It was studied the influence of body condition on the time required to placental delivery after fetal expulsion and on the incidence of placental retention.

Sixty dairy cows were classified considering their body condition at parturition and were separated into two groups:

in group 1 (n=28) the cows had poor body condition at parturition (body condition <2.5 in a score of 1 to 5); in group 2 (n=32) the cows had good body condition >3.0 in a score of 1 to 5). The time elapsed between the fetal expulsion and placental delivery was measured to all cows with normal placental delivery, which was considered normal until 12 hours after the fetal expulsion. Twenty-two cows from group 1 and 28 cows from group 2 presented normal placental delivery with duration of the delivery of 4.89 more or less 1.21 hours and 4.83 more or less 2.21 hours (mean more or less standard error), respectively. These numbers were similar (P>0.05). The incidence of placental retention was 21.42 and 12.50 per cent for groups 1 and 2 respectively. It was concluded that body condition at parturition does not influence the time required for placental delivery