{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T05:15:49Z","timestamp":1787030149296,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,8]],"date-time":"2023-11-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699401600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Charles V. Cusimano grant, Equine Health Studies Program, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Veterinary Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Bacterial endometritis is among the most common causes of subfertility in mares. It has a major economic impact on the equine breeding industry. The sensitivity of detecting uterine microbes using culture-based methods, irrespective of the sample collection method, double-guarded endometrial swab, endometrial biopsy, or uterine low-volume lavage (LVL), is low. Therefore, equine bacterial endometritis often goes undiagnosed. Sixteen individual mares were enrolled, and an endometrial sample was obtained using each method from all mares. After trimming, quality control and decontamination, 3824 amplicon sequence variants were detected in the dataset. We found using 16S rRNA sequencing that the equine uterus harbors a distinct resident microbiome during estrus. All three sampling methods used yielded similar results in composition as well as relative abundance at phyla (Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota) and genus (Klebsiella, Mycoplasma, and Aeromonas) levels. A significant difference was found in alpha diversity (Chao1) between LVL and endometrial biopsy, suggesting that LVL is superior at detecting the low-abundant (rare) taxa. These new data could pave the way for innovative treatment methods for endometrial disease and subfertility in mares. This, in turn, could lead to more judicious antimicrobial use in the equine breeding industry.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/vetsci10110644","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,8]],"date-time":"2023-11-08T01:54:30Z","timestamp":1699408470000},"page":"644","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Effect of Sampling Method on Detection of the Equine Uterine Microbiome during Estrus"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"B. A.","family":"Heil","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA"},{"name":"Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"M.","family":"van Heule","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population Health and Reproduction (PHR), School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA"},{"name":"Department of Morphology, Imaging, Orthopedics, Rehabilitation and Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ghent, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"S. K.","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"T. A.","family":"Kearns","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"E. L.","family":"Oberhaus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Animal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"G.","family":"King","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7884-0307","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"P.","family":"Daels","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Morphology, Imaging, Orthopedics, Rehabilitation and Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ghent, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5553-5967","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"P.","family":"Dini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population Health and Reproduction (PHR), School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5360-1243","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J. 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