Doenças causadas por Escherichia coli em suínos domésticos no Nordeste do Brasil.

Abstract

In pig farming, the appearance of many diseases is closely related to the form of animal production and reflect the fragility of maintaining the health status of the herd, especially in the Northeast region. In pigs, E. coli infections are an important causal agent of death with different clinical manifestations. This Dissertation was developed in two chapters, composed of two original articles. The first submitted to Acta Scientiae Veterinaria reports outbreaks of abortions and neonatal mortality due to E. coli infection, describing its epidemiological, clinical, anatomopathological and microbiological aspects. The outbreaks occurred in a subsistence rural property located in the municipality of Patos, Paraíba, 10 sows were bred, four brown sows and one breeding pig. In each calving, the sows were litter-fed for an average of 12 piglets, a maximum of two survived and the rest died within 48 hours after birth. One of the mothers, in her third delivery, aborted 10 fetuses in the final third of gestation, which were sent for anatomopathological examination. In the external examination of the cadavers, there was unevenness in the size of the fetuses and reddish areas, multifocal to coalescent, randomly distributed throughout the body, particularly in the limbs, ventral region of the abdomen and face. In the microbiological examination of lung fragments of the fetuses, colonies were observed, characterized by Gram negative rods. In the phenotypic identification, the bacteria presented positive lactose, indole, nitrate reduction and Voges Proskauer, in addition to negative citrate oxidase, motility, urease, phenylalanine and methyl red, characteristics that allow the identification of Escherichia coli. The second article will be submitted to the Brazilian Archives of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science magazine, describing the epidemiological, clinical and anatomopathological aspects of Edema Disease and domestic swine in the Northeastern Sertão Mesoregion. Swine necropsies performed at the Animal Pathology Laboratory of the Veterinary Hospital of the University were reviewed Federal University of Campina Grande, Patos Campus, Paraíba, during the period from January 2003 to April 2019. During the study period, 108 necropsies were performed on swine, six individual cases and nine edema disease outbreaks were diagnosed, with a total of 22 necropsies and 47 affected animals. Animals of both sexes were affected and predominantly in the post-weaning period. The clinical course was acute and characterized by neurological manifestations and edema. At necropsy, hydropericardium, ascites, edema in the intestinal ligaments and edema in the wall of the stomach and eyelid were observed. In histopathology, an increase in the perivascular space associated with edema and swelling of the endothelial cells was observed in all cases. The diagnosis was established through epidemiology, clinical signs, anatomopathological findings and microbiological isolation of the agent. Confirmation can be performed with isolation of the bacteria and the characterization of the gene responsible for the production of the toxin, but in the unavailability of these techniques, the anatomopathological lesions are sufficiently accurate to establish the diagnosis.