Lawsonia intracellularis
utvärdering av provtagning med tops
Lawsonia intracellularis is an important pathogen in the intestine, causing diarrhea and
retarded (or poor) growth in pigs.
Diagnostics is based on sampling of small amounts of faeces. Several publicated scientific
papers mention the use of faecal swabs as sampling material for diagnosis in experiments and
in prevalence studies. Therefore the need of an evaluation of this sampling technique is
urgent since, to our knowledge, this has not previously been done. Here reported work
compare the use of rectal swabs for feacal sampling, with sampling and analysis of 0.1-0.2
gram of faeces.
The studie included twelve herds with a case history of earlier or ongoing problems with
diarrhoea where Lawsonia intracellularis could be suspected as the causative agent. A total
of 120 growing pigs where examined. This work aims to more precisely define the sensibility
of these sampling methods.
Material collected with rectal swabs and prepared by boiling lysate where compared with
faeces prepared by boiling lysate or a commercial sampling preparation method (QIAgen).
The results of the PCR analysis show that swabs is less suitable for the use in diagnosis in
individuals, or prevalence studies with sampling from animals without symptoms. If the swab
is used at the right time, and on several animals in the same outbreak, with the clinic
suspicion of Lawsonia intracellularis, the sampling technique can be used with greater
accuracy to diagnose the bacteria.