We investigated the
concentration of the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the blood, ovarian
follicular fluid and uterine fluid of a clinical case of bovine metritis. A 2-year-old
lactating Holstein cow exhibited continuous fever >39.5°C for more than 2 weeks after
normal calving. The cow produced a fetid, watery, red-brown uterine discharge from the
vagina and was diagnosed with metritis. The LPS concentrations in plasma and uterine fluid
were 0.94 and 6.34 endotoxin units (EU)/ml, respectively. One of seven
follicles showed an extremely high level of LPS (12.40 EU/ml) compared to
the other follicles (0.62–0.97 EU/ml). These results might suggest the
presence of high concentration of LPS in follicles in cows with postpartum metritis.
A 9-month-old steer was autopsied due to recurrent ruminal tympany. A
macroscopic examination found an enlarged caudal mediastinal lymph node, and a section of
the lymph node revealed necrosis with marked calcification, similar to tuberculous
lymphadenitis. Histopathologically, the lesion consisted of multiple coagulative necrotic
foci and fibrosis with macrophage, lymphocyte, eosinophil and multinucleated giant cell
infiltration. Non-uniform width hyphae were detected in the necrotic area and within the
cytoplasm of the multinucleated giant cells, and they were found to be
anti-Rhizopus arrhizus antibody positive in an immunohistochemical
examination. Therefore, the steer was diagnosed with necrotic caudal mediastinal
lymphadenitis due to zygomycetes infection, and inhibition of eructation by the enlarged
lymph node was the likely cause of the ruminal tympany.
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