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 J Vet Sci. 2009 Jun;10(2):147-151
DOI: 10.4142/jvs.2009.10.2.147
  
 

Porcine abortion outbreak associated with Toxoplasma gondii in Jeju Island, Korea

Jae-Hoon Kim1,*, Kyung-Il Kang2, Wan-Cheul Kang3, Hyun-Joo Sohn4, Young-Hwa Jean4, Bong Kyun Park5, Yongbaek Kim6, Dae-Yong Kim5

 

1College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeju National University, Jeju 690-756, Korea 2Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7388, USA
3Jeju Veterinary Research Institute, Jeju 690-962, Korea
4National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, Anyang 430-824, Korea
5College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
6College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA

* kimjhoon@jejunu.ac.kr

 

This report deals with the acute onset of an abortion outbreak and high sow mortality in one pig herd consisted of 1,200 pigs and 120 sows on Jeju Island, Korea. Affected pregnant sows showed clinical signs, including high fever, gradual anorexia, vomiting, depression, recumbency, prostration, abortion, and a few deaths. Four dead sows, five aborted fetuses from the same litter, and 17 sera collected from sows infected or normal were submitted to the Pathology Division of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service for diagnostic investigation. Grossly, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly were observed in sows. Multiple necrotic foci were scattered in the lungs, liver, spleen, and lymph nodes. Microscopically, multifocal necrotizing lesions and protozoan tachyzoites were present in the lesions. Tachyzoites of Toxoplasma (T.) gondii were detected immunohistochemically. Latex agglutination showed that the sera of 7 of 17 (41.2%) sows were positive for antibody to T. gondii. The disease outbreak in this herd was diagnosed as epizootic toxoplasmosis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of porcine toxoplasmosis with a high abortion rate and sow mortality in Korea.