Clostridial Enteritis

Causal agent	Bacterial. Clostridial perfringens Type C occasionally A or other types
Age group	Piglets less than 1 week (often within 3 days of birth) sudden death
	Piglets 2-3 weeks of age a chronic enteritis
Clinical signs
Neonatal piglets	Sudden death. Anus often bright red. Other piglets very weak and pale
Older piglets	Diarrhoea, which may be intermittent. Piglets emaciated but can be active and alert. Eventually piglets die. Often seen in outside farming.
Post-mortem findings
Neonatal piglets	Intestines full of blood
Older piglets	Chronic thickened enteritis, which make absorption of food very difficult for the piglet
		Acute haemorrhagic enteritis in a 3 day old piglet		Chronic enteritis with a thickened bowel. Note the intestines have gas bubbles visible on their surface
Infectivity
	Clostridial organisms are very common in the normal environment The clostridial spores are very resistant
Diagnosis
	Post-mortem examination of affected piglets
	Identification of clostridial organisms in the intestinal tract
	Identification of clostridial toxins, which cause many of the clinical signs
Treatment
Affected piglets	Oral or Injectable antibiotics with demonstrated efficacy against the clostridium to affected piglets and litter mates
Prevention	Vaccinate sows and gilts against clostridial organisms. Note commercial vaccines do not contain Cl. perfingens A, however, autogenous vaccines can be made
	All-in/all-out hygiene
	Effective farrowing house cleaning programmes
	Oral antibiotics to sows pre and post farrowing to reduce spread from the sow. Bacitracin may prove useful
Common differentials
	Coccidiosis
	Salmonellosis
	Thrombocytopaenia and other neonatal blood disorders
	Trauma from the sow