Identification of bacterial and fungal agents of clinical endometritis in dairy heifers and treatment by metronidazole or cephapirin

This study was aimed to identify fungal and bacterial causes of clinical endometritis as the first study in one hundred thirty dairy heifers by culture and PCR methods, and also to evaluate intrauterine cephapirin and/or metronidazole treatments. Although there were no growth of bacteria and fungi agents in all samples but PCR results showed the presence of E.coli and Trueperella pyogenes in six heifers. Conception rate of the treated heifers with metronidazole and cephapirin was significantly higher than that of untreated heifers. Heifers in metronidazole-treated group had higher conception rate compared to cephapirin group but the difference was not significant. A greater conception rate was observed in heifers that had clear discharge at time of insemination, compared to heifers with mucopurulent or opaque discharges. The results of this study showed that the pregnancy rate of treated heifers was significantly higher than that of untreated heifers. It could be concluded that treatment of affected heifers and the clear discharges at the time of AI could improve conception rate.