Úlceras gástricas em suínos de abate: cultivo de Arcobacter spp. a partir de estômagos com diferentes graus de lesões

Ano: 2010 | Volume: 38 | Número: 4

Autores: Sérgio José de Oliveira, Roberto Tesi Bernardi, Felipe Inácio Vogt, Marília Scartezzini, Diego Hepp, Vagner Ricardo Lunge

Palavras-chave: arcobacter spp, estômago de suínos, úlceras gástricas

Resumo Inglês:

Background: Gastric ulcers are found mainly into pars oesophagea region of the pig stomach. The lesions occur
with different severity degrees. Score 1 consists of paracheratosis; score 2 paracheratosis and mild ulceration; score
3 paracheratosis and 66% ulceration; score 4 strong ulceration. Scores 3 and 4 cause mortality; lesions score 1 and 2
are responsible by performance losses, the animals showing stomach lesions at slaughter. The causes of these lesions
are variable, being the most important stress and the adopted nutrition. The role of bacteria in the development of
gastric ulcers in pigs has been poorly investigated. This paper reports the evaluation of stomachs taken from slaughter
pigs and submitted to bacteriological examination aiming the isolation of Arcobacter spp.
Materials, Methods & Results: Stomachs of slaughter pigs (20,792) were evaluated at an abattoir in Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil. Around 600 stomachs were examined daily and a piece from each degree of lesion was collected asseptically,
4 samples each day for 40 days, a total of 160 samples for bacteriological examination. Also were collected materials
from oesophagic region of 24 stomachs without visible lesions, for laboratorial examination. Samples were inoculated
into liquid EMJH medium and transported to the laboratory, being incubated at 25oC, five days. Cultures were filtered
through 0.45 mm membrane over the surface of Blood Agar medium and the plates incubated aerobicaly at 25-30oC,
two days. Colonies suspected of being Arcobacter spp. were transfered to Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI) medium
and incubated as before. Cultures were evaluated by darkfield microscopy. After confirmation of the presence of the
bacteria, DNA investigation was performed by polymerase chain reaction to differentiate Arcobacter cryaerophilus
and Arcobacter butzleri. The macroscopic evaluation of 20,792 stomachs showed 12,148 (58.4%) score 1, 5,145
(24.7%) score 2, 1,004 (4.8%) score 3 and 368 (1.8%) score 4, being 2,135 (10.3%) without lesion. Laboratorial
examination detected Arcobacter spp. into 124 (83.72%) of 148 samples, 98 (79.03%) A. cryaerophilus and 26
(20.97%) A. butzleri.
Discussion: The presence of different degrees of stomach lesions into 89.7% of the slaughter pigs evaluated is higher
than described in previous reports. These results demonstrate a high frequence of gastric ulcers in Brazilian pigs.
Arcobacter spp. were detected in stomachs with different severity of lesions and also into apparently normal stomachs.
There was higher frequency of A. cryaerophilus (79.03%). These bacteria were also previously isolated from
gastric ulcer of a nursery pig in Brazil. This is the first report of the detection of Arcobacter spp. in stomachs of
slaughter pigs in Brazil.