Abstract
Glaesserella parasuis is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes Glässer's disease, a common pathology found in young pigs characterized by polyarthritis, polyserositis, and meningitis. The bacterium has 15 known serovars that have been classified by virulence. Serovars 1, 4, 5, and 12 are considered highly virulent and used in most studies. Serovars 3, 6, 7, 9, and 11 are considered avirulent. Recent reports that serovar 7 is an emerging problem in the pig industry indicate that the association of virulence and serovar may not always be reliable. This led us to infect colostrum-deprived piglets with the reference serovar 7 strain (SV7 strain 174) that had been passaged through pigs and characterize the clinical and pathological signs. We observed that SV7 strain 174 caused clinical signs consistent with Glässer's disease in all infected piglets that succumbed to infection for up to day 5 post-infection. Macroscopic and microscopic lesions were consistent with those found in piglets infected with conventional virulent serovars. In addition, we describe novel microscopic lesions associated with Glässer's disease such as endophthalmitis and thymic depletion. Thus, our findings indicate that SV7 strain 174 causes classical signs of Glässer's disease in colostrum-deprived piglets and some caution should be used in employing vaccine strategies based on association between capsular serovar and virulence.
Highlights
Glässer’s disease (GD) is an emergent and worldwide disease in pigs caused by Glaesserella parasuis (G. parasuis), formerly known as Haemophilus parasuis, a Gram-negative bacterium that belongs to the Pasteurelaceae family
In Australia, nasal samples obtained from pigs showing clinical signs typical of GD were positive for SV7 G. parasuis [6]
In the line of horizontal gene transfers, a novel Glaesserella sp. strain was recently described in Australia; this strain with high capacity to produce lung disease, has a mosaic genomic structure composed by virulence factors commonly identified in other members of the Pasteurellacea family, as A. pleuropneumoniae, A. minor and P. multocida [18]
Summary
Glässer’s disease (GD) is an emergent and worldwide disease in pigs caused by Glaesserella parasuis (G. parasuis), formerly known as Haemophilus parasuis, a Gram-negative bacterium that belongs to the Pasteurelaceae family. In the original study evaluating virulence the standard G. parasuis serovar 7 strain [174] was unable to cause disease in piglets after an intraperitoneal challenge [2]. A subsequent study involving intranasal challenge of highly susceptible piglets confirmed the inability of this strain to cause infection [3]. In Australia, nasal samples obtained from pigs showing clinical signs typical of GD were positive for SV7 G. parasuis [6]. These observations raise questions as to whether it is still reasonable to characterize all strains that express the serovar 7 capsule as avirulent
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