A case control study of infectious agents and parasites involved in neonatal piglets diarrhea

Abstract

The importance of the enteric infections in swine has increased and they represent one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality during the neonatal period, bringing on a great impact for the swine production. Diarrhea in animals is characterized by an etiological complexity syndrome that depends on the influence of environmental conditions, management and physiological factors, which will aggravate the disease, that may be due to nutritional or infectious (viral, bacterial or parasitic) origin. The present case- control study aims to evaluate some important infectious and parasitic causes of diarrhea (Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter spp., Brachyspira sp., Strongyloides, Trichuris, Ascaris, Isospora sp, Eimeria sp, Cryptosporidium sp, Coronavirus, Norovirus, Sapovirus, Rotavirus serogroup A and Porcine Circovirus type 2) in 200 piglets from São Paulo state (Case group: 100 piglets with diarrhea; Control group: 100 piglets with the same age, gender and from the same property as the paired case, without diarrhea) and search, for some of these etiological agents, virulence and pathogenicity factors that are epidemiologically important for a better interpretation of the detected findings and their associations as a real cause of the diarrhea syndrome. A history sheet with some epidemiological questions for each sample will be evaluated, and the statistical analysis will be assessed by the Odds ratio (OR) with a confidence interval of 95% for each agent in the respective group. (AU)