Spectrum of vaginal lactic acid bacteria in indigenous and cross bred cows of India

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are beneficial microorganisms present in the bovine vagina. Documentation of LAB community in the vagina of indigenous and cross bred dairy cows of India is important to further establish its probiotic potential. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify the spectrum of LAB by phenotypic and genotypic methods. A total of 24 LAB were isolated from the vagina of 110 apparently healthy indigenous and cross bred cows. The LAB isolates belonged to the genus Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Enterococcus and Weisella and were further speciated based on their grouping with respective reference sequences available in the GenBank, on phylogenetic analysis. The species diversity of bovine vaginal LAB identified in this study was Lactobacillus agilis (17%), Lactobacillus mucosae (8%), Lactobacillus plantarum (21%), Lactobacillus fermentum (17%), Lactobacillus pentosus (4%), Weisella cibaria (8%), Bacillus coagulans (4%), Bacillus cereus (4%), Enterococcus faecium (13%) and Enterococcus asini (4%). The overall spectrum and relative abundance of the bovine vaginal LAB reported in this study provides critical information for the formulation of uterine probiotics for the prevention/treatment of bovine clinical endometritis.