[Hemorrhagic enteropathies in fattening swine]

It is reported on 34 fattening pigs with hemorrhagic enteropathy or blood in the intestine, which were submitted for necropsy to the Veterinary Ambulance Schwarzenbek. Only those animals were included in this study, which had lesions in the small intestine or small and large intestine. Cases of swine dysentery with the lesions being restricted to the large intestine were not considered here. No common cause of hemorrhagic enteropathy was found. In four cases there was an intestinal torsion. In one animal the blood in the intestine originated from a gastric ulcer. On 25 of the 34 pigs further examinations could be done. Of those, enteropathogenic E. coli were isolated in 13 cases, with two of the animals having a mixed infection of two serotypes each. Cl. perfringens was found in two cases and S. hyodysenteriae in four cases. In one pig S. typhimurium was isolated from the mesenteric lymph nodes and in one animal the proliferative-hemorrhagic form of the adenomatosis-complex was diagnosed. Histopathologically Campylobacter-like organisms were found in epithelial cells of crypts in the small intestine.