CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Campylobacter fetus is extracellular bacteria of the genital tract of cattle. They cause infertility and abortion, butthere is no documented information on the susceptibility of bovine sperm cells to this bacteria. The aim of this present work was to studythe effects provoked by Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis when in interaction with bovine sperm cells. The bovine spermatozoawere obtained frozen bovine semen pooled from uninfected bulls, and were exposed to living campylobacter over different periods oftime. Light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy first revealed a tropism, then a close proximity followed by tight adhesionbetween these two different cells. A decrease in the spermatozoa motility was observed. Motile bacteria were observed during the next 3h, this process began with a tight membrane?membrane adhesion. The adhesion between Campylobacter fetus to the sperm cell occurredeither by the flagella or by sperm head. Results from this study demonstrated with light microscopy scanning electron microscopyallowed us to characterize some aspects of the interaction of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis and bovine sperm while preservingthe cellular and bacterial structure. This ex vivo model might be useful for studies on adhesion and cytopathogenicity of different fieldstrains of Campylobacter fetus.