Comparing vaginal douche, cervicovaginal mucus, and uterine lavage for diagnosis of Tritrichomonas foetus in naive heifers exposed to a naturally infected bull.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of quantitative PCR (qPCR) in detecting Tritrichomonas foetus from 3 sample types-vaginal douche, cervicovaginal mucus, and low-volume uterine lavage-in naïve heifers exposed to a naturally infected bull. Methods: 11 naïve heifers were exposed for 30 days to a bull naturally infected with T foetus. Three sampling locations were used to collect diagnostic-material vaginal douche, cervical mucus aspirate, and low-volume uterine lavage and submitted for qPCR. Three sampling time periods were performed 21 days apart. Results: 12 out of the 82 samples (14.6%) were positive on qPCR. Positive samples were acquired from 2 of 11 heifers. Time significantly impacted the sample positivity results, while location did not. Conclusions: The small design of the study could not detect a difference between sampling locations. Two animals that tested positive were negative by day 51, suggesting that testing should occur prior to this day. Clinical Relevance: Recommendations for diagnostic sampling in the female for T foetus are scarce. Sampling from the vagina using a vaginal douche is subjectively easier and results in positive samples. Sampling from the vagina avoids having to traverse the cervix for sample collection, which can be challenging.