Relationship between previous and concurrent aerobic bacteriological findings in the uterus and the prevalence of puerperal diseases in dairy cows

The overall objective of my thesis was to study dynamics of relevant pathogens in the postpartum period of dairy cows. In the first study I investigated the relationship between aerobic bacterial species (E. coli, T. pyogenes, AHS and CNS) at 10 ± 1 DIM and their presence and effect on each other and uterine infections 2 weeks later. Additionally, the cytobrush was evaluated for the collection of endometrial cells and bacteria in combination and the agreement between 3 laboratories concerning bacteriological results of uterine samples. The objective of the second study was to determine the relationship between bacterial findings in the uterus and percent PMNL in the early postpartum period and to test different cut points for the diagnosis of SCE. The manuscripts of the papers are publicated in the Journal of Dairy Science and formatted according to its guidelines for authors.