Abstract
Summary
The abortifacient potential of a strain of Chlamydia psittaci originally isolated by J. Schachter (6) from aborted human placental tissue was tested in prognant cattle. For comparison, other cattle were inoculated with the prototype bovine abortion strain of Storz et al. (1) and with an intestinal strain isolated from cattle feces (7). The human and bovine abortion strains produced severe placentomal necrosis and abortion in intravenously inoculated cows. The clinical signs, gross and microscopic lesions, and serologic reactions caused by either strain were similar. Both strains multiplied and caused their primary damage in the cotyledons but caused little damage elsewhere in the cows. At necropsy, chlamydiae were consistently reisolated from diseased cotyledons and uterine fluids and exudates but not from other maternal organs. Isolations from tissues of aborted fetuses were erratic and inconsistent.
In contrast, as previously reported (7), a bovine intestinal strain of C. psittaci failed to cause any significant signs or lesions in intravenously inoculated pregnant cows, and chlamydiae were not reisolated from maternal organs, feces, or fetuses.
These results indicate that the chlamydiae isolated by Schachter from aborted human placental tissues are abortifacient in cattle. They may have abortifacient potential in humans, and therefore they should not necessarily be considered incidental contaminants of the human reproductive tract.
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