How to Diagnose and Treat Pig Diseases That Cause Neurological Symptoms

@#@227@#@Pig diseases with "convulsions" as the main symptom are frequently encountered. There are 6 commonly occurring diseases that present with "convulsion" symptoms, and they are easily confused in clinical practice, leading to misdiagnosis. Especially for pig farms, households, or rural veterinarians lacking laboratory conditions, clinical differential diagnosis is particularly important.

1. Porcine edema disease: the pathogen is septicemic Escherichia coli. It is prone to occur under stress conditions such as temperature changes, weaning, and feed changes, and mostly affects pigs weighing 20-30 kg after weaning that eat a lot and grow fast. Affected pigs show no elevated body temperature, excitement and restlessness, blind walking, circling, muscle tremors, falling to the ground and convulsing, coma, limbs paddling in a swimming motion, skin sensitivity, and edema of the head and face. Necropsy findings include red patches on the abdominal skin, and subcutaneous and gastrointestinal edema. The key to preventing this disease is improving feed management, reducing various stress factors, and injecting an edema disease vaccine. In the early stage of the disease, using antibacterial drugs such as chloramphenicol and enrofloxacin, together with injections of sodium selenite, VB12, and other drugs, can achieve obvious results.

2. Porcine pseudorabies: the pathogen is porcine pseudorabies virus. Its epidemiological characteristic is that pigs and many other animals can all become affected; suckling piglets aged 10-20 days have a high incidence, with a mortality rate as high as 95%, and pigs from over 2 months of age to adult sows can all develop the disease. Clinical symptoms in piglets are a body temperature of 41°C-42°C, excitement and restlessness, intermittent circling, coma, coughing, vomiting, drooling, and fright; affected sows abort and give birth to stillborn or mummified fetuses. The main necropsy changes are pulmonary edema and necrotic foci in the liver. The key to preventing and treating this disease lies in prevention; injection of pseudorabies vaccine gives good preventive results, while conventional drug treatment is ineffective. In the early stage of the disease, treatment with pseudorabies antiserum has a certain effect.

3. Streptococcosis: the pathogen is hemolytic Streptococcus. Its epidemiological characteristic is that newborn piglets and suckling piglets are mostly affected. The main symptom is sudden death in the most acute cases; acute or subacute cases show high body temperature (42°C-43°C), obvious neurological symptoms, circling, coma, fright, and falling to the ground with paddling limbs. Necropsy changes include increased cerebrospinal fluid, cerebrovascular congestion, and mild purulent inflammation of the meninges. For prevention and treatment, injection of streptococcal vaccine can achieve the purpose of prevention, and treatment with antibacterial drugs such as penicillin-streptomycin, sulfonamides, and enrofloxacin is very effective.

4. Listeriosis: the pathogen is Listeria, a zoonotic agent. Its epidemiological characteristic is that pigs and many other animals can all become affected, with piglets mainly showing sporadic cases. The main symptoms are high fever (around 42°C), tremors, imbalance, stiffness of the forelegs, dragging of the hind limbs, and extreme sensitivity. Necropsy shows meningitis and focal liver necrosis. Prevention and treatment methods include deratting, deworming, and disinfection; treatment with high doses of sulfonamides or streptomycin is very effective.

5. Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis: the pathogen is hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus. Its epidemiological characteristic is that piglets within 2 weeks of age are infected and develop the disease, and the virus is transmitted through the upper respiratory tract. Clinical symptoms are fever, depression, vomiting, constipation, a sitting-like-dog posture, and central nervous system symptoms. Necropsy changes include proliferation of cuffing cells around blood vessels. To date there is no vaccine for this disease, and there is no specific drug once it occurs. Once the disease appears, affected pigs should be promptly culled, subjected to harmless disposal, and the farm thoroughly disinfected.

6. Congenital tremor of pigs: the pathogen is genetic factors or viral infection. Newborn piglets are susceptible to this disease. Symptoms are muscle twitching and tremors. Necropsy shows no gross lesions. Prevention and treatment methods are to prevent inbreeding, cull boars and sows with a history of the disease, and generally not treat affected piglets; as long as they are manually assisted and ensured to suckle colostrum, especially first milk, they can recover on their own.