Diagnosis of trichomoniasis in pregnant cows by culture of cervical-vaginal mucus

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Cervical-Vaginal Mucus (CVM) cultures for isolating $\text{Trichomonas fetus}$ from pregnant cows. Cervical-vaginal mucus was cultured from sixty-eight cows averaging 98 days of gestation. $\text{Trichomonas fetus}$ was isolated from 7 of 36 cows in groups exposed to bulls found to be infected at the end of the breeding season. The remaining 32 cows which were bred to bulls found not to be infected at the end of the breeding season were negative. Seven of the cows serviced by infected bulls aborted. Three of these had been positive and 4 negative on culture. The incidence of abortion was determined by examination 81 days after the previous examination and CVM culture. During the same interval there were no abortions in the 32 cows served by non-infected bulls. Culture of CVM identified infected groups of cows which had a high risk for abortion.