OBSERVATIONS ON INTESTINAL EPITHELIAL CELL KINETICS IN PIGS INFECTED BY LA WSONIA INTRACELLULARIS, BRACHYSPIRA PILOSICOLI AND BRACHYSPIRA HYODYSENTERIAE

摘要

Intestinal infections with different pathogenic bacteria are common among growing/finishing pigs. Three of the most important infections are proliferative enteropathy (PE), colonic spirochaetosis (CS) and swine dysentery (SD). Pathologically, PE is characterised by adenomatous proliferation of immature epithelial cells infected by the obligate intracellular bacterium Lawsonia intracellularis (1). Colonic spirochaetosis is a catarrhal colitis, characterised by increased extrusions together with necrosis of epithelial cells and end-on attachment to luminal epithelium of the causal spirochaete Brachyspira pilosicoli (2). Swine dysentery, a severe muco-hemorrhagic colitis, characterised by extrusion and necrosis of epithelial cells and elongation of crypts, is caused by the spirochaete Brachyspira hyodysenteriae (3).