Retention of fetal membranes or retained placenta (RP) occurs frequently in high-yielding dairy cows and has been proven to cause negative effects on reproductive performances A worldwide survey estimates an incidence of between 1.3% and 39.2% with a median of 8.6%. These results agree with those obtained by a preliminary study on Italian herds
Retained placenta is defined as fetal membranes not expelled after parturition. The time interval to classify a cow as affected by RP varies with different studies