An investigation to determine the cause of haemorrhagic enteritis in commercial pig grower units in the northern parts of South Africa

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Authors

Labuscagne, Annemarie
Spencer, B.T. (Brian Tom)
Picard, J.A.
Williams, Mark C.

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OpenJournals Publishing

Abstract

Necropsies were performed on 36 grower pigs that died peracutely on farms in the northern parts of South Africa. All these pigs were suffering from haemorrhagic enteritis and suspected toxaemia. Samples of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum were taken for histopathological examination and a section of ileum was collected for microbiological examination from each animal. Histological lesions characteristic of enterotoxigenic Clostridium infection were found. Large, Gram-positive bacilli were sometimes abundant in sections and mucosal smears of the intestine. However, only 40% of the cultures were positive for Clostridium perfringens.

Description

A.L. (CS Vet Consultancy) was the project leader and did most of the post-mortems. B.T.S (University of Pretoria) was the primary author’s mentor and provided guidance as to how to approach this study. J.A.P. (University of Pretoria) was responsible for the microbiology, whilst M.C.W. (James Cook University) was responsible for the histopathology.

Keywords

Pigs, Haemorrhagic enteritis, Toxaemia, Clostridium infection

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Labuscagne, A, Spencer, BT, Picard, JA & Williams, MC 2012, ‘An investigation to determine the cause of haemorrhagic enteritis in commercial pig grower units in the northern parts of South Africa’, Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 83(1), Art. #19, 6 pages. http://dx.DOI. org/ 10.4102/jsava.v83i1.19