Abstract Clostridium difficile is a recognised cause of typhlocolitis and diarrhoea in neonatal pigs but has never been confirmed in association with pathology and disease in Irish pigs. Four neonatal piglets, with a history of diarrhoea were referred to the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Backweston for necropsy. They were from a fully integrated, commercial pig farm with approximately 1000 sows. Three piglets had acute, superficial, erosive and suppurative typhlocolitis and the other had mild suppurative mesocolitis. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) toxins A/B were detected using ELISA in the colonic contents from each piglet. C. difficile isolates from two of the piglets were PCR-ribotyped as 078 and an isolate from a third pig was ribotyped as 110. This is the first report confirming C. difficile in association with typhlocolitis in Irish pigs.

Url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27547375

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