Treatment of infectious infertility

Abstract

Infections infertility has repeatedly been identified as major source of economic loss to the equine breeding industry for over 50 years. Despite the development and use of a variety of antimicrobial agents, apparently little progress has been made in reducing the percentage of mares that remain barren due to infectious etiologies which casts some doubt as to the role of bacteria as primary causative agents.1,2 Reasons for this are not completely understood, likely because infectious infertility is a multifactorial phenomenon involving breeding management, diagnostic and treatment modalities and inherent resistance to infection.