Outbreak of equine endometritis caused by a genotypically identical strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that has been recognized as a cause of endometritis in mares. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used to characterize and compare isolates of P. aeruginosa from an outbreak of endometritis and unrelated isolates collected at the same time as the outbreak. The restriction endonuclease digestion patterns and antimicrobial resistance profiles of all outbreak isolates were identical. Therefore, a single strain of P. aeruginosa was responsible for the cases of endometritis. The unrelated isolates could be distinguished from the outbreak strain using the techniques outlined in the present study. The results establish that this pathogen was not venereally transmitted between all the horses from which it was isolated, but rather must have been disseminated, at least initially, from a contaminated water source. Once the water used to clean the mares and stallions was replaced, there were no further reports of endometritis caused by this organism on the affected stud. Furthermore, the fertility of the stallions was not affected, in spite of persistent carriage for 1 to 2 months. The current study has shown that the use of pulsed field gel electrophoresis has considerable value in epidemiological investigations of equine urogenital tract infections with P. aeruginosa.