Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus által okozott hirtelen elhullás és vetélés kocákban – az első dokumentált eset Magyarországon
View/ Open
Date
2024-10Author
Albert, Ervin
Kis, István Emil
Kiss, Krisztián
K-Jánosi, Katalin
de Oliveira Costa, Matheus
Tolnai, György
Biksi, Imre
DOI link
10.56385/magyallorv.2024.10.579-587Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: Outbreaks of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) – a zoo-
notic pathogen – have caused severe epidemics in the pig sector since the 1970s in
South-Eastern Asia, especially in China and more recently in North America. Cases of
high mortality caused by peracute septicaemia were all attributed to strains of a highly
virulent clonal lineage belonging to the sequence type (ST) 194. In Europe, only two out-
breaks have been reported with similar features, but caused by other sequence types.
Case description: In August 2023 afebrile disease with abortion and subsequent deaths
were observed among sows kept on a small-scale organic pig farm in West Hungary.
Materials and Methods: Serum samples from affected sows were serologically
tested and microagglutination tests as well as real-time PCR tests were carried out
to exclude common infectious agents causing abortion and sudden death. Organs
collected from selected animals were examined with the routine bacteriology as well
as with the routine abortion panel of the Production Animal Diagnostic Centre (Üllő,
Hungary). Two selected strains were whole genome sequenced and tested for antibiotic
susceptibility against 19 antimicrobial agents.
Results and Discussion: Clinical signs, pathological lesions, and microbiological
findings were suggestive of septicaemia of bacterial origin caused by SEZ. According
to the results of the routine laboratory testing no other relevant infectious agents than
SEZ were involved. Whole genome sequence analysis assigned the examined strains,
unrelated to any of the European isolates. A sudden weather change and subsequent
extremely high average daily temperature before the outbreak could be identified as
the only predisposing factor. The abrupt antibiotic treatment and applied biosecurity
measures can help to restrict and terminate the outbreak. To our knowledge, this
is the first report on abortion and lethal septicaemia in sows from the Eastern part
of Central Europe, especially Hungary. The results call attention to the potential of
non-ST194 SEZ strains to cause outbreaks on pig farms.