EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 261 



STUDIES IN INFECTIOUS ABORTION 



Technical Bulletin No. 49. 

 Part I. 



BY 11. J. STAFSETH AND I. F. IIUDDLESON. 



On the presence of Bacterium ahortus in the deeper layers of the 

 mucous membrane of the non-gravid uteri. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The results of investigations on infectious abortion of cattle in- 

 dicate that Bad. ahortus may invade the uterus only during pregnancy 

 and that after abortion or parturition it disappears from this organ 

 within a relatively short period. 



Cotton, W. E. (1) in 1913 stated that abortion bacilli may per- 

 sist in the genital tract for as much as forty-six days after abortion. 



Schroeder, E. C, and Cotton, ^Y. E. (2) (191G) killed naturally infect- 

 ed, non-pregnant coavs and examined the following organs, tissues and 

 fluids for abortion bacilli : spleens, blood, livers, kidneys, brains, ovaries, 

 uteri, udders, milk, synovial fluid from various joints, nerve tissues, 

 lymph glands from all parts of the body etc. and found that in no case 

 was Bact. ahortus present in the uterus, "Although in all cases 

 two or more quarters of the udder, the milk from the infected quarters, 

 one or more supra-mammary lymph glands and in one instance some 

 of the pelvic lymph glands w ere infected". "Bact. ahortus injected into 

 the non-pregnant uterus disappeared in the course of a few days." They 

 add that one may find the abortion bacillus up to fifty days after 

 abortion. 



Again in 1919 Cotton, W. E. (3) makes the following statement: 

 "The organism disappears from the utenis within a few weeks, com- 

 monly not to exceed tivo or three after abortion or parturition. It 

 persists a longer time if the after-birth is retained than if the cow 

 cleans properly." The longest time this investigator found it to persist 

 in the uterus was fifty-one days. In order to determine whether abor- 

 tion bacilli might be discharged with tlie estral fluid, large doses of 

 Bact. ahortus were injected intravenously shortly before estrum. Subse- 

 quent examinations of the estral fluid proved negative. 



The findings of Schroeder and Cotton were substantiated by Giltner 

 and Bandeen, (4) who found that the Bact. ahortus disappeared from 

 the uterus within twenty-one to twenty-eight days after abortion or 

 parturition. 



Thus, one may assume that the Bact. ahortus does not permanently 

 establish itself in the uterine cavity. Hoiwever, knowing that cer- 

 tain pathogenic micro-organisms exist in tha deeper layers of the skin 

 and in the crypts of the tonsils and intestinal mucosa without any 



