OCURRENCE OF Clostridium difficile IN PIGS SUBMITTED TO ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY IN SANTA CATARINA STATE

Abstract

The Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive opportunist, anaerobic, spore-forming rod found in the soil, water and enteric microbiota of many animal species. It has been described as the cause for enteritis in human beings and animals. In swine it has grown in importance due to the large number of cases of neonatal enteritis that affects the colon of one to seven-day-old piglets. This bacterium produces two kinds of toxins: A (enterotoxin) and B (cytotoxin). They have an important role in the disease’s pathogenesis. Aiming at researching the presence of the bacterium in up to seven days piglets submitted to antibiotic therapy as well as the production of the toxins A and B in isolated samples, 8 collections were made in different regions of the state of Santa Catarina, totalizing 490 samples of stool and retal swabs of piglets, gathered in the period of January to March 2008. The retal swabs were processed in the same day they were collected in the Microbiology Lab of CAV/UDESC and the stools were frozen at -4ºC in steril Ependorf so that they could be submitted to the ELISA test later. Twenty-tree colonies of C. difficile were isolated, but no one produced the A and B toxins according to the ELISA test. Of the 69 stools analyzed, 32 (46.37%) were positive samples, 3 (4.34%) were intermediate samples, and 34 (49.27%) were negative samples, according to the ELISA test.

KEYWORDS: Antibiotic, Clostridium difficile, diarrhea, swine.