Proliferative enteropathy (PE) is an important intestinal infection affecting the small intestines particularly the ileum of pigs, causing diarrhoea, retarded growth and/or sudden death. The disease is characterised by thickening of the intestinal mucosa resulting from adenomatous proliferation of epithelial cells infected by the obligate intracellular bacterium Lawsonia intracellularis (1). Moreover, the bacterium is commonly found within mucosal macrophages in which it may be detected after it hasdisappeared from the adjacent epithelial cells, and in the regional lymph nodes (2, 3, 4). Occasionally, foci of translocated L. intracellularis infected proliferating epithelial cells may be found in the mesenteric lymph nodes (2) and extraintestinal detection of the bacterium has recently been reported in the tonsils of pigs with severe PE (5).
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