Clinico-echographic manifestation of endometritis in cows
Authors: Kuznetsova D. 
Published: December 2021

Purpose: to study the clinical and echographic manifestation of endometritis.

Materials and methods. Clinical and echographic research was carried out on 19 red-and-white cows, in the conditions of the agricultural farm of the Druzhba breeding plant, Pavlovsky district, Voronezh region on the 30-32th day after calving using the Easi-Scan scanner from BCF Technology Ltd, Scotland. Before ultrasound examination to establish the diagnosis, all animals were examined, transrectal palpation of the uterus. Simultaneously with the ultrasound examination, a cytological study of the uterine mucosa was carried out. For this purpose, a probe was constructed from a metal catheter intended for artificial insemination of cows with sequins by the deep cervical method with rectal fixation of the cervix; a cytobrush of the Juno probe was attached to the tip of the instrument. To confirm the diagnosis, a laboratory study of cervical mucus was additionally carried out by the express method according to Whiteside, modified by N. I. Polyantsev and Yu. N. Popov.

Results. According to the results of rectal examination and ultrasound diagnostics, the cows were divided into three groups: clinically healthy, animals with clinically pronounced chronic endometritis and with latent endometritis. In the group of healthy animals, individual superficial and vacuolated intermediate cells (6.17 ± 0.51) and single neutrophils (2.31 ± 0.32) were detected in smears. In the group of clinically healthy cows, no gram-positive coccobacillary microorganisms and cells of the basal layer of the uterine mucosa were detected. In the second group, in animals with clinically pronounced chronic endometritis, a large number of segmented neutrophils, lymphocytes and a large number of cocci were detected in smears. Thus, in one visual field, the number of gram-positive cocobacillary microorganisms fluctuated on average 764.45 ± 4.56 microbial bodies, while the number of neutrophils increased in comparison with clinically healthy animals by 20.84 times and averaged 48.14 ± 2 in the group. , 91, the percentage of the score averaged around 12.1%. Simultaneously with an increase in the number of leukocytes in animals, the number of epithelial cells of the uterine mucosa increased by 2.21 times, while individual basal cells were detected simultaneously with superficial and intermediate cells (0.75 ± 0.48). In smears obtained from animals of the third group of cows, there was a significant decrease in the number of coccobacillary microorganisms to 75-360 in one visual field in comparison with similar results in the group with a clinically pronounced form of chronic endometritis. The indicator for segmented neutrophils was 8.05 times higher than in clinically healthy cows, while in relation to clinically sick cows by 61.4% and amounted to 18.60 ± 2.23. In terms of the number of superficial, vacuolated intermediate and basal cells in sick animals with chronic clinically pronounced endometritis and latent endometritis, no significant changes were revealed (1.08 times), while in relation to clinically healthy animals, these indicators were 2.38 times higher. The degree of variation in the number of epithelial cells in the group of cows with latent chronic endometritis was insignificant, which indicates the stability of the trait.

Conclusion. Ultrasound scanning allows you to identify the latent form of endometritis and establish degenerative changes in the tissues of the uterus. Ultrasound examination in cows in establishing a diagnosis - endometritis should be the decisive diagnostic method.