contagious abortion

noun

: a contagious or infectious disease (such as a brucellosis) of domestic animals characterized by abortion

Word History

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

contagious abortion

noun

1

: brucellosis in domestic animals characterized by abortion:

a

: brucellosis affecting especially cattle that is caused by a brucella (Brucella abortus), that is contracted by ingestion, by copulation, or possibly by wound infection, and that is characterized by proliferation of the causative organism in the fetal membranes inducing abortion, subsequent invasion of the regional lymph nodes and udder with the formation of chronic foci of infection, and sometimes reinvasion of the uterus when pregnancy is reestablished

b

: any brucellosis of swine or goats having a somewhat similar course to bovine brucellosis but usually caused by different brucellae

2

: any of several contagious or infectious diseases of domestic animals marked by abortion (as vibrionic abortion of sheep or an acute salmonellosis of the mare)

called also infectious abortion