Tracheobronchial lavage through nasotracheal via was performed in 10 clinically health calves. They were maintained in lateral recumbence to perform the procedure. A small tube inserted into a guide tube was introduced until the tracheal bifurcation, producing cough, facilitating the collection of the lavage fluid. The mean number of total cells present in the samples was 133,750 cells/ml. The differential counting was represented by 77.2% of macrophages, 14.9% of cylindrical epithelial cells, 6.0% of neutrophils, 1.8% of lymphocytes. The cylindrical ciliated cells represented 79.0% of the sample and the nonciliated cells represented 21.0%. The mean number of macrophages was 78.5 of binucleated cells, 20.5 of trinucleated cells, and 28.5 of giant cells per smear. The tracheobronchial lavage obtained by this technique was an efficient method to characterize the cytological population of the lungs of clinically health calves.
calf; tracheobronchial lavage; cytology
