Veterinary Services

A farm suffered seven deaths in 25-week-old fattening pigs over a short period.  Although there were no clinical signs, the group as a whole was not thriving as expected.  Two pigs were examined. The first had pericarditis and valvular endocarditis from which Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae was isolated. Mulberry heart disease was diagnosed in the second pig.  Typical lesions of acute degenerative cardiomyopathy were widespread in the carcase.

Four sudden deaths were reported in the five days after a batch of 120, 60kg pigs were moved into a new shed. The pigs were in good condition but there was fibrinous pleurisy with excess pleural fluid, cranioventral consolidation of the lungs and severe interlobular and interstitial oedema of the affected lung. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae was isolated from the lungs and pleural lesions, with enzootic-type pneumonia affecting the cranioventral lung tissues.

An outbreak of enzootic pneumonia was confirmed as the cause of coughing and loss of condition in a group of five-month-old gilts. Lung samples from typical gross lesions in two pigs were positive by PCR for Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae. Additionally, Pasteurella multocida was isolated in culture from the lungs of both pigs, confirming the presence of complicating bacterial infection. The pigs were not vaccinated against M. hyopneumoniae.

Exudative dermatitis or ’greasy pig disease’ affecting 10 percent of six-week-old piglets was diagnosed in an outdoor herd. Profuse growths of Staphylococcus hyicus were isolated from skin swabs and skin scrapings. There was no evidence of intercurrent ectoparasitic infection.