Use of novel molecular techniques for improvement of abortion diagnostics in ruminants

Bacterial and fungal infections seem to play a role in up to one fourth of abortions in animals, but the identification of the agent is costly in terms of labour and material and rapid diagnosis is not possible using classical methods. Especially in ruminants abortion is an important animal health issue because of its major economic impact. The PhD project will aim at disclosing bacterial and fungal components of abortion material using amplicon sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of the results. The results will lead to the selection of a panel of important opportunistic abortive agents for the development of a new molecular tool.