Serovar Brandenburg Abortions in Dairy Cattle

Overview

Journal J Vet Diagn Invest

Specialty Veterinary Medicine

Date 2022 Jun 28

PMID 35762117

Authors

Christopher L Siepker

Kent J Schwartz

Tyler J Feldhacker

Drew R Magstadt

Orhan Sahin

Marcelo Almeida

Ganwu Li

Kristin P Hayman

Patrick J Gorden

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Two separate late-term abortion outbreaks in Jersey heifers in July 2020 and December 2020 were investigated by the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. We evaluated 3 whole fetuses and 11 sets of fresh and formalin-fixed fetal tissues during the course of the outbreaks. The late-term abortions were first identified at a heifer development site and subsequently observed at the dairy farm. Aborted fetuses had moderate-to-marked postmortem autolysis with no gross lesions identified. Observed clinical signs in cows at the dairy farm ranged from intermittent loose stools to acute post-abortion pyrexia and reduced feed intake. Routine histopathology and reproductive bacterial culture revealed acute, suppurative placentitis with moderate-to-heavy growth of spp. group B from stomach contents, liver, placenta, and heifer fecal contents. Serotyping identified subsp. serovar Brandenburg in all 14 fresh tissue cases, as well as individual and pooled heifer feces. Whole-genome sequencing analysis revealed that all isolates belonged to ST type 873 and possessed typhoid toxin genes, several fimbrial gene clusters, type III secretion system genes, and several pathogenicity islands. Abortions caused by Brandenburg have not been reported previously in dairy cattle in the United States, to our knowledge.

Citing Articles

Li D, Zhang K, Xue X, Bai Z, Yang L, Qi J Animals (Basel). 2025; 15(5).

PMID: 40076040 PMC: 11899446. DOI: 10.3390/ani15050755.

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