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Table 1 Characteristics of diarrhoea outbreaks included in cases series

From: Herd diagnosis of low pathogen diarrhoea in growing pigs – a pilot study

 

Low pathogen diarrhoea outbreaks (n = 5)

High pathogen diarrhoea outbreaks (n = 15)

 

Median

Minimum

Maximum

Median

Minimum

Maximum

Within-outbreak prevalence of bacterial intestinal disease:

      

All pigsa

0.02

0.00

0.06

0.35

0.16

0.91

Diarrhoeic pigsa

0.10

0.00

0.25

0.57

0.17

1.00

Non-diarrhoeic pigsa

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.33

0.00

0.86

Escherichia coli b

0.00

0.00

0.06

0.15

0.00

0.91

Lawsonia Intracellularis b

0.00

0.00

0.02

0.07

0.00

0.55

Brachyspira pilosicoli b

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.02

0.00

0.27

Euthanized pigs per batch

16

15

16

16

14

16

Size of batch (number of pigs)

280

210

586

378

184

650

Within-outbreak prevalence of diarrhoea

0.26

0.19

0.32

0.35

0.18

0.71

Within-outbreak prevalence of pigs with sign of intestinal diseasec

0.41

0.23

0.45

0.29

0.19

0.59

Average diarrhoeic faecal pools in pens

1.8

0.8

4.6

4.0

1.5

9.2

Days post weaning

29

21

42

28

12

63

Days since feed-change

9

0

21

9

2

21

Within-outbreak prevalence of intestinal infections:

      

Diarrhoea pigsd

0.38

0.17

0.50

0.75

0.17

1.00

Diarrhoea pigs adjusted qPCRe

0.14

0.00

0.38

0.67

0.00

0.88

All pigsd, f

0.27

0.25

0.69

0.75

0.21

0.94

All pigs adjusted qPCRe, f

0.19

0.06

0.20

0.50

0.06

0.71

Faecal load of intestinal infections:

      

Mean excretion in diarrheic pigsg

352,359

4,150

918,000,000

14,700,000

6,333

2,620,000,000

Mean excretion in all pigsf, g

634,348

249,426

490,000,000

7,597,158

4,820

1,480,000,000

Mean excretion in qPCR positive diarrheic pigsg

704,721

24,902

2,450,000,000

16,500,000

17,642

2,950,000,000

Mean excretion in qPCR positive all pigsf, g

2,537,078

364,322

1,840,000,000

10,100,000

22,333

1,760,000,000

  1. aWithin outbreak prevalence of pigs with bacterial intestinal disease associated with Escherichia coli, Lawsonia intracellularis and/or Brachyspira pilosicoli (using diarrhoea prevalence as sampling weight to adjust for stratified random sampling).
  2. bWithin outbreak prevalence of pigs with bacterial intestinal disease associated with the listed bacterium (using diarrhoea prevalence as sampling weight to adjust for stratified random sampling).
  3. cWithin-outbreak prevalence of pigs having one or more of the following clinical signs: watery diarrhoea, fibrin, blood, mucus or necrotic material in faeces, pale, hairy, and/or unthrifty appearance.
  4. dWithin-outbreak prevalence of diarrhoeic pigs with detection of Escherichia coli F4, F18, Lawsonia intracellularis and/or Brachyspira pilosicoli by qPCR.
  5. eWithin-outbreak prevalence of diarrhoeic pigs with detection of Escherichia coli F4, F18, Lawsonia intracellularis and/or Brachyspira pilosicoli by qPCR (Adjusted qPCR indicates that a faecal sample should contain >5.2 log10 copies/g faeces for Escherichia coli F18 or Lawsonia intracellularis in order to be classified as positive for those bacteria).
  6. fAll pigs indicate that normal and diarrhoeic pigs were equally included in the calculation of the within-outbreak prevalence (i.e. diarrhoea prevalence was not used as sampling weight to adjust for stratified random sampling).
  7. gSum of Escherichia coli F4, F18, Lawsonia intracellularis and/or Brachyspira pilosicoli copies/g faeces.
  8. Clinical and microbiological findings in batches of growing pigs suffering from high pathogen or low pathogen diarrhoea outbreaks from 20 Danish herds where clinical diarrhoea outbreaks were normally subjected to antibiotic treatment.
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Irish Veterinary Journal

ISSN: 2046-0481