Bacteriological Studies of Bovine Semen. II. The Incidence of Specific Types of Bacteria and the Relation to Fertility

Abstract

Various types of bacteria have been observed in bull semen collected with the artificial vagina. Hatziolos (10) reported that cocci, spore-forming rods and organisms of the coliform, proteus and pseudomonas groups were the main types of organisms present. Gunsalus et al. (9) stated that diphtheroids, staphylococci, Pseudomonas pyocyaneous and Escherichia coli were the predominant types of bacteria in freshly collected bull semen. A report by the United States Department of Agriculture (14) indicated that diphtheroids were the predominating type of organisms. Staphylococci were found to occur next in frequency and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and coliform organisms were present occasionally. Ognianov (12) found Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus and E. coli. More recently Edmondson et al. (6) isolated streptococci, staphylococci, micrococci, pseudomonas, bacilli, actinomyces and E. coli from bovine semen.