THE TRANSMISSION OF CAMPYLOBACTER IN PIGGERIES - AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY

The campylobacter infection of 10 sows and their piglets was monitored . These pigs were kept on two multiplier farms. Rectal faeces samples were taken from the sows shortly before littering and at different int ervals after littering. Swab samples of rectal content were taken from six piglets per sow at different intervals after birth. Nine sows wer e shown to be infected with campylobacter before litter and all sows a fter litter, with an average colony count of 4.1 in log N g(-1) of fae ces. Half of the piglets became infected with campylobacter during the first week of life and 85%, after four weeks. Two genetic subtyping m ethods (ERIC-PCR and RFLP) were used to study the relationships betwee n campylobacter isolates from sows and piglets. A large diversity of c ampylobacter subtypes was found. Nevertheless, piglets and their mothe rs often harboured campylobacter isolates with identical genetic subty ping profiles, suggesting that piglets become infected via their mothe rs. However, observed similarities in genetic subtyping profiles betwe en campylobacters isolated on different farms made this difficult to p rove.