Basic biological aspects of Tritrichomonas foetus of re-levance to the treatment of bovines suffering of tricho-moniasis

Tritrichomonas foetus is a flagellate protozoan and the etiological agent of bovine genital trichomoniasis [1], which is an infectious venereal disease. This parasite is usually found associated with the mucosal surface of the urogenital tract in females or the male preputial and penile membranes. In females, the clinical manifestations may include abortion, with repetition of estrus at irregular intervals, vaginitis, cervicitis, endometritis, and pyometra. Parasitized males may have a discharge with small nodules in the preputial membrane. After that, the bulls have no clinical symptoms, and are thus an asymptomatic carrier that may spread the infection. Considering that a bull could cover up to twenty females [2], bovine genital trichomoniasis is a serious medical and veterinary problem, with economical repercussion for beef and milk production. As T. foetus is an amitochondrial and aerotolerant organism, energy production under low O2 tension in the protozoan is done via hydrogenosome, which, as the name suggests, is the organelle where H2 is generated [3,4,5]. The molecular machinery of mitochondrial cell death is, therefore, absent in this parasite and the mechanism that activates of cell death program is not clear. This review seeks to understand the characteristics of the protozoan parasite T. foetus in order to propose new therapies for animals suffering from this infectious and contagious agent.