The gastro-intestinal flora of clinically intact piglets on an industrialised sow unit was investigated prior to weaning (n = 12) and after weaning (n = 12). The age of the former group was 23 to 36 days and that of the latter between six and eleven days. While enormous proliferation of haemolysing E. coli was recorded from the anterior portion of the small intestine in the post-weaning group, weaning, quite, generally, was found to have only little impact upon the gastrointestinal flora of piglet. More particularly were there no indicators to the effect that post-weaning proliferation of enteropathogenic strains was favoured by any correlation whatsover between E. coli and other bacterial species or between different types of E. coli. Other factors of possible importance to the pathogenesis of coli-enterotoxaemia are discussed with reference to literature.
Animals Digestive System