45 



following- each service the females showed a severe vaginitis. 

 \V. W. ^\ illianis worked in a herd in which service to certain bulls 

 was in each case followed by a severe vaginitis and cervicitis, only 

 to be followed later by a characteristic salpingitis. 



Vaginal smears taken before and after service, in many in- 

 stances, show that in all probability bacteria, especially the strep- 

 tococci, were deposited there with the semen. These results have 

 been obtained upon several occasions, at which time the vagina 

 was usually douched prior to each service with sterile saline solu- 

 tion. Streptococci and other organisms have been isolated from 

 the vaginal samples obtained by this method. In most cases, they 

 were absent from samples taken before service. Extraneous con- 

 tamination, and error, must l^e taken into consideration, but the 

 results tend to bear out clinical observations that the bull is prob- 

 ably a disseminator of some infections associated with the genital 

 organs of both sexes. At any rate, organisms have been isolated 

 repeatedly from the genital organs of the bull, of the same bio- 

 logical character as those which are associated with sterility, abor- 

 tion, and allied phenomena in the female. In the absence of 

 obstruction in any part of the tract, there is nothing to hinder 

 infection from gaining access to the seminal fluid, and being ex- 

 creted during ejaculation. 



Hopper (18) states: "A diseased bull may manifest non-fertility 

 or decreased potency in different ways — by repeated service to 

 apparently normal females without conception, by a high abortion 

 rate in females that have been apparently normal, by characteristic 

 infections following the use of any particular sire, or by abnor- 

 malities in the breeding tract noted by rectal or physical pal- 

 pation." 



Admittedly, Bad. abortum has little affinity for the genitalia 

 of the bull, though Sehroeder states that the bull harbors the 

 organisms in his seminal vesicles and that they are eliminated 

 with the semen. Other authors have occasionally isolated the or- 

 ganism from the vesicles, testes, or both. Sehroeder 's theory that 

 infection of the female occurs indirectly by contamination of the 

 fo<lder with the semen is prol)ably rare in occurrence. The very 

 limited number of cases in which investigators have demonstrated 

 the presence of the organism in the male genital organs, and the 

 apparent immunity of the bull to the bacterium as determined by 

 the agglutination reaction, seem to indicate that he plays a small 

 part in the spread of this type of infection in the here!. On the 

 other hand, it would seem that he is at times intimately associated 

 with the spread of certain other organisms that interfere seriously 

 with herd reproductivity. 



The diagnosis of infertility and sterility rests upon a thorough 

 physical examination of the genital organs, together with a de- 

 tailed study of the semen. The histoiy of the animal and herd 

 involved must also be verj'- carefully inquired into, especially the 

 part covering the result of everj' serv'ice by the sire in question. 



