Pigs enzootic pneumonia problems

The purpose. To study the epizootic situation with monitoring studies on enzootic pneumonia among the pig population in pig farms and to establish the main factors that may be the reason for its spread in Ukraine. Methods. Epizootological examination, clinical, bacteriological, pathological, anatomical, serological and molecular genetic studies to determine the role of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae in infectious diseases of pigs. Results. According to the results of epizootological monitoring, bacteriological, serological, molecular genetic studies, the spread of enzootic pneumonia among the livestock of pigs in Ukrainian farms was established. It was determined that the clinical signs of the disease in piglets appear already at 34-50 days of age, depending on the duration of weaning from sows and cover up to 30% of the livestock. At the autopsy of dead piglets of different ages, it was found that in 54% of cases, lung lesions characteristic of enzootic (mycoplasma) pneumonia were recorded. The percentage of pathological and anatomical changes in the respiratory tract recorded at autopsy increased depending on the age of the pigs. So, in piglets up to the age of 1 month respiratory tract damage was diagnosed in 6.6%, at the age of 40 days their number increased sharply — up to 24.2%, at the age of 120 days — up to 100%. According to the results of studies, it was found that the main carriers of the causative agent of enzootic pneumonia can be considered boars (up to 68.5%), repair pigs (up to 64%) and sows (up to 28.1%). Despite such a high level of carriage among the main livestock, the results were positive in 26.7% of suckling piglets, after weaning from sows they decreased to 11.6 and again increased to 22.1% in piglets aged 60–120 days. Conclusions. The study of the problem of enzootic (mycoplasmal) pneumonia of pigs indicates its spread in most pig farms in Ukraine, the scale of the losses, in this case, depends on the number of livestock and the technology of growing animals.