[Pathological changes in the urogenital tract and mammae of culled sows from an industrial pig production unit]

In an industrial pig production unit 101 sows were culled because of reproduction failure. All the sows had a previous history of MMA, PHS, SUGD. All the sows were crosses of the two breeds Large White and Landrace. 101 sows were examined postmortem for pathologic changes. Changes were found in the kidney (38.6%), pyelum (49.5%), ureter (52.5%), bladder (100%), urethra (100%), uterus (50.5%), cervix (31.7%), vagina (28.7%), ovaries (51.5%), mammary gland (100%). Since 100% of the pathologic findings happened simultaneously in the urinary tract as well as in the mammary gland and just over 50% of the investigated cases had pathologic changes in the genital organs as well, the results suggest that MMA, PHS, and SUGD must be regarded as different manifestations of the same pathological entity of the urogenital organs of the sow. The authors introduce the term SUGD to denominate the conflicting terminology around the periparturient reproductive failure syndrome complex.