The first reported case of equine nocardioform placentitis in South Africa.

The research study reports the first identified case of equine nocardioform placentitis, a specific placental infection caused by nocardioform bacteria, in a horse in South Africa.

Background of Equine Nocardioform Placentitis

• Equine nocardioform placentitis is a distinct chronic infection of the uterine body in horses, causing late term abortions, stillbirths, premature births, and early deaths in newborn foals.
• While infections of this kind have been reported primarily in Kentucky, USA, details about its modes of transmission remain unknown.
• Though foals born from infected mares may not be infected, they are often emaciated or small in size.
• Previous research related with nocardia species and related nocardioform bacteria causing equine infertility, endometritis, and foal death is briefly reviewed in the study.

Case Study in Pretoria, South Africa

• The study presents a case from February 2000, of a Friesian mare, in the Pretoria district of Gauteng Province, South Africa.
• The mare underwent a near full-term abortion displaying the same placental lesion often observed in Kentucky cases. Impressions smears and histological sections of the foetal membranes showed nocardioform organisms.
• The infectious organism was also cultured and identified as an Amycolatopsis species, a less commonly diagnosed nocardioform responsible for placentitis cases in the USA.

Treatment and Results

• The mare was found to have the infectious organism in the uterus 18 days post-foaling.
• However, following a two-week course of oral trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole – a treatment selected based on antibiogram sensitivity testing, a uterine flush showed no growth.
• The semen sample from the sire of the aborted foal did not contain any Gram-positive filamentous branching bacteria, limiting the scope of transmission sources.
• The mare conceived again after a single insemination post-treatment, indicating the treatment’s success.