Porcine proliferative enteritis: experimentally induced disease in cesarean-derived colostrum-deprived pigs.

The hypotheses that porcine proliferative enteritis is an infectious disease and that Campylobacter sputorum subsp mucosalis (CSM) is involved in the development of this disease were experimentally tested. Three experiments were conducted with 10-week-old, cesarean-derived colostrum-deprived pigs. Of 22 pigs given homogenized mucosal scrapings (crude inocula) intragastrically, 15 had gross and/or microscopic lesions of proliferative enteritis. Of 10 pigs inoculated with cultures of both CSM and Salmonella cholerae-suis, 2 had evidence of proliferative enteritis. The 4 pigs treated with S cholerae suis only had diffuse fibrinous gastroenteritis without evidence of mucosal proliferation. Proliferative enteritis was produced in 1 of 5 pigs inoculated with pure cultures of CSM. Proliferative lesions in the intestine were characterized by the proliferation of immature crypt epithelial cells. Affected cells contained variable numbers of curved, intracytoplasmic Campylobacter sp organisms. The CSM organism was isolated from the intestinal mucosa of 8 pigs treated with either crude inocula or cultures of CSM.