This document discusses Ascaris suum, an intestinal roundworm that commonly infects pigs. It reports on the prevalence of A. suum infections in different countries and production systems based on various studies. Prevalence varies significantly depending on climate, housing practices, herd characteristics, and age, but generally ranges from 2-40% according to fecal egg count studies. Higher prevalences of around 15-35% have been reported in Scandinavian countries. Factors like stocking density, sex of the pig, and farm management practices can influence prevalence rates.
This document discusses Ascaris suum, an intestinal roundworm that commonly infects pigs. It reports on the prevalence of A. suum infections in different countries and production systems based on various studies. Prevalence varies significantly depending on climate, housing practices, herd characteristics, and age, but generally ranges from 2-40% according to fecal egg count studies. Higher prevalences of around 15-35% have been reported in Scandinavian countries. Factors like stocking density, sex of the pig, and farm management practices can influence prevalence rates.
This document discusses Ascaris suum, an intestinal roundworm that commonly infects pigs. It reports on the prevalence of A. suum infections in different countries and production systems based on various studies. Prevalence varies significantly depending on climate, housing practices, herd characteristics, and age, but generally ranges from 2-40% according to fecal egg count studies. Higher prevalences of around 15-35% have been reported in Scandinavian countries. Factors like stocking density, sex of the pig, and farm management practices can influence prevalence rates.
predominant Oesophagostomum species and is most often found as
a single species infection on farms while mixed infections with O. quadrispinulatum are seen occasionally.8 A. suum is worldwide the most or second most (surpassed by Oeso- phagostomum spp. in older stock) prevalent intestinal species in domestic pigs, although the prevalence varies considerably with climate, produc- tion system (indoor/outdoor/scavenging), farm practices, herd, age, and breed, as evident from Chapter 16. High prevalences ranging from 17 to 35% have been reported from the Scandinavian countries by fecal analysis in fatteners and gilts (¼pregnant pig before first farrowing9) and more recently 22% in Danish sows/gilts.10 Adult worms were detected in 17% of finishers at slaughter in Canada.11 In Japan, 15% slaughter pigs (n ¼ 129) were found positive by coproscopy.12 African studies, also based on fecal egg counts, revealed prevalences of 2% in growers on smallholder farms in Nigeria,13 13% in growers in Ghana,14 and 40% with only small variation across age groups in Burkina Faso15 and Uganda.16 More details on prevalence in age groups and herds can be found in Chapter 16. Some of these coprological studies undoubtedly overestimate the prevalence14 as low or moderate egg counts may be due to coprophagia and therefore represent false positive findings, especially if stocking rate is high.17,18 In contrast, infections with only one worm or all worms of the same sex will result in underestimation of prevalence as compared to post-mortem- based studies. A higher prevalence in females than in males (33% vs. 14%) was found in Burkina Faso15 which confirmed an earlier observation from Sweden that female finishers generally have higher egg excretion than castrates.19 A range of other studies have not reported such differ- ences. One has to bear in mind that in most modern intensive systems male piglets are castrated early in life whereas castration may take place later or not at all in other production systems. This may influence potential differences between sexes. In the early 1990s 60% of Danish farms were infected with A. suum20 but farming practices have now changed to loose housing of sows in dynamic groups, where sows in different stages of gestation move in and out on a weekly basis, and recently 76% of the surveyed Danish farms were found by coproscopy to be infected.10 On 84 smaller organic farms with traditional husbandry in Austria, A. suum was present (fecal samples) in 30% of sow units and 59% of finishing units.21 Corresponding figures for Oesophagostomum were 66 and 43%. More than 50% of pigs at slaughter had “milk spots” on the liver. In Germany, 7% of 144 breeding farms (sows only) had A. suum infections.22 In a small Dutch survey including 36 farms, the prevalence of A. suum-positive farms (across age groups) was 50% for free-range, 73% for organic, and 11% for conven- tional farms (in-door with straw bedding).23 The highest prevalences were seen among finishing pigs with about half of the examined groups