Swine dysentery looms UK pig herds

Swine dysentery looms in the UK pig herd as the country just managed to overcome porcine circovirus (PCV2).

This bacterium can survive 60 days in manure-contaminated puddles, and carrier pigs can shed the bug for up to 90 days but show no clinical signs.

Worryingly, resistant strains are appearing and in fact some straw-based finishing operations have had to close down due to unsustainable losses.

There has been a big swing towards two-site production in the UK, with weaners being trucked from mainly outdoor based East Anglian producers to finishers located in North England and Lincolnshire.

Hauliers move these pigs in the afternoons having spent the mornings shipping slaughter pigs into the abattoirs.

If the wagons are not cleaned out properly after hauling infected slaughter pigs then weaners can pick up the bacteria and a cycle of infection is now established.

Swine dysentery is caused by a spirochaetal bacterium called Brachyspira hyodysenteriae. This organism causes a severe inflammation of the large intestine which causes bloody mucous diarrhoea.

Disease is common in pigs from 12 kilogrammes to 75 kilogrammes but severe cases occur occasionally in sows and their sucking piglets.