Nowadays, the ileitis (proliferative enteropathy of pigs) is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases. The intracellular bacterium Lawsonia intracelluaris causes several forms of the disease. Histological examinations are the important stages in diagnosing and detecting profound pathological changes in sick pig organs, decreasing their productivity and causing the deaths. Swine proliferative enteropathy (SPE) has reported for the Ukraine since 2008. For SPE the early diagnostics with different test systems is relevant. We evaluated the sick, forcibly killed and dead piglets of different ages in Ukrainian pig farms during 2018-2019 in animal fattening groups. Materials were taken from piglets aged 120-150 days in farms where the ileitis was diagnosed. To assess the complex of pathological and anatomical changes detected during autopsies of piglets, V.P. Shishkov’s methods were used. Thus, we revealed a characteristic morphology of proliferative lesions. We believed that the histological examination can serve as an important diagnostic method and an alternative to direct isolation of Lawsonia intracellularis, which is very difficult to cultivate. We determined that the histopathological changes in pig organs indicated a chronic effect caused by animal pathogen. We revealed that Lawsonia intracellularis caused the profound pathological changes in pig digestive tracts, which affected the functioning of all organs and tissues of animals and lead to severe disease and possible animal death. We suggested that the histological examination is an important step in diagnosing and detecting profound pathological changes in the organs of sick pigs, which caused the decrease in their productivity and deaths.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is an acute, highly contagious viral disease of pigs of all age groups, but it is manifested by particularly high mortality of newborn piglets and characterized by vomiting, diarrhea, and lack of appetite. Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) remains a problem for pig farms in many countries, including Ukraine. Specific prophylaxis PED had proven to be a difficult task and despite many studies, the problem of PED remains unresolved. Since piglets get infected during the first days after birth, their protection can only be provided by colostral antibodies of immuned sows. Therefore, the urgent task of veterinary medicine scientists is to develop effective methods of preventing the disease, which is to use local strains of the pathogen. The article presents the results of studies of colostral immunity of piglets by determining the presence of antibodies against the PED virus in the colostrum of sows who were immunized with a vaccine inactivated against PED from the intestinal virus of artificially infected suckling piglets. Infectious activity of matrix broods of the virus for the production of the preparation was determined by RT-PCR. According to the results of research, material was selected for the manufacture of the vaccine. Subsequently, the drug was monitored according to technological regulations, including the infectious activity of the virus, which ranged from 1.96×10–8 to 3.16×10–9. We conducted a comparative study of the presence of antibodies to the PED virus in the colostrum of sows in the treatment of animals by “back-feeding” and vaccination of sows with inactivated preparation. Samples of colostrum from sows were taken within 1–4 hours after farrowing. The article presents research results that allow us to conclude that both methods of treatment of sows create immunity in newborn piglets. Thus, the presence of antibodies to the PED virus in colostrum in the first hours after birth provide protection against infection and death.

Proliferative enteropathy of pigs (PPE; ileitis, lawsoniosis) is one of the most common, relatively new and little-studied gastrointestinal diseases of pigs which cause significant economic damage to the pig industry worldwide. The causative agent of ileitis is Lawsonia intracellularis, a gram-negative intracellular bacterium. The incubation period lasts from two to three weeks, the infection has a high degree of infection. The pathogen is transmitted from animal to animal by oral and fecal route. In order to study the manifestations of proliferative enteropathy of pigs on farms in Ukraine, we surveyed 32 farms in 13 regions. The course of PPE was usually observed with symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders, but the disease brought significant economic losses. A characteristic symptom of the chronic course in the studied farms of Ukraine is a slow but progressive weight loss of animals and, as a result, diarrhea and loss of appetite. Clinical signs of ileitis depend on the form of the course. There are three main forms of ileitis: chronic form — intestinal adematosis, acute — hemorrhagic enteropathy and subclinical form. According to our research, the acute form is manifested by pale skin and signs of anemia, hemorrhagic diarrhea and sudden death of the animal. Pigs weighing more than 70 kg suffer the most. The pathological picture characteristic of PPE was observed already at the age of 33 days; 62.5% of the dead piglets aged 33 to 102 days were affected by Lawsonia, which was confirmed by laboratory tests. Pathological examination was observed in the dead pigs of the rearing and fattening group: duodenum — part initially covered with mucus-fibrin; ileum — thickening of the walls, on the serous membrane dark red grooves like a mosaic, dark blood, blood coagulates cylindrical forms; mucous membrane is uneven, thickened, intensely red; colon — stretched through gases, blood dark with coagulates in the lumen; rectum — the contents are thick to semi-liquid, dark red; mesenteric lymph nodes — enlarged and hyperemic. Pathohistological changes in the intestine varied. In some parts of the intestine, there were characteristic of ulcerative necrotic ileitis, and in others — for proliferative enteropathy.