Uterine disease is an intensely studied part of dairy cattle health management as it heavily affects many commercial dairy farms and has serious economic consequences. Forms of the disease, pathophysiology, pathogens involved and the effects of uterine disease on the health and performance of cows have already been well described by various authors. Lately, researchers’ attention has shifted towards the healthy microbiome of the uterus and the vagina to put emphasis on prevention rather than treatment. This aligns with the growing demand to reduce the use of antibiotics or—whenever possible—replace them with alternative treatment options in farm animal medicine. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the last 20 years of uterine disease research and highlights promising new areas for future studies.

We investigated the effect of four feed additives, namely β-glucan, a drinking water acidifier (DWA), a sanguinarine-containing product (SN) and fulvic acid, on hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) mRNA expression and CYP enzyme activity in chickens. The test substances were given to the chickens in the recommended dose or in tenfold dose. The administration of 5 mg/kg body weight (bw) β-glucan and 0.1 ml/kg bw DWA for five days decreased the relative gene expression of CYP1A4 and CYP2C23a. The dosing of 50 mg/kg bw β-glucan, 5 and 50 mg/kg bw SN, 1 ml/kg bw DWA and 250 mg/kg bw fulvic acid doubled the hepatic CYP1A4 activity. The activity of CYP2C and CYP3A remained unchanged. Avoidance of CYP1A-mediated feed-drug interactions requires accurate dosing of β-glucan, DWA and fulvic acid. According to our results, no treatment resulted in excessive or less CYP2C and CYP3A protein formation, which reduces the risk of potential feed additive-drug interactions in chickens. However, the administration of feed additive SN containing a plant alkaloid should be avoided concomitantly with CYP1A-metabolised medicines.

The vaginal microbiota plays a crucial role in bovine reproductive health in the periparturient period. This study aimed to characterize the naturally occurring bacterial species in the vaginal microbiome of healthy Holstein Frisian cows and evaluate their antibiotic sensitivity. Vaginal samples were collected from 44 healthy cows on three dairy farms. A total of 54 bacterial species were detected, with Gram-positive bacteria comprising 87% of the isolates. The most prevalent genera were Bacillus, Streptococcus, and Staphylococcus. Antibiotic susceptibility tests indicated that some isolates carried resistance genes, but most remained sensitive to commonly used antibiotics. The average vaginal mucosa pH was 7.2. These findings provide valuable insights into the diversity of vaginal microbiota of healthy dairy cows. Understanding the bacterial composition and antibiotic susceptibility can support reproductive health management and prudent use of antibiotics in dairy herds.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a facultative bacterial pathogen with increasing public health risk potential. Contaminated water in hospital environments is a growing cause of multidrug-resistent P. aeruginosa nosocomial infections that are life-threatening and are costly to treat. P. aeruginosa is common in natural water bodies, but it is not unusual in drinking water and has been detected in bottled water, also. Suppliers in Europe must eliminate live forms of the bacterium in drinking water to meet human consumption requirements. Laboratory testing for the presence of viable P. aeruginosa is mostly done manually using culture media but conductance/impedimetry measurements for detection are also available. In order to improve expedience and cost efficiency as well as to automate the detection and the data registration, we applied the highly selective Z-broth culture media and redox potential monitoring to detect P. aeruginosa from water. The Z-broth is based on only a few, stable chemicals that provide consistency of quality and long shelf life. It limits growth to P. aeruginosa and, thus, eliminates the need for subsequent microbiological identification steps of the European Standard procedure defined in ISO 16 266:2006 (2018). A redox potential monitor was used in this work, that simultaneously recorded 64 sample curves and automatically marked positive samples reliably within 24 hours after sample initialization. In comparison, the standard method requires additional tests that prolongs identification to some days. Practical applicability and reliability of the method in this paper was demonstrated by testing a total of 739 water samples of which 222 were tap water, 342 well water and 145 had been taken from swimming pools. It is considered this method is well suited to process large numbers of samples for purposes of detecting P. aeruginosa contamination with relative ease, little cost in shortened time. Using Z-broth in combination with redox potential monitoring can be recommended for central laboratories for routine testing of drinking water for live P. aeruginosa presence. As well, using this method for testing of fluids and surfaces for P. aeruginosa contamination would be advantageous in such environments as the hospital industry, swimming pools and spas, where cleaning routines and P. aeruginosa transmission prevention protocols could be made much more resultful and cost-effective due to ease and speed of processing both spot check and water samples. Highlights: A method was applied for detection of viable Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 739 water samples. Redox potential monitoring of Z-broth cultures exclusively registered growth of P. aeruginosa . The method is highly selective, reliable and partly automated, with lower labor costs. The method is suited for testing of water and hospital environments for P. aeruginosa .