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Management of the Infertile/subfertile Mare
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The commercial horse breeder aims for a live foal every year from their brood mares. While small family bands of feral horses and native ponies may sometimes achieve this, most populations of commercial brood mares suffer conception and pregnancy failures which result in some mares entering the next breeding season not pregnant, i.e. ‘barren’. Assuming normal stallion fertility and adequate management, in most cases this is a matter of sporadic mare subfertility, most commonly associated with obstetric injuries, uterine infections, age-related genital tract disease or managerial problems. True infertility and epidemic subfertility, e.g. epidemic venereal infections or viral pregnancy failures, are uncommon in mares.
It is the responsibility of the equine gynaecologist to:-
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Maximise the reproductive health and efficiency of all mares under his/her care, so that conception and pregnancy failures are kept to a minimum.
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Specifically aid individual mares with reproductive problems to overcome or compensate for their problems in order that they may conceive, undergo normal pregnancy and produce a healthy live foal at normal term.
Fertility Expectations
Historically, it has been suggested that the equine species inherently achieves relatively low fertility figures and that domestication makes matters worse. With good management, this is not the case. Mare fertility results vary between populations. Data from the 2006 Weatherbys’ Statistical Review records that 653 registered Thoroughbred stallions at stud in UK and Ireland mated 23,415 Thoroughbred mares. After excluding those mares for which no returns were made and those that were exported or who died, the conception rate was 97.1%, the gestational failure rate was 8.3%, the live foal rate was 88.8% and the barren mare rate was 11.1%. Therefore, normally fertile and well-managed populations of Thoroughbred horses expect conception rates in excess of 90% and live foal rates in excess of 80% and these are now the targets for both equine studfarm clinicians and stud managers.
However, population statistics help little when considering aspirations for individual mares. Weatherbys’ data demonstrates a linear decline in the fertility potential of mares with age with a 75% live foal rate for 4-year-old mares as compared to a 50% live foal rate for 20-year-old mares. It is vital that clinicians, stud managers and owners understand that age has a major and irrevocable limiting effect on a mare’s fertility potential. [...]
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