Transtracheal Wash Fluid Collection and Analysis in Healthy Goats

Background

Transtracheal wash (TTW) is frequently used to characterize respiratory disease in companion animals, cattle, and horses, but no description of TTW methods or fluid analysis in healthy goats is available.

Hypothesis/Objectives

Describe a technique for collecting TTW fluid (TTWF) from healthy goats and describe the nucleated cell populations within and bacterial populations isolated from TTWF in healthy goats.

Animals

Thirty-three healthy university-owned Boer does.

Methods

Prospective descriptive study. Percutaneous TTW was performed in sedated healthy goats. Retrieved TTWF from each goat was analyzed for cytologic findings, and aerobic and anaerobic microbiologic cultures were performed.

Results

Aliquot recovery volume averaged 10.8%. Four doses were excluded from summary statistics for TTWF cytology and culture. In 29 TTWF samples, macrophages were the predominant cell population (40%–92%) followed by small lymphocytes (3%–39%) and neutrophils (2%–32%). Cultures of most samples yielded mixed bacterial growth (62.1%, 18/29). Bibersteinia trehalosi was the most frequently identified bacterial species from pure culture (17.2%, 5/29). No association was found between the cytologic presence of bacteria and bacterial culture results (p = 0.63).

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

The described TTW method is a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure in goats that can be performed in a hospital or field setting with commercially available materials. Our results describe the cytologic and bacterial populations identified within TTWF of healthy goats. Cytology results do not predict bacterial growth in healthy goats. Bacterial genera that are routinely associated with bronchopneumonia in goats also are present in health.