Culture of uterine flushings, cervical mucus, and udder secretions collected post-abortion from heifers artificially exposed to Brucella abortus.
Uterine flushings, cervical mucus swabs and udder secretions collected at weekly intervals from five mixed breed beef cows (four Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccinates, and 1 non-vaccinate) were cultured for Brucella abortus . Prior to sampling, four of the five had aborted 7-to 8-month-old fetuses and one gave brith to a weak calf. The fetuses and/or udder secretions from the cows were culture positive for B. abortus at the time of parturition. Three of the cows developed persistent udder infections. Two of these cows were also shown to have brucellae in their cervical mucus for 10 and 20 days and in their uterine flushings for 17 and 41 days after parturition, respectively. One other cow had brucellae in the cervical mucus for 16 days and in the uterine flushings for up to 36 days post-abortion. All attempts to isolate the organism from this cow's udder secretions in culture were negative. In two cows with culture-positive uterine flushings, isolations of brucellae were made subsequent to normal postpabortion return to estrus.
Stringfellow
D A
DA
Department of Microbiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, USA; Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University, AL 36849 USA; USDA, APHIS, Viterinary Services USA.
Scanlan
C M
CM
Hannon
S S
SS
Panangala
V S
VS
Gray
B W
BW
Galik
P A
PA