ÓÄÊ 619:615.285
DOI 10.33861/2071-8020-2025-6-23-25
Original Empirical Research
Semikrasova A.N., Zhilina K.V.
Abstract. Endometritis in foxes is a common disease leading to female barrenness, infertility, and significant economic losses in fur farming. Lifetime diagnosis is difficult, which determines the relevance of studying postmortem pathological changes. The aim was to study the pathoanatomical and histological changes in the reproductive organs of barren female foxes to identify the causes of infertility.
Materials and methods. The study was conducted on 50 female foxes that did not produce offspring after the spring slaughter. A pathoanatomical examination, morphometry, histological (hematoxylin and eosin staining), and microbiological examination of the uterus and ovaries were performed.
Results. Analysis of the whelping of 2000 females revealed a high level of barrenness (94%). During autopsy, macroscopic changes were identified: thickening of the uterine horns, including those with purulent contents, local spherical thickenings, and ovarian nodularity. Endometritis, cystic endometrial hyperplasia, calcification, as well as inflammatory changes in the ovaries (oophoritis) were histologically confirmed. In 6% of cases, endometritis was combined with cervicitis.
Conclusion. The obtained data indicate that inflammatory and cystic-hyperplastic processes in the endometrium and ovaries are the key pathoanatomical basis for infertility and barrenness in foxes. The results emphasize the need to develop lifetime diagnostic methods for endometritis.
Keywords: fox, endometritis, barrenness, histology, pathoanatomical changes, cystic endometrial hyperplasia, reproductive organs.
Author affiliation:
Zhilina Ksenia V., veterinarian at the Experimental Rabbit Breeding Laboratory of the Scientific Research Institute of Fur-Bearing Animal and Rabbit Breeding name after V. A. Afanasyev; 6, Trudovaya st., Rodniki sttl., Ramensky District, Moscow Region, 140143; e-mail: niipzk@mail.ru.
Responsible for correspondence with the editorial board: Semikrasova Alla N., Ph.D. in Biology, Scientific Consultant of the Scientific Research Institute of Fur-Bearing Animal and Rabbit Breeding name after V. A. Afanasyev; 6, Trudovaya st., Rodniki sttl., Ramensky District, Moscow Region, 140143; phone: 8-496-4648681; e-mail: niipzk@mail.ru.
Authors’ Contribution: the manuscript was written with the input of all authors. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict of Interest Statement: the authors declare no conflict of interest.
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