Addressing the constraints of Tritrichomonas foetus sample collection in remote areas: lyophilized modified Diamond's media as a substitute for liquid medium

Abstract

Bovine trichomoniasis is a notifiable, reproductive disease of cattle caused by the parasite Tritrichomonas foetus. Culturing with modified Diamond's medium (MDM) is required to increase the low number of organisms received from a preputial sample, but is limited in application to remote areas as it requires continuous cold chain storage. This study utilized lyophilization to sustain the viability of MDM during transport in lieu of a continuous cold chain. All lyophilized MDM was able to sustain T. foetus after storage for 42 days at 24 °C, and the results demonstrated that lyophilized MDM was equally as viable as refrigerated liquid MDM. Storage of lyophilized MDM at room temperature for 1 and 7 days did not impact T. foetus yield, both with and without exposure to light. A limitation of the lyophilized MDM was demonstrated with a significant decrease in T. foetus yield when the media was stored at 37 and 58 °C. The lyophilization of MDM provides a robust method of transporting and storing medium prior to reconstitution and inoculation, for use in T. foetus diagnosis and surveillance in remote areas.

Not gone but forgotten: Tritrichomonas foetus in extensively-managed bulls from Australia’s Northern Territory

“…10/109 versus 18/109). Although the Oxoid TFEM sent to the submitting veterinarian on this occasion facilitated successful culture, lyophilisation of T. foetus culture media prior to shipping to remote regions has been demonstrated to produce comparable culturing results to traditional reconstituted media and could be considered for similar investigations in the future ( Rush et al., 2019 ). While reconstitution of media prior to sampling would resolve issues associated with transportation of frozen media to the submitter, the inoculated media still needs to be maintained between 5 and 37 °C during transport back to the diagnostic laboratory for the parasite to remain viable and multiply ( Buller & Corney, 2013 ).…”

“…The last published report of T. foetus infection in Australia occurred in 1988 in bulls from the Northern Territory (NT) where extensive cattle systems are still common ( McCool et al., 1988 ; Buller & Corney, 2013 ). Considering the difficulties associated with conducting routine diagnostics in remote areas such as the NT, the lack of reports of T. foetus infection in Australian cattle herds for over 30 years, however, should not be interpreted as absence of the organism ( Hancock et al., 2015 ; Mueller et al., 2015 ; Reichel et al., 2018 ; Rush et al., 2019 ).…”

Mucosal microbial parasites/symbionts in health and disease: an integrative overview

“…Several papers associated with this Special Issue are derived from talks that were delivered at the EMBO Conference ‘Anaerobic protists: Integrating parasitology with mucosal microbiota and immunology’ () (Labruyere et al ., 2017; Leitsch, 2017; Dessi et al ., 2019; Miranda-Ozuna et al ., 2019; Stensvold, 2019). These are complemented by articles providing broader perspectives on the study of the MMPS (Chabra et al , 2019; Liu et al , 2019; Midlej et al , 2019; Bartley et al ., 2018; Deere et al ., 2018; van Gestel et al ., 2018; Vargas Rigo et al ., 2018; Chihi et al ., 2019; Rush et al ., 2019). For more in-depth coverage of MMPS biology including broader taxonomic coverage (e.g.…”