Prevalence of Trypanosoma theileri in cows and fetuses at slaughter

Blood from 171 pregnant and 65 nonpregnant cows was taken at slaughter for culture and examined during the culturing period for Trypanosoma theileri once a week for 5 weeks. Of the 171 fetuses from the pregnant cows, 119 (69.6%) were greater than or equal to 4 months gestation; blood samples from these fetuses were also taken for culture. Of 236 cows (81 of 171 [47.4%] pregnant and 20 of 65 [30.8%] nonpregnant cows), 101 (42.8%) were culture positive. More of the pregnant than nonpregnant cows were culture positive (P less than 0.05). More beef cows (48.0%) than dairy cows (34.1%) were culture positive (P less than 0.025). Two of the 119 (1.7%) fetus samples were found culture positive. The percentages of positive cultures from Brucella-reactor cows, 18 of 40 (45.0%), and from non-Brucella-reactor cows, 83 of 196 (42.3%), were similar. However, both of the culture-positive fetuses were from Brucella-reactor cows.