ABSTRACT
There was an epidemic of diarrhoea affecting pigs of all ages in Italy between May 2005 and June 2006. In 63 herds the cause was confirmed as porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus by electron microscopy, immunoelectron microscopy, pcr and serology. Watery diarrhoea without mucus and blood was usually associated with a reduction of feed consumption. In farrowing-to-weaning herds, diarrhoea affected the sows and suckling piglets, and the mortality in newborn piglets was up to 34 per cent. In growers and fatteners the morbidity ranged from 20 to 80 per cent, but there was either no mortality or it was very low. Depending on the size of the herd and the type of operation, the clinical disease lasted for weeks or months.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/veterinary , Diarrhea/veterinary , Disease Outbreaks/veterinary , Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus/isolation & purification , Swine Diseases/epidemiology , Animals , Antibodies, Viral/blood , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Dehydration/etiology , Dehydration/mortality , Dehydration/veterinary , Diarrhea/complications , Diarrhea/epidemiology , Diarrhea/virology , Italy/epidemiology , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus/immunology , Swine , Swine Diseases/virologyABSTRACT
The small intestine of 51 calves was examined for the presence of K99+ Escherichia coli by means of both an immunoperoxidase procedure performed on paraffin sections and by the slide agglutination test after isolation. Twelve cases resulted immunoperoxidase positive (23.5%) and 8 of them were also agglutination positive. Results of the 2 diagnostic tests agreed in 46 cases (90.2%). In immunoperoxidase positive sections a thick layer of immunoreactive bacteria was seen on the luminal surface of the enterocytes. Post-mortem autolysis or prolonged fixation did not seem to affect the immunoperoxidase reactivity of the sample.
