Serological characterization of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae strains isolated from pigs in Quebec

A total of 3306 isolates of A. pleuropneumoniae originating from lung tissues of pigs that died of acute pleuropneumonia and 140 isolates recovered from tonsils or nasal cavities of apparently healthy pigs from chronically infected herds were serotyped. Various serotyping methods, such as slide agglutination, tube agglutination, ring precipitation, coagglutination, immunodiffusion, indirect hemagglutination and counterimmunoelectrophoresis either alone or in combination were used. The techniques used for serotyping continued to evolve during the last 10 years depending on the problem encountered in serotyping. Antisera prepared in rabbits against formalinized whole cell suspensions of reference strains of A. pleuropneumoniae of serotypes 1 to 12 were employed for serotyping. Serotype 1 was predominant ranging from 55 to 87% from year to year during the last 10 years with an average prevalence of 68%. Serotype 5 was second in prevalence ranging from 9 to 30% with a mean of 23%. Both subtypes of serotype 5 (5a and 5b) were present in Quebec. Serotypes 3, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 were isolated in small numbers together accounting for about 9%. Serotypes 4, 9 and 11 were not present. Cross-reactions were observed among isolates of serotypes 3, 6 and 8, and 1, 9 and 11 and were easily differentiated from each other by quantitation of type and group specific antigens by coagglutination and immunodiffusion tests. Serotypes 1, 5 and 7 were isolated most frequently from tonsils of pigs from chronically infected herds. Prevalence of different serotypes in different countries has also been reviewed.