title: Bacterial flora of the vagina and uterus of healthy cats.
abstract: Bacterial culturing was conducted on samples from the reproductive tracts of 53 clinically healthy female cats. Aerobic bacteria were isolated from 52 of 53 vaginal swab samples and from 2 of 29 uterine swab samples. Anaerobic bacteria were detected in 4 of 30 vaginal and 1 of 29 uterine cultures. The aerobic bacteria included species of Acinetobacter, Actinomyces, Corynebacterium, Escherichia, Haemophilus, Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, Streptococcus canis, and E coli were the most common organisms and were isolated from 56%, 52%, and 44% of the vaginal samples, respectively. Anaerobes isolated from vaginal samples included 3 species of Bacteroides and 2 isolates of Peptococcus. The single uterine anaerobe isolate was a Lactobacillus sp. The number of bacterial species isolated from each vaginal culture ranged from 1 to 8 (mean, 3). The number of colony forming units tended to vary inversely with the number of bacterial species detected in each sample.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman 99164.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Clemetson
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000662:veterinary; D002415:Cats / Q000382:microbiology*; D004971:Estrus; D005260:Female; D014599:Uterus / Q000382:microbiology*; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*