Abstract
Abortions in domestic ruminants cause significant economic losses to farmers. Determining the cause of an abortion is important for control efforts, but it can be challenging. All available diagnostic methods in the bacteriology laboratory should be employed in every case due to the many limiting factors (autolysis, lack of history, range of samples) that complicate the investigation process. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the recovery of diagnostically significant isolates from domestic ruminant abortion cases could be increased through the use of a combination of the existing aerobic culture andBrucellaselective method with methods that are commonly recommended in the literature reporting abortion investigations. These methods are examination of wet preparations and impression smears stained by the modified Ziehl-Neelsen method, anaerobic, microaerophilic,Leptospira, Mycoplasmaand fungal culture. Samples of placenta and aborted foetuses from 135 routine clinical abortion cases of cattle (n= 88), sheep (n= 25) and goats (n= 22) were analysed by the new combination of methods. In 46 cases, bacteria were identified as aetiological agents and in one case a fungus. Isolation ofBrucellaspecies increased to 7.4% over two years compared with the previous 10 years (7.3%), as well asCampylobacter jejuni(n= 2) andRhizopusspecies (n= 1).Salmonellaspecies (5.9%) andTrueperella pyogenes(4.4%) were also isolated more often. In conclusion, the approach was effective in removing test selection bias in the bacteriology laboratory. The importance of performing an in-depth study on the products of abortion by means of an extensive, combination of conventional culture methods was emphasised by increased isolation ofBrucella abortusand isolation ofC. jejuni. The combination of methods that yielded the most clinically relevant isolates was aerobic, microaerophilic,Brucellaand fungal cultures.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.