Coccidiosis associated with scours in baby pigs
Sangster, L.T.; Stuart, B.P.; Williams, D.J.; Bedell, D.M.
Veterinary Medicine-Small Animal Clinician 73(10): 1317-1319
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4889 PMID: 252333 Document Number: 133960
Coccidiosis was diagnosed in 73 piglets from 23 farms during 1975-77 in southern Georgia, mostly in summer and early autumn. The pathological changes were more severe than in colibacillosis. A yellow fibrinonecrotic membrane was sometimes adherent to the jejunum or ileum. Microscopically the villi of the jejunum and ileum were blunted. Multifocal erosion of superficial epithelium was slight to severe. Mitoses were prominent within the epithelial cells of the intestinal crypts. In some cases Escherichia coli was considered to potentiate the diarrhoea that followed destruction of the superficial epithelial cells of the intestine by coccidia. Promising results were obtained with amprolium therapy, and preliminary studies suggested that amprolium may prevent scours associated with coccidia when given to 3-day-old pigs for five days or to sows before they farrow. Coccidia were apparently not associated with other enteropathogens in 22 of 32 cases.