Histopathological, Immunohistochemical, Lectinhistochemical and Molecular Findings in Spontaneous Bovine Abortions by Campylobacter fetus

Abstract

Bovine campylobacteriosis (BC) is a venereal disease caused byCampylobacter fetus characterized by temporary infertilitywith mild endometritis, early embryonic death and occasionalabortions. The objectives of this study were to describe andidentify C. fetus in spontaneous bovine abortion on the basisof histopathological, immunohistochemical, lectinhistochemicaland polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. The mostfrequent foetal lesion was neutrophilic bronchopneumonia andinterstitial pneumonia. Other commonly observed lesionsincluded non-suppurative interstitial enteritis, hepatitis, pericarditis,myositis, myocarditis, and meningitis. In this study,C. fetus fetus was phenotypically classified in all bovinefoetuses from lungs and abomasal fluids. Immunohistochemistry(IHC) staining revealed positive stained Campylobacterorganisms with typical morphology. Lectin binding patternsnot showed great differences between the infected and the noninfectedgroups. The most important changes were a minorpeanut agglutinin (PNA) and DBA binding in the alveolarcells of the lungs and DBA globet cells in some of the C. fetus?positive foetuses. Individual variations in each lectin bindingpattern complicate the evaluation of the lectins results. Allfoetuses positive to IHC were positive by PCR. Betterefficiency of PCR was obtained from abomasal fluids thanfrom lung tissues. The association of culture and phenotypictechniques with histopathology, IHC and PCR allowed abetter characterization and description of BC.