An attempt to isolate Brucellaabortus from uterine flushings of brucellosis-reactor donor cattle

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1983

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to test for the recovery of brucella organisms from uterine flushings and harvested embryos of sero-positive embryo donor females. In Experiment I, 16 sero-positive cows were superovulated with FSH treatments and artificially inseminated at 12, 24 and 36 hours following the onset of estrus with brucella-free semen. At 48 hours after the onset of estrus, one half the potential donor females were administered an intrauterine inoculation of 3.3 to 4.6 × 104Brucellaabortus (strain 2308) organisms while the remainder received a control inoculation. In Experiment II, the same 16 cows were similarly administered superovulatory treatments and inseminated following estrus. The uterine inoculation was increased to 1.5 to 2.5 × 108 organisms administered 48 hours following estrus. Samples of recovered flushing medium and homogenized embryo residues were placed into a validated invitro culture system to detect the presence of brucella bacteria. Uterine flushings and embryos recovered from 31 females exhibiting estrus following FSH treatments were free from either field strain or the inoculated B.abortus (strain 2308) contamination. The flushings obtained from a single female, which did not respond with estrus following FSH treatment but was inoculated at appointment, did contain B.abortus which was identified as the inoculated strain 2308 and not field strain organisms. These results indicate that brucella contamination of flushing media and harvested embryos will not likely be incurred when collecting embryos from sero-positive donor females. These findings offer further encouragement for the use of embryo transplantation as a method to produce brucella-free offspring from infected cows. © 1983.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Theriogenology

First Page

355

Last Page

366

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