Porcine proliferative enteropathy (PPE), caused by the bacterium Lawsonia intracellularis, causes serious economic losses worldwide due to diarrhea and poor growth rate medication in young growing pigs (chronic disease form) and sudden death in finisher and replacement pigs (acute hemorrhagic form). Typical control programs have focused on antibiotics. Essentially, the effectiveness of an antimicrobial can be tested in vitro or in vivo. In vivo test can be developed with natural or experimentally infected pigs. In tests that the animals are experimentally challenged, the inoculation is done with pure culture of L. intracellularis or intestinal mucosal homogenate of pig with PPE. Antimicrobial use have been shown to be effective in reducing the clinical signs of PPE and to result in better performance in treated pigs than in untreated animals. In addition, it decreases fecal shedding and the severity of gross lesions. The most efficient antimicrobial groups of drugs discussed in this manuscript are macrolides, tetracyclines, lincosamides and pleuromutilins. All of them act by blocking bacterial protein synthesis.
porcine proliferative enteropathy; control; antimicrobial use
