author(s)
Gunaranjan KS, Sudha G, Sahadev A, Bhajantri SB, Kalmath GP, Kshama MA and Prassana P

abstract
Inadequate endometrial development is responsible for reduced fertility in both humans and cattle species. Vitamin E has been used in human patients with thin endometrium to attain adequate endometrial thickness. To test the hypothesis that oral feeding of vitamin E enhances fertility in cattle by increasing the endometrial thickness (ET) seventeen animals with history of repeat breeding having ET <8 mm on the day before ovulation, were fed with vitamin E for a period of one estrous cycle. All the animals were subject to ultrasound examination of the uterus and ovaries. Size of ovulatory follicle, ET, serum P4 and E2 were recorded and analyzed on the day prior to ovulation, before and after the treatment. 70 percent (12/17) of the animals treated showed an increase in the endometrial thickness (8.30±0.62) at the end of treatment of which nine animals (75%; 9/12) conceived. An overall conception rate of 58.8% (10/17) was obtained. Comparing the means of different parameters recorded before and after treatment with Vitamin E, using paired t test a statistically significant increase in the ET after treatment 4.416±0.139 vs 8.3018±0.622 was observed where as there was no statistically significant difference between the other parameters like follicular size, progesterone levels and estradiol levels (11.271±0.346 vs. 11.775±0.446, 0.490±0.537 vs 0,528±0.755 and 20.1±0.77 vs. 17.810±0.904 respectively). Further between the animals with ET > 8mm and < 8mm a higher percent of conception was recorded in the animals with ET > 8mm (75%), while other parameters did not differ significantly. In conclusion, feeding vitamin E enhanced the ET resulting in higher conception rate.