Bovine mycotic abortion--a comparative study of diagnostic methods.

The agreement between three diagnostic methods (mycology, morphology, and immunofluorescence staining) was compared two by two in elucidating the aetiological diagnosis in 52 cases of bovine mycotic abortion. Agreement between the three methods was expressed by the kappa coefficient (kappa), and ranked as follows: mycology and immunofluorescence staining (kappa = 0.48); morphology and immunofluorescence staining (kappa = 0.40); mycology and morphology (kappa = 0.28). A. fumigatus was confirmed to be the main cause of bovine mycotic abortion with members of the zygomycetes (order Mucorales) being the second most important group. In two aborted placentas a Candida species was found to be the cause of mycotic placentitis.