and Pakistan9), reproductive performance of cows, such as
estrus cycle, fertilization, pregnancy period, calving interval, estrus cycle detection rate after parturition10) have been
described, whereas such information is extremely limited
and scarce in Afghanistan. Thus, the present study aimed
to investigate the reproductive performance of crossbred
cows in Afghanistan and address major constraints in theirreproduction. We initially identified seven cattle producing
farms in Jalalabad city, where recorded reproductive history is available in each crossbred cow within the previous
year from the survey date, as well as the body condition
score (BCS) on the date of the survey. This study will also
serve as an entry point for further surveys at a larger scale
within the country, which may contribute to improving
reproductive performance of cows in Afghanistan.

Materials and Methods
Selection of the study site

The present survey was conducted from 15th February
to 15th March 2016 in Jalalabad city, located in Nangarhar,
an eastern province of Afghanistan. It is located at latitude 34.43 N and longitude 70.45 E, and elevated at 575
meters above the sea level. The province was previously
identified to hold the largest number of cattle populationin the country, according to the national census6). Seven
farms, including one governmentally and six privately
owned, were selected, because these farms have complete
background records of the cows such as breeds, age, reproductive performance and reproductive disorders, and theircows were regularly checked by their private veterinarians.
The veterinarians cooperated with the interviewers during
the present survey.
Animal husbandry

All 144 cows kept in the seven farms were crossbreedof Afghan native breed, Kandahari, and exotic breeds(Holstein and Brown Swiss). According to the locals, theKandahari breed is originated from Kandahari province,
Afghanistan, and known as one of the oldest and most
preferred native breed among the farmers. Before the war,
the exotic cattle were kept at governmental dairy farms
at Jalalabad and other districts of Nangarhar province toprovide the bulls to rural farmers for crossbreeding. The
governmental farms were looted during the war and thecattle were taken to private farms. Currently there is no
documented information about pedigree of these cows
nor stable system to provide artificial insemination and/or
breeder bulls, as a result of the influence of the war. Therefore, the farmers practiced artificial insemination or mating
depending on available services, and the information on
pedigrees, such as filial generations from the parental
strains, was not available in the record kept at the farms.
Fifty-four cows in one farm were fed with only wheat
straw and ninety cows in the other six farms were fed
with combination of hay, wheat straw and concentrate.
The hay was mainly produced from Shaftal Persian clover(Trifolium resupinatum), which is one of the most popular
fodders in Afghanistan according to the previous case study
by FAO11). As concentrate, farmers used local cereal crops,
such as maize bran, cotton seed cake, wheat and corn.
The farmers who used the mixed feeds with hay, wheat
straw and concentrate changed their feeding practice seasonally. During winter, the farmers fed the animals withdried hay and concentrate in the daytime and with only
wheat straw in the nighttime. During summer, the wheat
straw was mixed with green hay and concentrate and there
was no change in the feeding practice from daytime tonighttime. The approximate portion of the wheat, hay andconcentrates, when they were mixed, were 45%, 45%, and10%, respectively, according to the interviewer’s observation.
Implementation of the survey

Seven dairy farms in total were visited by trained interviewers together with private veterinarians who regularly
serve for these farms. A close-ended questionnaire wasdesigned prior to the interview and interviews were conducted at each farm in presence of the cattle. Questions
were answered by head of the farms, family or labor, whowere mainly responsible for the animals. The farmers’
records on notebooks that had all previous records of theherds were also checked at the site.
Questionnaire

The questionnaire was prepared in the local language(Pashto). All questions asked during the survey are shownin Table1. The first question pertained to the feeds for all thecattle at each farm. All other questions were asked regarding each individual cow in the herd. All cows that haveever experienced at least one conception were targeted forthe survey. Bulls and prepubertal heifers were excluded
from the survey, because the present study focused on
reproductive performance of adult females.

J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019 3

Table 1. Questionnaire on reproductive performance and feed condition of cows
QuestionsType of food (A= Straw, B= Hay, C= Concentrate)
Breed of cow
Age of cow
BCS (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
No. of total parturition
No. of total abortion
No. of total dystocia
No. of repeat breeder
Length of anestrus
Other diseases

Table 2. Number of cows grouped by age
Age group (yrs)

Number of cows

1.5~2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

8
21
23
22
11
13
27
1
7
1
4
2
4

Total

144

Diagnosis of anestrous and history of reproductive
disorders

Estrus was detected by observation of standing estrous
behavior and visual inspection of mucus from genital area.
Animals that had shown no estrus, and therefore undergone
no mating nor artificial insemination, during the previous 3
months or longer were diagnosed as “anestrus” unless they
were pregnant. The history of reproductive disorders in thelast year was collected from the farmers’ records.
Body condition score (BCS)

Body condition was scored in order to assess thenutritional status of the animal by visual inspection by
the interviewers on the day of the survey. A five-pointcondition scoring system was used in the current survey as
previously described12). All the animals were grouped into
one of five categories1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, for very poor, poor,
fair, fat and very fat conditions, respectively. The scoring
was determined by palpation and visualization of the transverse and spines processes for the lumbar vertebrae (loin)
and pins, hooks tail head shapes, respectively.

Fig. 1. The number of crossbred dairy cows showing 1 to
5 of body condition score (BCS). The BCS wasdetermined according to the 5-point condition
scoring system as previously described12). 144 cows
in total were surveyed in 7 farms in Jalalabad in
East-Afghanistan. Note, no cow with 5 of BCS was
found in the current study.

Statistical analysis

The difference in the number of cows diagnosed as anestrus between BCS groups was analyzed by using Fisher’s
exact test with Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery
rate controlling procedure (R version 3.2.0, http://www.Rproject.org/).

BCS (n=73), followed by 2 (n=60), 1 (n=9) and 4 (n=2) asshown in Figure 1. No cow was scored as 5 in BCS in thepresent survey.

Results

Number of parturitions

Number, age and BCS of animals

In the surveyed 7 farms, 144 cows were present.
Numbers counted in each age group are shown in Table
2. Among the all cows, the median age was 5 years old,
ranging from a minimum of 1.5 years old to a maximumof 14 years old. The largest number of cows scored 3 in
4 J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019

The number of parturitions recorded for each cow during
its lifetime are shown as a sunflower plot in Figure 2. The
majority of cows showed their first parturition by the age of3 or 4 years old. As the age of the cows increased, the median(indicated as grey bar) of the parity increased by approximately one between 2 and 13 years old. Some females havenever shown parturition by the age of 8 years old.

Fig. 2. The number of parturitions recorded during the lifetime of each cow. Black dot indicates there was one
cow observed at the coordinate value. When two or
more cows were observed at the same coordinate
value, the number of the cows were expressed as
the numbers of “petals” in red. Median among eachage group are indicated by grey horizontal bars.

Fig. 3. The number of the cows diagnosed as anestrus (■)
and cyclic (■) in each BCS group. Cows which
had shown no estrus during the previous 3 months
or longer was diagnosed as anestrus. There wasa significant difference in the occurrence (percentage) of anestrus between BCS1 and BCS3
(p<0.01 by Fisher’s exact test with Benjaminiand Hochberg false discovery rate controlling
procedure).

Occurrence of anestrous and feeds
Reproductive disorders

The number of animals with reproductive disorders in
the last year is shown in Table 3. Eighty cows out of 144
were diagnosed as having reproductive disorders, which isequivalent to 55.6% of the total cows observed. Among thediagnosed cows, the largest number were anestrus, whichcounts for 20.1% of the total cows observed, followedby metritis (9.0%) and repeat breeding (5.6%), which isdefined as the failure of fertilization after two or more
insemination trials. Fourteen cows showed two or more of
the disorders, such as abortion, anestrus, dystocia, vaginal
prolapse and repeat breeders (9.7%).

The number of the cows diagnosed as anestrus in each
BCS group is shown in Figure 3. As the BCS increased,
the percentage of the cows diagnosed as anestrus in all
cows with the same BCS decreased. The percentage ofcows showing anestrus in each BCS group was as follows: BCS1, 77.8%; BCS2, 31.7%; BCS3, 17.8%; BCS4,
50.0%. There was a significant difference in the occurrence (percentage) of anestrus between BCS1 and BCS3
(p<0.01 Fisher’s exact test with Benjamini and Hochberg
false discovery rate controlling procedure). Figure 4 showsthat cows fed with only straw tended to show a lower BCS
compared with cows fed with straw, hay and concentrates.

Table 3. Number of cows diagnosed withreproductive disorder
Reproductive
disorderNumber ofanimals%

Abortion
Anestrous
Dystocia
Repeat breeding
Retain placenta
Metritis
Vaginitis
Mixed

6
29
6
8
1
13
3
14

4.2
20.1
4.2
5.6
0.7
9.0
2.1
9.7

Total

80

55.6

Fig. 4. The percentage of cows showing each BCS in two groups
categorized by the feed; a group fed with straw, hay and concentrates (n=90); the other group fed with only straw (n=54). BCS
1 (■), BCS 2 (■), BCS 3 (■) and BCS 4 (■).

J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019 5

Discussion
The present study demonstrates that anestrus is possibly
the largest constraint in the reproductive performance ofAfghan crossbred cows in Jalalabad city and that a poor
feeding scheme may mainly be the cause of anestrus in thelocal farms in the area, because the present study showedthat cows with a poor BCS were highly associated with theoccurrence of anestrus and that the BCS correlated with thetype of feeds. These results suggest that an improvement in
the feeding scheme may contribute to improving the reproductive performance of crossbred cows in Afghanistan.
It is well known that the reproductive performance ofcows is often affected by nutrition13, 14). Low nutritional
feeding after parturition has negative effects on pulsatileluteinizing hormone (LH) release in dairy cows15, 16).
Negative energy balance, caused by deficiencies in foodcontent and/or total dry matter intake, results in delaying
the first ovulation and decreasing reproductive efficiency
in cattle17). Indeed, the cows whose body condition waspoor during early lactation appear to be at risk for delayed
ovulation, delayed first insemination, and low conception
rate13). A previous study also indicated that poor body
condition during the early postpartum period caused longcalving intervals and that poor nutrition impaired ovarianfunction, resulting in repeat breeding in crossbred (Holstein x Sahi-wal) dairy cows in the Philippines18). Further,nutritional status is largely correlated with reproductive
performance in cattle: when nutrition is improved, particularly during the pre-partum period, postpartum anestrus
and calving intervals are reduced; when BCS is adequate
at calving, the interval to conception is reduced14). An
increase in nutrient intake during the pre-partum period
substantially improves pregnancy rate compared with beef
cows that experience a low nutrient intake until parturition19). On the other hand, an inadequate nutrient intake
causes loss of weight and a low BCS, finally resulting in
the cessation of estrous cycles in cattle13). These studies
are largely consistent with our current findings, showingthat cows fed only with straw were highly associated with
anestrus. Wheat straw alone is insufficient as feed for dairy
cows, because the total digestive nutrient can be as low
as 38%20), which only supplies energy for survival of theindividual cow. Further, cows fed with only straw tended
to show a lower BCS compared with animals fed withstraw, hay and concentrates, suggesting that an improvement of the feeding scheme is required to improve the BCS
and consequently reproductive performance in cows. It isalso noteworthy that two cows fed with only straw showed
higher BCS compared with others, implying that the BCS
could be improved by other environmental factors, suchas better management of sheds and sanitation, than only
6 J Intl Cooper Agric Dev 2019

feedings. Individual variation of physiological conditions
also needs to be taken into account, because residual feedintake (one of the major indices of feed efficiency in ruminants) varies depending on metabolism, thermoregulationor physical activities of individual animals21).
The BCS is one of the most useful indicators to understand the animal nutrition and reproductive status in dairy
cows, because the present study showed that the lower the
BCS, the higher the percentage of cows that showed anestrus. The notion is consistent with previous studies showingthat estrus cycle can be estimated with the BCS and thatthe time of the delivery to the next estrus can be estimatedby BCS in the Japanese anestrus Holstein dairy cows22).
Indeed, an excessively low BCS results in an unsuitablecondition for estrus cycle and fertility in Holstein dairy
cows: Cows that have a low BCS have low estrus andpregnancy rates than cows with a moderate BCS as seenin Nellore cows23). Interestingly, ‘fatty condition’ also canhave a negative influence on reproductive performancein cows. In fact, the pregnancy rate was higher in cowsthat showed moderate BCS than thinner or fatter cows23).
Thus, the feeding programs designed to maintain cows at
a moderate BCS from pre-calving through rebreeding are
required to improve reproductive performance in cows23).
The present study revealed that 55.6% of dairy cows
in the survey have reproductive disorders and that “anestrus” was the major disorder and some anestrous cows
also afflicted with additional reproductive disorders,such as metritis repeat breeding. The result is consistent
with previous studies, indicating that anestrus is major
reproductive problem, which is often accompanied withrepeat-breeding, dystocia, retained fetal membranes, endometritis and abortion in crossbred dairy cattle in Mekelle,
Ethopia24), Hosanna, Ethopia25) and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam26). Further, the present survey showed that some cows
have never shown parturition by the age of 8 years old.
It is speculated that an improvement of nutritional status
may solve anestrus and other accompanying reproductive
disorders that may consequently facilitate reproductive
performance in Afghan cows.
In conclusion, the present study showed that cows witha poor BCS were highly associated with the occurrence ofanestrus and that BCS was associated with the type of feed.
These results suggest that an improvement in the feeding
scheme may contribute to improve the reproductive performance of crossbred cows in Afghanistan.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Nangarhar valley development
authority project and Nangarhar agriculture, irrigation &livestock directorate to providing records and opportunity
to survey the animals. We thank veterinarian doctors

Mr. Abdul Haq, Mr. Bahader khan Rahmanzai and Mr.
Muhammad Hassan to cooperating animal examination.
The present study was supported in part by a grant of
Project for the Promotion and Enhancement of the Afghan
Capacity for Effective Development (PEACE) project ofJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). We thankDr. Nicola Skoulding for her English edition.
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