Bacterial flora of the uterus of cows after calving on two hygienically contrasting farms

Abstract

Intrauterine swabs were obtained from cows after calving on two commercial dairy herds with contrasting hygienic environments and incidence of leucorrhea, and cultured aerobically and anaerobically. Of 26 cows with a normal calving and puerperium, eight of 14 (57 per cent) were sterile on farm B where hygiene was poor, compared with five of 12 (42 per cent) on farm A where hygiene was better. Two cows on farm B retained their placentas and subsequently developed metritis/endometritis. Actinomyces pyogenes was the commonest bacterial isolate and Fusobacterium nucleatum, Proteus mirabilis and Bacteroides melaninogenicus were also frequently observed. Similar isolates were obtained from cows on farm B with parturient or puerperal disorders. The contrasting hygienic environments had no influence on either the quantitative or qualitative uterine bacterial flora. Thus, the difference in the incidence of endometritis must have been due to factors other than hygiene.

Influence of uterine bacterial contamination after parturition on ovarian dominant follicle selection and follicle growth and function in cattle

“…Identification of bacteria was based on the characteristics of the colony, Gram stain, morphology, haemolysis, biochemical profile (API systems, BioMérieux, Basingstoke) and other standard tests (Barrow and Feltham, 1993). Bacterial growth on the culture plates was scored semiquantitatively, dependent on the number of bacterial colonies detected on the plate: 0: no growth; 1: < 10 colonies; 2: 10-100 colonies; 3: 100-500 colonies; and 4: > 500 colonies (Noakes et al, 1991). The bacterial growth score on days 7, 14, 21 and 28 was the sum of the scores for each of the bacterial isolates, and the total bacterial growth score for each cow was the sum of the individual bacterial growth scores for all four uterine swabs.…”

“…The standard category was defined as the lower 75% quartile bacterial score and the high contamination category as the upper 25%. In addition, bacteria were categorized on the basis of expected pathogenic potential within the uterus (Ruder et al, 1981;Olson et al, 1984;Farin et al, 1989;Noakes et al, 1989Noakes et al, , 1991Bonnett et al, 1993). The categories were: (1) pathogens known to cause endometrial lesions; (2) other recognized uterine pathogens; and (3) bacteria not recognized as uterine pathogens (see Table 1).…”

Prevalence of subclinical endometritis in repeat breeding cows and mRNA expression of tumor necrosis factor α and inducible nitric oxide synthase in the endometrium of repeat breeding cows with and without subclinical endometritis

“…The uterus is routinely contaminated with bacteria in the early postpartum period (Noakes et al 1991, Sheldon and Dobson 2004, Foldi et al 2006, Singh et al 2008. A high proportion of infected cows, irrespective of treatment, have a spontaneous resolution of endometritis at 4-6 weeks postpartum, whereas the remainder have persistent infection during the service period.…”

Intrauterine Infusion of Lugol’s Iodine Improves the Reproductive Traits of Postpartum Infected Dairy Cows

“…Transcervical guarded sterile disposable swabs were collected from the endometrium of each cow on day 5 PP [5,19,20). The swabs were transferred to sterile test tube and were cultured aerobically within 2 hours on a preequilibrated sheep blood agar for 2 hours, and then on MacConkey agar and incubated at 37˚C over-night.…”

“…Identification of bacteria was based on the characteristics of the colony, gram-stain and morphology [18]. Bacterial growth on the plates was scored semi -quantitatively depending on the number of bacterial colonies [5,19]. The cow was considered severely infected when the numbers of the bacterial colonies on the plate were more than 100.…”