Animal Science and Food Technology

Efficiency of use of lactic acid bacteria for the treatment of cow endometritis

Anatolii Ugnivenko, Stepan Demchuk, Dmytro Nosevych, Andriy Getya, Oleksandr Kolisnyk
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Abstract

There is a necessity to find alternative methods to treat endometritis in cows that would not have disadvantages of traditional anti-microbial drugs in particular the occurring of resistance forms of bacteria and limitation of milk usage. The aim of the study was possibility of treating endometritis with a suspension of the probiotic, which includes strain B-2691 of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Cows of Ukrainian Black-and-White dairy breed with confirmed endometritis were injected into the uterine cavity with a suspension of the drug (500 billion microbial cells of lactic acid bacteria in 100 ml) from one to 3 times with an interval of 6 days between application. The overall effectiveness of treatment of cows of all groups after 3 times of the drug administration was 90%. 100% recovery of cows with subclinical, mild and severe clinical endometritis, as well as 73% recovery of cows with morphological changes in the uterus was observed. Intrauterine injection of the drug (300 billion cells per 100 ml of saline) led to stabilisation of the number of bacteria in the mucus. On the sixth day after administration, the number of bacteria in the uterine mucus of cows with endometritis and of some clinically healthy cows decreased, so in all animals it did not exceed 100 thousand colony-forming units per 1 cm3. The presence of lactic acid bacteria was detected in all cows. Therapeutic concentrations of Lactobacillus acidophilus from 0.5 to 3 billion/cm3 negatively affected the activity of bull sperm during incubation in a thermostat. At the maximum concentration of lactobacilli, sperm death occurred during the first hour of incubation, and at the minimum concentration – within 2 hours. In the control sample, live sperm were detected after 4 hours of incubation. The probiotic should be used as an alternative method for the treatment and prevention of cow endometritis, but due to the negative effect of therapeutic concentrations of Lactobacillus acidophilus on sperm survival, insemination should be performed no earlier than 6 days after administration of the drug, when a decrease in the number of bacteria in the uterine mucus is confirmed

Keywords

cattle; Lactobacillus acidophilus; uterine mucus; mobility of sperms; colony-forming units

Suggested citation
Ugnivenko, A., Demchuk, S., Nosevych, D., Getya, A., & Kolisnyk, O. (2025). Efficiency of use of lactic acid bacteria for the treatment of cow endometritis. Animal Science and Food Technology, 16(3), 9-23. https://doi.org/10.31548/animal.3.2025.09
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