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Stimulatory Effects of Diseased and Disease-Free Alfalfa Hay on the Uterus of Ovariectomized Ewes

U. S. Department of Agriculture

Abstract

Endometrial vascular function was measured by the amount of intravenously injected trypan blue dye extracted from the endometrium. In an initial experiment, vascular function was highly variable, but tended to be higher in ovariectomized ewes fed alfalfa hay than in those fed orchardgrass hay. Induced mold growth on the hays had no significant effect on coumestrol content of the hays or their effect on the uterus.

Subsequently, two fields of alfalfa were selected, one heavily infested with foliar diseases and the other relatively free of foliar diseases; pellets made from the two lots of alfalfa contained 222.4 and 16.7 ppm of coumestrol, respectively. Endometrial vascular function, water content and epithelial cell height were each greater in ovariectomized ewes fed pellets made from diseased alfalfa than in ewes fed pellets made from disease-free alfalfa or orchardgrass.

¹ Animal Husbandry Research Division and Crops Research Division, ARS, U.S.D.A., Beltsville, Maryland.

² Credit is due to M. W. Pedersen and W. R. Kehr, Crops Research Division, Logan, Utah, and Lincoln, Nebraska, respectively, for assistance in obtaining the alfalfa hays, to G. M. Loper for coumestrol determinations and to P. J. Van Soest for chemical analyses of the feeds.