J Vet Diagn Invest 1:22-24 (1989) Systemic salmonellosis in mature beef cows

Abstract. Systemic infection of mature beef cows with Salmonella typhimurium resulted in death of cows, abortions, and premature births. Salmonella typhimurium was isolated from the kidney, liver, and spleen of cows but not from an aborted fetus. Diarrhea was not a prominent clinical feature of the epizootic. The source of the salmonella was not determined. Bovine salmonellosis is a disease of very young, de-bilitated, very old, and highly stressed animals. Sal-monellosis can be acute or chronic and occurs as an enteric or systemic infection. Acute systemic salmo-nellosis in pregnant animals can cause abortions. Sal-monella dublin is the serotype most frequently in-volved in bovine abortions, particularly in Europe. Abortions due to Salmonella typhimurium have been reported. 1,3 Seventeen percent of the reported labora-tory-diagnosed bovine abortions from Australia in 1980 were caused by Salmonella spp.2 However, systemi