Pathogenesis of swine dysentery caused by Treponema hyodysenteriae
Pohlenz, J.F.; Whipp, S.C.; Robinson, I.M.
Deutsche Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 90(9): 363-367
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0341-6593 PMID: 6354680 Document Number: 201244
Sixteen gnotobiotic piglets were inoculated orally at two weeks of age with T. hyodysenteriae strain B 204 and killed between 2 and 13 days after infection. The infection became established in 13 piglets. Treponemas were detected from 2 days after infection, thereafter increasing in number in the goblet cells of the deep colonic crypts. From 4 days after infection there was a distinct mucosal hyperplasia and movement of secreting goblet cells to the upper layers of the mucosa. The inflammatory response in the mucosa was noticeably low during the observation period. The following is suggested as a possible pathogenesis: pathogenic T. hyodysenteriae actively invade the goblet cells of the colonic mucosa and, after multiplication in these cells, spread further into the mucosal cells. The presence of these spirochaetes in the mucosal layers induces mucus secretion and cell proliferation.