SWINE-DYSENTERY AND SPIROCHETAL DIARRHEA - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF ENTERITIS CASES CAUSED BY SERPULINA

100 colons from slaughter pigs, 406 colons from piglets and fattening pigs of the necropsy material of the BA Lint and 457 fecal samples tak en from diarrhoeic pigs were examined concerning the occurrence of Ser pulina. In 9 fattening farms which were suspected for dysentery becaus e of Serpulina-positive results had been undertaken further investigat ions. 102 Serpulina strains were examined regarding their susceptibili ty against Lincomycin, Tiamutin(R) and Econor(R). Improvement of the B J medium and the introduction of the slice agar technique resulted in a higher isolation rate of weakly and strongly beta-hemolytic Serpulin a strains. The Serpulina-isolation rate of 90.9-100% from dysentery fe ces could be achieved by addition of the fungicide Actidion to the BJ medium. 94% of the colons from slaughter pigs were culturally weakly b eta-hemolytic Serpulina-positive by the application of this new cultur e technique. The high percentage of weakly beta-hemolytic Serpulina st rains isolated from mucoid and hemorrhagic necrotising cases of enteri tis offers an opportunity for a new definition of the term ''swine dys entery''. Morphologically similar Serpulina strains with different kin ds of hemolysis were isolated from cases of defined clinical, patholog ical and histological alterations. The pathohistological examinations proved a similar, but differently strong pathomechanism for weakly and strongly beta-hemolytic Serpulina strains. The Pappenheim frozen sect ion technique was introduced for the description of Serpulina in situ. This method offers a simple and qualitatively remarkable description of Serpulina in contrast to the commonly used and more complicated War thin-Starry staining procedure. Testing 102 Serpulina strains on their antimicrobial susceptibility Econor(R) turned out as the most effecti ve antibiotic drug in controlling swine dysentery. At a concentration of 0.05 mu g/ml, 32.4% of the tested Serpulina strains were susceptibl e to Econor(R), but only 2% of the Serpulina strains were susceptible to Tiamutin(R) at the same concentration. Application of Tiamutin(R) i s still appropriate because 95.9% of the tested Serpulina strains were susceptible to Tiamutin(R) in practical use dosages. 16.7-30.4% of th e tested strains were resistant to Lincomycin, for which reason this a ntibioticum is of less efficient value for controlling swine dysentery .