Toxicological tests on the safety of fermosin for pigs, a novel microbial feed from petroleum distillate.

The dog fodder yeast fermosin did not influence the health of pigs in long-term feeding experiments. It is recommended to use fermosin in concentrations up to 7.5% in mixed feed for pigs.

[Studies of necrotizing enteritis of suckling piglets (Clostridium perfringens type C enterotoxemia) in industrialized sow breeding units. 4. Epizootiology]. / Untersuchungen zur nekrotisierenden Enteritis der Saugferkel (Clostridium-perfringens-Typ-C-Enterotoxämie) in industriemssig produzierenden Sauenzuchtanlagen.

Necrotising enteritis had been the cause of death of 4.9 per cent in 5,177 nursed piglets, which was established by pathological examination. The number of piglets, in that context, which had come from industrialised sow breeding units was equivalent to 92 per cent. The nursed piglet held the third position, next to smaller ruminants (19.4 per cent) and fowl (6.0 per cent), with regard to the occurrence of Clostridium perfringens enterotoxemia or necrotising enteritis in 112,218 animals which were pathologically examined after death. Necrotising enteritis so far has been rare in the GDR. No regional accumulation has been observed. Several outbreaks on industrialised sow breeding units actually remained stationary. The occurrence of the disease may be favoured by a number of factors which are conducive to accumulation of Clostridium perfringens Type C in a given stock. Group keeping of pregnant sows, simultaneous farrowing of larger groups of sows, group treatment of nursed piglets, using neomycin, chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline, and other antibiotics to which Clostridium perfringens is primarily resistant or has acquired resistance in the course of time are some of those contributive factors. Transmission of Clostridium perfringens Type C through feedstuff is possible, though it would lead to a real outbreak only by high intensity of the contamination, and it played a minor role in proliferation of the disease. 3479 Clostridium perfringens strains were isolated from 9,481 animals, both clinically intact and after death, with 30 species being included. Type classification revealed 2454 strains of Type A (70 per cent), 204 of Type D (5.88 per cent), 164 of Type C (four per cent), and 48 of Type B (1.34 per cent). There were 688 atoxic strains (17 per cent). Swine is the major carrier of Clostridium perfringens Type C, with 87 per cent of all Clostridium perfringens Type C strains having been isolated from swine. Swine was followed by fowl (four per cent), sheep (four per cent), cattle, rabbit, and dog (1.27 per cent each). Clostridium perfringens Type C was obtained from the faeces of clinically intact sows in seven instances, including two cases with sows (0.46 per cent) from farms with no previous record of necrotising enteritis.

[Studies of necrotizing enteritis of suckling piglets (Clostridium perfringens type C enterotoxemia) in industrialized sow breeding units. 5. Control of the disease]. / Untersuchungen zur nekrotisierenden Enteritis der Saugferkel (Clostridium-perfringens-Typ-C-Enterotoxämie) in industriemässig produzierenden Sauenzuchtanlagen. 5. Mitteilung: Bekämpfung der Krankheit.

Recent methods used and experience obtained in the control of necrotising enteritis are reported in this paper, with reference being made to both the pathogenesis and epizootiology of the disease. Two inoculations of the sows, using "Enterotoxämievakzine Dessau bivalent" five and three weeks before parturition, have worked well for prophylaxis. Oral treatment was applied to nursed piglets, using 40,000 I.U. of "Aviapen" and "V-Tablopen" penicillin per animal and day over periods between two and four days, helped to minimise piglet loss, particularly in the period between a fresh outbreak and full effectiveness of immunoprophylactic action. Such treatment was conducted metaphylactically and therapeutically. The first metaphylactic treatment was given within 24 hours from parturition. Combination of mother animal vaccination with the above therapeutic use of those two penicillin preparations worked extremely well in enzootically contaminated stocks and proved to be the most effective approach, for the time being, to controlling necrotising enteritis of nursed piglets. Yet, all those control measures failed to bring about full stock sanitation on industrialised units. Sow trading was not permitted until at least four weeks had elapsed from full effectiveness of mother animal vaccination, with the view to reducing the proliferation of Clostridium perfringens Type C via sales of breeding animals. All sows were given two "Enterotoxämievakzine Dessau bivalent" vaccinations, prior to sale. The animals were sold only to smaller farms (less than 500 sows for breeding) with concentional keeping patterns which were kept under constant diagnostic supervision. Neomycin, oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, and other antibiotics against which Clostridium perfringens was resistant or in a position to assume resistance were used on endangered stocks only in conjunction with penicillin or not at all. This programme of control has proved to be efficient through a period of more than three years.

[Epizootiology of Salmonella typhimurium infection in chickens]. / Epizootiologie der Salmonella-typhimurium-Infektion beim Huhn.

The incidence of S. typhimurium infections among fowl increased in thr region of Potsdam in general, and on various big farms in particular, 1976 and over the first half of 1977. The outbreaks included subclinical infections and clinically manifest diseases which caused remarkable loss of broilers from the affected stocks (up to 15.92 per cent). Parent stocks contaminated with S. typhimurium were to be the sources of infection in all cases. A total of 1,220 Salmonella strains were isolated from fowl and its environment, with 1,151 of them being S. typhimurium (2.98 per cent of all samples tested). The following amounts of S. typhimurium strains were isolated from different types of samples which had been collected from infected broiler stocks: 8.10 per cent from dead broilers, 5.86 per cent from dead broiler parents, 2.11 per cent from pulp linings of transport cages for day-old chicks, 1.23 per cent from litter, 1.0 per cent from hatching material (eggs or dead and jammed embryos, and 0.12 per cent from swabs used in hygiene supervision). No Salmonellae were isolated from feedstuff. The transmission of S. typhimurium, therefore, is though to have taken the route via the hatching egg and via congenitally infected chicks traded between breeders and propagation farms. The control and prophylaxis of S. typhimurium infections, therefore, should be based primarily on action in the centralised breeding stocks. Specific steps of such action are proposed. Fifty-three strains were biochemically and lysotypically analysed, with the following types being determined: ut/Ph 30 BT b, ut/Ph 30 BT c, n.c. 1/72/n.c. BT b, 2 n.c. BT a, and 1A/6 BT a. The first two types covered 84.9 per cent of all strains isolated from the fowl. All lysotype ut/Ph 30 strains isolated from fowl fell under the copenhagen variant which had rarely been isolated from man in the past. These results are likely to support the demand for a joint control programme for enteritis Salmonellae, with particular emphasis on S. typhimurium, for implementation in human and veterinary medicine.