Analysis of several factors of variation of gestation loss in breeding mares

The files for ultrasound diagnosis of gestating mares belonging to the French equine herd recorded for 3 consecutive years were joined with the files for foal birth of these same mares, allowing the statistical analysis of factors of pregnancy loss. For 28 872 positive diagnoses of gestation, 2898 losses were recorded, that is, a global rate of gestation interruption of 9.12%. The etiology of these interruptions is mainly extrinsic: the year and month of insemination, as well as region for climatic reasons. The intrinsic causes that are implicated are breed of the father (heavy breeds except the hypermetric ones lose fewer pregnancies than warm-blooded breeds), age of the mother (losses are lower in mares of 7 to 10 years of age) and status (mares with foals have fewer pregnancy losses than mares not having foaled the previous year), as well as fetuses with consanguinity (when this increases, the pregnancy losses increase as well). However, the additive genetic effect is extremely low; it corresponds to heritability below 5% and few effects of the environment, common to the offspring of the same mare, were identified. This therefore gives little hope of being able to select against the ‘gestation loss’ trait.