Occurence of Lawsonia intracellularis and Brachyspira sp infection in pigs in Poland

Porcine proliferative enteritis (PPE) is an enteric disease, which occurs in pigs worldwide. The disease is caused by Lawsonia intracellularis, an obligatory intracellular, microaerophilic bacteria. Infected animals exhibit poor growth, diarrhoea and die soon after clinical signs occur. In this study, using PCR and nested PCR we detected region p78 of L. intracellularis genome, tlyA gene Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and 16S rRNA gene Brachyspira pilosicoli in samples of intestinal mucosal scrapings of healthy pigs and also in faeces of pigs suffering from diarrhoea. The results confirm the presence of L. intracellularis in pigs from several farms of western and central Poland. In 43 from 191 clinically healthy pigs we found specific sequence L. intracellularis. Positive PCR results for L. intracellularis were observed in 5 of 58 pigs with diarrhoea. We, also discovered that B. hyodysenteriae was present more frequently than B. pilosicoli in pigs with diarrehoea.