On June 30 in the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory’s (UKVDL) new stadium-seat auditorium, Erdal Erol, DVM, MS, PHD, UKVDL head of diagnostic microbiology, gave a lecture titled "Current microbiological methods for equine abortion diagnoses and beyond." (Watch the lecture)

During his talk Erol noted that from 2009 to 2011, he found the most likely infectious causative agents for abortion were bacterial, such as Escherichia coli; Streptococcus zooepidemicus; nocardioform actinomycetes (Cr. equi and Amycolatopsis spp); and Streptococcus equisimilis; and viral, such as equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1).

Nocardioform-related abortions are restricted to the last trimester. A nocardioform-infected placenta might be thick and heavy with distinctive gross lesions that most commonly occur in the body of the placenta at the bifurcation of the uterine horns. The affected placenta is covered by a thick, light brown, tenacious fluid described by some as "peanut butter."

"Nocardioform bacteria were first reported at the UKVDL in 1986, and the UKVDL remains at the center of research and detection for this major causative agent of abortion," Erol said