Research Article Reproductive Pathological Changes Associated with Experimental Subchronic Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Infection in Nonpregnant Boer Does A. M. Othman, 1 Y. Abba, 2,3 F. F. A. Jesse, 1,4 Y. M. Ilyasu, 2 A. A. Saharee, 1,4 A. W. Haron, 1,4 M. Zamri-Saad, 2 and M. A. M. Lila 2 1 Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Department of Veterinary Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri, PMB 1069, Maiduguri 600233, Borno State, Nigeria 4 Research Centre for Ruminant Disease, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to F. F. A. Jesse; jesseariasamy@gmail.com Received 17 November 2015; Accepted 11 January 2016 Academic Editor: Hin-Chung Wong Copyright © 2016 A. M. Othman et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis causes caseous lymphadenitis (CLA), which is a contagious and chronic disease in sheep and goats. In order to assess the histopathological changes observed in the reproductive organs of nonpregnant does infected with the bacteria, 20 apparently healthy adult Boer does were divided into four inoculation groups, intradermal, intranasal, oral, and control, consisting of ive goats each. Excluding the control group, which was unexposed, other does were inoculated with 10 7 CFU/1 mL of live C. pseudotuberculosis through the various routes stated above. hirty days ater infection, the ovaries, uterus, and iliac lymph nodes were collected for bacterial recovery and molecular detection, as well as histopathological examination. he mean changes in necrosis, congestion, inlammatory cell iniltration, and oedema varied in severity among the ovaries, uterus, and iliac lymph nodes following diferent inoculation routes. Overall, the intranasal route of inoculation showed more severe ( < 0.05) lesions in all the organs examined. he indings of this study have shown that C. pseudotuberculosis could predispose to infertility resulting from pathological lesions in the uterus and ovaries of does. 1. Introduction Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is gram-positive, facul- tative, anaerobic, small curved bacillus [1, 2]. It is generally regarded as an important animal pathogen causing caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep and goats. Several publications have reported that CLA can be transmitted through the oral, intradermal, intranasal, and intraperitoneal routes [3–7]. he organism has also been reported to cause signiicant eco- nomic losses to farmers due to hide and meat condemnation [8–11]. Recently, our study showed an increase in proges- terone and estrogen levels in nonpregnant does inoculated with the bacterium; this may predispose to infertility since altered hormonal levels impair ovulation and implantation [7]. Based on the above study, there is a possibility that the bacteria might afect the reproductive organs of the doe and lead to pathological changes. he pathogenesis of C. pseudotuberculosis in the repro- ductive organs is complex and not well understood even though it is believed that the bacteria disseminates through Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Pathogens Article ID 4624509