Abstract
Our objectives were to describe and compare the uterine bacterial composition of postpartum Holstein cows diagnosed as healthy (n = 8), subclinical endometritis (SCE; n = 8), or clinical endometritis (CE; n = 5) in the fifth week postpartum. We did metagenomic analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences from endometrial cytobrush samples at 10, 21, and 35 days in milk (DIM), and endometrial bacterial culture at 35 DIM. Uterine bacterial composition in healthy, SCE, and CE was stable at 10, 21, and 35 DIM. Alpha and beta diversities showed a different uterine microbiome from CE compared to healthy or SCE, but no differences were found between healthy and SCE cows. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria, and at genera level, of Trueperella was greater in CE than healthy or SCE cows. Trueperella pyogenes was the predominant bacteria cultured in cows with CE, and a wide variety of bacterial growth was found in healthy and SCE cows. Bacteria that grew in culture were represented within the most abundant bacterial genera based on metagenomic sequencing. The uterine microbiota was similar between SCE and healthy, but the microbiome in cows with CE had a loss of bacterial diversity.
Highlights
Our objectives were to describe and compare the uterine bacterial composition of postpartum Holstein cows diagnosed as healthy (n = 8), subclinical endometritis (SCE; n = 8), or clinical endometritis (CE; n = 5) in the fifth week postpartum
With the advent of cultureindependent methods using metagenomic sequencing, it has been shown that loss of diversity and increase in abundance of Bacteroides, Porphyromonas, and Fusobacterium were associated with metritis and purulent vaginal discharge (PVD) in postpartum cows[3,4,12]
We found that the uterine microbiota of cows with SCE was similar to healthy cows, but the microbiome differed in cows with CE
Summary
Our objectives were to describe and compare the uterine bacterial composition of postpartum Holstein cows diagnosed as healthy (n = 8), subclinical endometritis (SCE; n = 8), or clinical endometritis (CE; n = 5) in the fifth week postpartum. Wang et al.[17] investigated the bovine uterine microbiota in uterine flush samples collected at 30 DIM by high throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA They concluded that SCE was not associated with the uterine pathogens that they found for CE in the same study (increased abundance of Fusobacterium and unique presence of Trueperella and Peptoniphilus). The objectives were to describe and compare the uterine bacterial composition of postpartum dairy cows diagnosed as healthy, with SCE, or CE in the fifth week postpartum in samples collected at 10, 21, and 35 DIM. We aimed to compare the uterine bacteria recovered in culture with the metagenomic profile in samples collected at 35 DIM
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