Abstract
There is great diversity in swine coccidia, which are responsible for causing intestinal disorders ranging from sporadic diarrhea to severe cases of hemorrhagic enteritis. Thus, determining the species of coccidia that affect the animals of a region and associating them with the characteristics of the farms become extremely important. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of coccidia parasites in pigs reared in a family farming production system in the Semiarid Region of the State of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil. Fecal samples for analysis were collected from 187 pigs on 51 farms. For morphological analysis, 1,590 sporulated oocysts were used. The prevalence of oocysts in fecal samples was 56.6% (106/187). The most prevalent species were Eimeria suis (21.9%), followed by Eimeria neodebliecki (16.6%), Eimeria perminuta (14.9%), Eimeria polita (12.8%), Eimeria debliecki (10.6%), Eimeria porci (10.1%), Cystoisospora suis (3.7%), Eimeria scabra (1.6%) and Eimeria cerdonis (0.5%). It can be concluded that pigs from the Semiarid Region of the State of Paraíba were parasitized by a diversity of coccidia species, mainly of the genus Eimeria, and predominantly presented with mixed infections occurring in the subclinical form.
Highlights
Pig production in Brazil is increasing annually, reaching 3,600 tons in 2015 (ABPA, 2017) and, because of this growth, the Brazilian pork industry is becoming a realistic alternative in job creation and income generation for farmers
The wide variation in production systems, the lack of environmental hygiene and the non-selective feeding behavior of the animals have been identified as important risk factors for endoparasitic swine infection, which can range from mild diarrhea to fatal hemorrhagic enteritis (Tomass et al, 2013)
It was found that 93.4% (99/106) of swine were parasitized by species of the genus Eimeria and 6.6% (7/106) presented with mixed infection with Eimeria spp. and C. suis
Summary
Pig production in Brazil is increasing annually, reaching 3,600 tons in 2015 (ABPA, 2017) and, because of this growth, the Brazilian pork industry is becoming a realistic alternative in job creation and income generation for farmers. It is suspected that species of the genus Eimeria have low pathogenicity (Rommel, 1992), some species as Eimeria suis, Eimeria polita and Eimeria spinosa, may cause clinical signs such as fever, diarrhea and weight loss in young weaned piglets (Jones et al, 1985; Lindsay et al, 2002; Matsubayashi et al, 2016). For this reason, Sharma et al (2018) stated that species identification is important in determining which organisms cause an outbreak or circulate on a farm. The morphology of sporulated oocysts reveals characteristics that can be described qualitatively and quantitatively, with wide variations and combinations of specific characteristics (Long & Joyner, 1984; Carvalho et al, 2004)
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Schedule a callMore From: Revista brasileira de parasitologia veterinaria = Brazilian journal of veterinary parasitology : Orgao Oficial do Colegio Brasileiro de Parasitologia Veterinaria
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