09/02/2024
Delighted to share our latest publication available today.
There is a lack of understanding as to whether the bacteria isolated from swabs of the surface of the lining of broodmares’ uteri (endometrial swabs) are present due to infection or contamination, or whether they are, in fact, part of the normal flora. This study aimed to understand this further by investigating endometrial swabs taken from a population of Thoroughbred broodmares and submitted to a laboratory in the UK between 2014 and 2020; by describing bacterial prevalence (the estimated percentage of swabs from which bacteria are isolated); and by evaluating whether bacterial prevalence changed over time or between mares of different ages and with differing amounts of inflammation of the uterine lining. Over the 7-year period, 18,996 endometrial swabs were submitted from 6050 mares on 290 farms. The overall prevalence of bacteria was 35.5%. Beta-hemolytic Streptococcus (17.9%) and E. coli (10.3%) were the most prevalent types of bacteria. The prevalence of bacteria changed over time (between different years in which mares were sampled) and was also impacted by the mare age and by whether there was inflammation of the uterine lining at the time of sampling. Results from this study provide up-to-date prevalence estimates and suggest that the interpretation of Thoroughbred endometrial swab findings is complicated.
Determining whether endometrial microbial isolates are pathogens, contaminants, or even part of the “normal” microbiome is extremely complex, particularly given the absence of “gold standard” tests for endometritis. Population-level benchmarking and temporal monitoring can provide novel insi...
