GRANULOMATOUS ENTERITIS AND LYMPHADENITIS IN IBERIAN PIGS NATURALLY INFECTED WITH LAWSONIA INTRACELLVLARIS

摘要

The proliferative enteropathy complex of pigs, caused by Lawsonia intracellularis (L. intracellularis), comprises a number of acute and chronic conditions which are manifested as intestinal hemorrhagic diarrhea, and moderate diarrhea and ill thrift, respectively (McOrist and Gebhart, 1999). Those conditions are porcine intestinal adenomatosis (PIA), proliferative haemorrhagic enteropathy (PHE), necrotic enteritis (NE) and regional ileitis (RI). The basic histological lesion (PIA) is an adenomatous hyperplasia of intestinal crypts, with immature epithelial cells and almost absence of goblet cells (Barker, 1992). Immature enterocytes contain large numbers of the intracellular bacteria L. intracellularis in its apical cytoplasm (McOrist and Gebhart, 1999). In this report we present unusual pathological and immunopathological features associated to L. intracellularis infection, one case of granulomatous enteritis and another case of granulomatous lymphadenitis, in two Iberian pigs.