Retrospective study on necrotizing enteritis in piglets in Switzerland.
The re-emergence of necrotizing enteritis (NE) in Swiss pig breeding farms raised concern that, besides C. perfringens type C strains, additional C. perfringens toxinotypes might cause this disease. Therefore we retrospectively investigated the association of NE with C. perfringens type C or different C. perfringens toxinotypes. We evaluated pathological lesions, routine diagnostic bacteriology results, and multiplex real-time PCR analyses from DNA extracts of archived intestinal samples of 199 piglets from our diagnostic case load. 96.5% of NE cases and 100% of herds affected by NE were positive for C. perfringens type C genotypes. Animals without necrotizing enteritis revealed a significantly lower detection rate of type C genotypes. Non affected piglets showed a high prevalence for beta-2-toxin positive C. perfringens type A strains. Collectively, our data indicate that outbreaks of NE in piglets in Switzerland cannot be attributed to newly emerging pathogenic toxinotypes, but are due to a spread of pathogenic C. perfringens type C strains.
Jäggi
M
M
Institute of Animal Pathology, University of Bern, Bern CH-3001, Switzerland.
Wollschläger
N
N
Abril
C
C
Albini
S
S
Brachelente
C
C
Wyder
M
M
Posthaus
H
H
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000662:veterinary; D004751:Enteritis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D009336:Necrosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004768:Enterotoxins; C109896:cpb2 protein, Clostridium perfringens