Original Research
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 | Vol 83, No 1 | a19 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jsava.v83i1.19
| © 2012 Annemarie Labuscagne, B. Tom Spencer, Jackie A. Picard, Mark C. Williams
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 03 April 2012 | Published: 13 December 2012
Submitted: 03 April 2012 | Published: 13 December 2012
About the author(s)
Annemarie Labuscagne, CS Vet Consultancy, Waterkloof, South AfricaB. Tom Spencer, Department of Production Animal Studies, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort campus, South Africa
Jackie A. Picard, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort campus, South Africa
Mark C. Williams, Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology, James Cook University, Australia
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.
Keywords
balloon pigs; Clostridium perfringens; growers; haemorrhagic bowel syndrome; red gut
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Crossref Citations
1. Haemorrhagic bowel syndrome in fattening pigs
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doi: 10.1186/s40813-017-0074-1