Identification of pediocin-producing pediococci in the bovine vaginal microbiota may allow the development of novel prophylactic interventions against metritis by application of bacteriocin-producing probiotic bacteria into the vaginal tract of dairy cows. Fludarabine Methods Animals In a first PRIMA-1MET molecular weight experiment, fifteen lactating Holstein dairy cows were used

to characterize the vaginal microbiota of healthy pregnant and metritic postpartum cows. In a second experiment, ten animals were selected to characterize the vaginal microbiota of metritic cows two weeks before calving and two weeks after calving. Samples from these ten animals were selected retrospectively after diagnosis of metritis among a group of 40 dairy cows. All animals were maintained at the Dairy Research and Technology Centre of the University of Alberta. Metritis or uterine infections were diagnosed on the basis of criteria established by Sheldon et al. [1]. Primarily,

cows with watery reddish-brown, purulent, or mucopurulent discharges with fetid odour were considered to have metritis. Rectal temperatures of 39.5°C or higher and impaired general condition as expressed in a lowered feed intake or milk production were also taken into consideration for diagnosis. Ethics approval was obtained from the Animal care and Use Committee for Livestock of the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (University of Alberta protocol #A5070-01). Samples For culture-dependent analyses in experiment 1, vaginal swab samples were www.selleckchem.com/products/iwr-1-endo.html obtained from seven healthy pregnant cows and eight infected

post-partum cows. The vulvar area was thoroughly cleaned with water and then disinfected with 30% (vol/vol) iodine solution (Iosan, WestAgro, Saint Laurent, Canada) prior to sampling. A stainless steel vaginal speculum was gently inserted into the vagina, opened, and a long-handled sterile cotton swab was introduced to obtain a sample from the anterolateral vaginal wall. Each sample was Etofibrate collected in 4 mL of 0.1% (w/v) sterile peptone water with 0.85% (w/v) NaCl and 0.05% (w/v) L-cysteine-HCl x H2O. The cotton swab was moistened by immersion in the peptone water immediately before sampling. Owing to the low amount of mucus retrieved from healthy, pregnant cows, the weight of the mucus recovered was not recorded. For culture-independent analyses in experiment 2, vaginal mucus samples were collected using syringes fitted with an approximately 30 cm long collection tube without the use of a vaginal speculum. The weight of mucus in each sample was determined by recording the total weight of each sample collection tube with 1 ml of peptone water before and after each mucus sample was collected. All samples were stored at temperatures between −20°C to −80°C.