THE RELATIONSHIP OF BODY CANDITION SCORE AT CALVING WITH REPRODUCTION PERFORMANCE IN AZERBAYJANIAN MILKING BUFFALO

Total of 43 milking buffaloes were considered in this experiment to investigate the effect of body condition score of calving (BCSc) on reproductive performance at North-west Buffalo Rearing and Breeding Center, West Azerbaijan, Iran. The experiment was carried out in the form of completely randomized design with 2 factors of BCS and Parity. The BCS had 4 of 2.5-2.99, 3.0-3.49, 3.5-3.99, and 4.0-4.49, and Parity had 3 levels of 1: first calving, 2: 2nd- 5th parity, and 3: 5+ parity. The BCSc of individual animals was determined by measuring animals’ backfat thickness using an ultrasound machine at the 12–13th rib (mm) at the start of the trial. The results showed a linear relationship between BCSc and parity with calf birth weight (P<0.05). The lowest age at first estrus after calving was in animals within group of BCS with 2.5 to 2.99 (P<0.05), but the effect of parity on age at first estrus after calving was not significant (P<0.05). The main effect of BCSc and parity were significant on conception rate in the first artificial insemination such that buffaloes within BCSc group of 3-3.49 and within parity group 2 had higher conception rate. In this study the open days after calving and calving intervals increased with increasing BCS (P<0.05). The effect of BCS and parity group was not significant (P>0.05) on the number of artificial insemination resulted in pregnancy. Breeding efficiency was linearly associated with number of parity (P>0.05), but it did not affected by BCS (P>0.05).