Enteric adenovirus infection in pigs.

Intranuclear adenovirus inclusion bodies were identified in intestinal epithelium by histological, electron microscopical or cytological examination of 43 conventionally raised pigs submitted for diagnostic evaluation from 38 farms between August 1981 and January 1983. The affected pigs were usually less than three weeks old, but ranged from five days to 24 weeks of age. The inclusion bodies occurred in the epithelium of ordinary intestinal villi, or more commonly, in the epithelium covering the blunt villi located over Peyer's patches in the ileum. Fifty-three percent of these adenovirus infected pigs had diarrhea. In most of these pigs with diarrhea (19 of 23) however, agents previously established as causes of porcine enteric disease were also identified. Of the pigs with enterocyte inclusion bodies but without diarrhea, the adenovirus infection appeared incidental to the major disease processes in the pigs. These findings suggest that this adenovirus is an asymptomatic and probably incidental infection in conventional farm-raised pigs.