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Biofilm. No, it’s not a documentary playing at your local art-house theater or the newest sci-fi flick, but it might be what’s standing between your mare and pregnancy.

Bacterial infection of a mare’s reproductive tract, or endometritis, is a significant cause of equine infertility. The condition is often chronic and resistant to treatment, which is frustrating for mare owners, veterinarians, and researchers and can cause significant economic loss for the horse industry, said Ryan Ferris, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACT, of Colorado State University’s (CSU) Department of Clinical Sciences.

With an eye on chronic endometritis in the mare, Ferris has spent the past two years studying biofilms—a group of any microorganisms that stick to each other and a surface—and their possible relationship to mare infertility. He presented his team’s preliminary research findings at the 2014 American College of Theriogenology (Animal Reproduction) Symposium held Aug. 6-9 in Portland, Oregon