Side of chute and handedness does not affect the sensitivity of Tritrichomonas foetus sample collection in bulls

Tritrichomonas foetus, a sexually transmitted pathogen of cattle, continues to plague the cattle industry despite control efforts. Pre-analytical diagnostic considerations such as sample collection and sample handling continue to be a shortcoming in the diagnosis of T. foetus in bulls. Preputial scraping is the most common means of sample collection. Previous studies have shown an effect of handedness of the sample collector and the side of the chute that collection was made from as factors that affected the diagnostic sensitivity of the test. The aim of our study was to determine if being right or left-handed and the side of the chute the collection occurred on impacted the diagnostic sensitivity or specificity. Eleven sexually mature bulls naturally infected with T. foetus were enrolled in a 2-factor cross-over study design. Samples were taken once a week for 8 weeks by either a right-handed or left-handed veterinarian from either the left then the right side of the chute or right then left side of the chute, only using their dominant hand to make the scraping motion used to obtain the sample. Utilizing a 2-way ANOVA, we found no significant difference in the chance of acquiring a positive sample per bull (P = 0.8708) regardless of whether the sample was taken from the right or left side of the chute and regardless of dominant hand. In conclusion, using current RT-qPCR methods, the authors found no effect of handedness or side of chute on diagnostic sensitivity.