Health

A new approach for

pleurisy detection
Early detection of pleurisy can help achieve
better results in pig production. But how
does one obtain information on this infection,
caused by the Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae
bacteria? A group of Italian researchers
developed a method for quantifying lesions
in pleura, called the Slaughterhouse Pleurisy
Evaluation System (SPES).
By Vincent ter Beek

or some time now, there has

been an efficient and efficacious
method to check pig carcasses
for lung diseases in slaughterhouses.
Postmortem lung scoring in abattoirs
is a way to find out whether the
animals have been suffering from
enzootic pneumonia (EP), caused
by the Mycoplasma hyopneumonia
bacteria and to draw statistical
conclusions from the data.
However, this method is somewhat
confined, as EP is certainly not the
only respiratory disease that can strike
a pig herd. Recent checks in Italy have
again drawn attention to infection
caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App), leading to pleuropneumonia and thus chronic pleurisy (or
inflammation of the pleura). This
research associated pleurisy at
slaughter with severe economic
losses, growth retardation and
increase of treatments costs and
disparity of growing animals.
As a consequence, it has become
of great importance to acquire more
quantitative data about the occurrence
of App, in order to be capable to
make a better diagnosis of the

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pig progress Volume 23, No. 4 2007

Pleuritic lesions localised in the dorso-ventral portion of the lungs are generally due to pleuropneumonia,
caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae.

animals health by the time of

slaughtering. It is for that reason
that an Italian team of researchers1,
attached to the Istituto Zooprofilattico
Sperimentale Lombardia ed Emilia
Romagna, together with two scientists2
from the Dutch animal health company
Intervet, devised a quantitative method
with which the pleura in pigs could be
assessed, by judging location, aspect
and extension of the pleural lesions.

Pleural lesions
Generally, the occurrence of pleural
lesions can be divided in two different
appearance ways. The data can tell
something about the most likely source
of infection:
Lesions involving cranial-ventral
lobes and generally with modest
adherence are largely secondary to
the above-mentioned EP or to other
bronchio-pneumonic pathologies

which affect cranial and medial

lobes. These lesions are considered
less detrimental for a relative
impairment of pulmonary function.
Pleurisy lesions which involve
diaphragmatic lobes are generally
caused by A. pleuropneumoniae and,
in minor measure by other pathogens
like Haemophilus parasuis,
Streptococchi, Mycoplasma hyorhinis
further than being conditioned
by respiratory viruses (PRRS and
influenza). This kind of lesion has
more negative effects on respiratory
physiology because adherence is
more limiting on the elastic dilatation
of pneumonic parenchyma.
In literature, pleurisy lesions are
reported to take about three months
to completely disappear after healing.
Obviously, many factors are conditioning the healing (age at occurrence,
environmental factors, concurrent

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Health

infections, etc.). Judging after

experience from the slaughterhouse,
it seems likely that confined
adherence may remain for several
months, at least until slaughter.

Tool
The slaughterhouse is an ideal final
checkpoint for the evaluation of the
sanitary impact of swine respiratory
diseases. It may provide useful information for the control and prevention
of the same respiratory diseases and
eventual predisposing causes, once the
anamnesis of the herd is known.
In order to quantify and identify the
several sources of infection in slaughter
pigs, the research group devised a tool
to scrutinise slaughter pigs pleura.
They named it the Slaughterhouse
Pleurisy Evaluation System, in short
SPES. The evaluation with the SPES
method makes it possible to quantify
the lesions with respect to location,

Pleuritic lesions,
localised in the
antero-ventral portion
of a lung due to
bronchopneumonia,
caused by Mycoplasma
hyopneumoniae.
aspect and extension. The data can
be represented in an easily readable
graphic form.
Using this tool, the research group
conducted a study with a total of 1,834
pigs with a body weight of 160-180 kg.

Table 1. Summary of herd data.

Batches Vaccinations
Structure of the herd

Occurrence
Severity of RD






time of RD
1
M. hyo
CC
AI/AO
Late
Severe
2
App M. hyo
CC
AI/AO
Late
Mild
3
App
CC Continuous flow
Early
Severe
4
Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
Early
Light
5
M. hyo
CC Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
No clinic
6
M. hyo
CC Continuous flow
Late
Severe
7
CC Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
No clinic
8
M. hyo
CC
AI/AO
Late
Mild
9
M. hyo
CC Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
Early
Mild
10
M. hyo
Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
Early
Severe
11
App M. hyo
Multi-Site (site 1+2 & 3) AI/AO
Early
Light
App = Actinobabillus pleuropneumoniae; M. hyo = Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae; CC = farrow-to-finish; AI/ AO = all
in/ all out; RD = respiratory disease. Because of statistical significance of the method, along with carcasses procession
at slaughter chain at least 100 lungs from every batch (each one of about 150 animals) have been examined.

Table 2. SPES grid; giving a score 0 - 4 according to: presence, extension; location of pleurisy as
directly observed at slaughter chain.
Scoring lesion
0
No lesions.
1 Pleurisy lesion adherence-type between cranial-ventral portions of cranial, medial and diaphragmatic lobes; or
monolateral modest entity adherence at ventral margin of a diaphragmatic lobe.
2 Limited adherence lesions of light or mild extension to one of diaphragmatic lobe con aspects of cronicity (fibrin
and laciniae without exudation and abundant granulation tissue).
3
Lesion type 2 and bilateral. Extremely extended monolateral lesions on a diaphragmatic lobe.
4 Severely extended lesions (at least 1/3 of both diaphragmatic lobes) and/ or acute (exudation and abundant
granulation tissue).

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They were divided into 11 slaughter

batches from nine herds, in which
data relating to breeding, vaccinations,
clinic of respiratory outcomes had
been collected:
M
 . hyopneumoniae and A. pleuropneumoniae vaccination plans.
Structure of the herd (multi-site;
open or close cycle; continuous
flow or all in/ all out).
Occurrence time of respiratory
disease, intended as early if in
growing animals or late if in finishing.
Severity, intended as light if the
mortality for respiratory disease is
below 1%; mild if below 3%; severe
if over 3%.
The result of this grid has been
presented in Table 1. In addition,
using the SPES grid, a score ranging
farm 0-4 is assigned to each animal
in consideration of presence, extension
and localisation of pleural lesions
(see Table 2).
In three months time, this article will
be followed up, summing up results
and also practical use of the research
discussed here. PP
Michele Dottori, Daniele Nigrelli
Arrigo, Paolo Bonilauri and Giuseppe
Merialdi are attached to the Istituto
Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Lombardia
ed Emilia Romagna
2
Stefano Gozio contributed on behalf
of Intervet International, Boxmeer, the
Netherlands, and Fausto Cominotti
contributed on behalf of Intervet Italia,
Peschiera Borromeo (MI)
1

pig progress Volume 23, No. 4 2007

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