Bovine perinatal mortality due to infection may result either from the direct effects of intrauterine infection and/or the fetal response to such infection, leading to the fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS). Both intrauterine infection and FIRS, which causes multi-organ damage and involution of immune organs, compromise fetal survivability, sometimes fatally. Organ injury associated with FIRS may, in addition to causing fetal mortality, irreversibly compromise extrauterine adaptation of the neonate, a recognized problem in human fetuses. Diagnosis of intrauterine infection and of FIRS requires related, but independent analytical approaches. In addition to detection of pathogens, the immune and inflammatory responses of the bovine fetus may be utilized to diagnose intrauterine infection. This can be done by detection of specific changes in internal organs and the measurement of antibodies and/or elements of the acute phase reaction. Currently our ability to diagnose FIRS in bovine fetuses and neonates is limited to research studies. This review focuses on both the fetomaternal response to infection and diagnostic methods which rely on the response of the fetus to infection and inflammatory changes, as well other methods which may improve diagnosis of intrauterine infection in cases of bovine perinatal mortality.
Keywords: calf; fetal immune response; fetal inflammatory response syndrome; intrauterine infection; stillbirth/perinatal mortality.