Low microbial biomass within the reproductive tract of mid-lactation dairy cows: A study approach

Lietaer, Leen; Pascottini, Osvaldo Bogado; Hernandez-Sanabria, Emma; Kerckhof, Frederiek‐Maarten; Lacoere, Tim; Boon, Nico; Vlaminck, Lena; Opsomer, G.; Wiele, Tom Van de

doi:10.3168/jds.2020-19554

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…However, few studies have been performed on the endometrial microbiome during pregnancy. Similar to those previous studies, the same—though with minor variations—microbial families are abundant in the bovine endometrium [ 11 , 31 , 32 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…In postpartum animals, the microbiome shows an evolution starting with an alteration of the microbiome, then returning to normal after 5 weeks [ 14 ]. It is clear that microbial influx into the reproductive system of cows during calving is unavoidable and it has been shown that the vaginal flora shows similar changes [ 31 , 35 ]. However, some studies have failed to show an evolution in the postpartum microbiome unless there was subsequent endometritis, while other studies have shown a positive effect of the presence of certain bacterial species on fertility [ 32 , 36 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Endometrial Microbiota—16S rRNA Gene Sequence Signatures in Healthy, Pregnant and Endometritis Dairy Cows

Becker

Munden

McCabe

et al. 2023

Veterinary Sciences

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Endometritis is one of the most important causes of infertility in dairy cows, resulting in high economic losses in the dairy industry. Though the presence of a commensal uterine microbiota is now well established, the complex role of these bacteria in genital health, fertility, and susceptibility to uterine diseases remains unclear. In this study, we explore the endometrial microbiota through 16S rRNA gene profiling from cytobrush samples taken ex vivo from healthy, pregnant, and endometritis cows. There were no significant differences between healthy and pregnant cows, whose uterine microbiota were dominated by Streptococcus, Pseudomonas, Fusobacterium, Lactococcus and Bacteroides. Compared to pregnant and clinically healthy cows, the uterine bacterial community of endometritis cows was significantly decreased in species diversity (p < 0.05), reflecting uneven community composition in different patterns with either dominance of Escherichia-Shigella, Histophilus, Bacteroides and Porphyromonas or Actinobacteria.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Endometrial Microbiota—16S rRNA Gene Sequence Signatures in Healthy, Pregnant and Endometritis Dairy Cows

Becker

Munden

McCabe

et al. 2023

Veterinary Sciences

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“…The number of sequence reads was low (median of 652 reads per sample) as has been reported for many other studies of the pregnant or non-pregnant uterus of the cow and other species ( Lietaer et al, 2021 ). For comparison, similar work on d 7 postpartum uterus (including metritic and non-metritic cows) returned a median of 220,548 reads per sample and later postpartum (d 30) the median was 9,343 reads per sample ( Moraes et al, 2024 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…One element of most of these studies, including ours, was that they were based primarily on 16S rRNA gene sequences from bacteria. A common criticism was that (1) the presence of bacterial DNA does not necessarily equate to living organisms and; (2) the microbial community within the healthy uterus has a very low biomass that is near the threshold found in negative controls ( Eisenhofer et al, 2019 ; O’Callaghan et al, 2020 ; Lietaer et al, 2021 ). The objective of the current study was to address the first question by performing bacterial culture and 16S rRNA gene sequencing in a side-by-side manner (same tissues isolated from the same animal).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microbiome of the pregnant uterus in Holstein dairy heifers and cows assessed by bacterial culture and 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing

Moraes,

Gull,

Ericsson

et al. 2024

Front. Microbiol.

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IntroductionThe possibility that there is a resident and stable commensal microbiome within the pregnant uterus has been supported and refuted by a series of recent studies. One element of most of the initial studies was that they were based primarily on 16S rRNA gene sequencing from bacteria. To account for this limitation, the current study performed both bacterial culture and 16S rRNA gene sequencing in a side-by-side manner (e.g., same tissues isolated from the same animal).MethodsThe uteruses of 10 mid-pregnant (156 ± 5 d of gestation) Holstein heifers and cows were collected following slaughter. The external surface of the reproductive tract (positive control for contamination during tissue collection) as well as tissues within the pregnant uterus (placentome, inter-cotyledonary placenta, inter-caruncular endometrium, amnionic fluid, allantoic fluid, fetal abomasum content, and fetal meconium) were sampled for bacterial culture and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.ResultsThere were 87 unique bacterial species cultured from the external surface of the pregnant reproductive tract (contamination control) and 12 bacterial species cultured from pregnancy tissues. Six out of 10 cattle (60%) exhibited bacterial growth in at least one location within the pregnant uterus. For the metataxonomic results (16S rRNA gene sequencing), a low targeted microbial biomass was identified. Analyses of the detected amplicon sequence variants (ASV) revealed that there were: (1) genera that were prevalent on both the external surface and within the pregnant uterus; (2) genera that were prevalent on the external surface but either not detected or had very low prevalence within the pregnant uterus; and (3) genera that were either not detected or had low prevalence on the external surface but found with relatively high prevalence within the pregnant uterus.ConclusionThere are a small number of viable bacteria in the pregnant uterus. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing detected a microbial community within the pregnant uterus but with a low biomass. These results are consistent with recent studies of the pregnant bovine uterus and leave open the question of whether there is adequate microbial mass to significantly affect the biology of the normal healthy bovine pregnancy.

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“…In addition to the similarity of microbiota between the endometrium and vagina, characteristic bacterial taxa were also identified in each compartment. Burkholderiaceae is a bacterial family detected predominantly in endometrial samples of jennies, and it has also been reported with greater abundance in the uterine samples than in the vaginal samples of dairy cows ( Lietaer et al, 2021 ). Aerococcaceae was identified as one of the dominant bacterial taxa in vaginal samples of jennies, and previously, it was also detected in vaginal samples of healthy gilts ( Sanglard et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endometrial and vaginal microbiome in donkeys with and without clinical endometritis

Zhu²,

Mi³

et al. 2022

Front. Microbiol.

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Endometrial and vaginal microbiomes are critical in the study of endometritis, which is an important cause of infertility in donkeys. Our objective was to investigate the difference of the endometrial and vaginal microbiomes between healthy donkey jennies (group C) and jennies with endometritis (group E). Endometrial and vaginal swab samples were collected, and the 16 s rRNA gene amplicon high-throughput sequencing technique was applied to identify the microbial composition in the samples. A similar microbial composition pattern was found between endometrial and vaginal samples, which indicated the impact of the vaginal microbiome on the endometrial microbial environment and health. There was a significant difference of endometrial and vaginal swab samples between the two groups. Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae were significantly more abundant in endometrial and vaginal microbiomes of group E than in group C. Their dominance was consistent with increased anaerobic bacterial taxa in the functional analysis, which might be associated with the pathogenesis of endometritis in donkeys. Sphingomonadaceae, a bacterial family reported in bovine semen, was statistically more abundant in endometrial microbiome of group E than in group C, which might suggest an association between high abundance of Sphingomonadaceae possibly due to uncleared semen and donkey endometritis. Our study revealed the composition of the vaginal and endometrial microbiomes in healthy and endometritis donkeys. These findings will provide more insights into the pathogenesis of donkey endometritis.

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Low microbial biomass within the reproductive tract of mid-lactation dairy cows: A study approach

Cited by 11 publications

References 50 publications

The Endometrial Microbiota—16S rRNA Gene Sequence Signatures in Healthy, Pregnant and Endometritis Dairy Cows

The Endometrial Microbiota—16S rRNA Gene Sequence Signatures in Healthy, Pregnant and Endometritis Dairy Cows

The microbiome of the pregnant uterus in Holstein dairy heifers and cows assessed by bacterial culture and 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing

Endometrial and vaginal microbiome in donkeys with and without clinical endometritis

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