Abortion and its probable cause in gilts experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei

Abstract

This paper intends to report abortion in gilts and its probable cause in an experimental infection with T. brucei. Twelve domestic crossbred female piglets aged eight weeks and two boars aged eight months were purchased from piggeries in Samaru Zaria, Nigeria and housed in clean fly proof pens. When the piglets attained puberty, they were divided into two groups, six experimental and six uninfected control. During their third estrus period, all the gilts were bred randomly by the two boars whose fertility had been previously determined. When the gilts were between 35 and 39 days pregnant, the ones in the experimental group were inoculated each with two milliliters of the infected blood containing 1.8×10⁶ parasites via the anterior vena cava. The gilts in the control group were not inoculated. All the inoculated pigs developed clinical trypanosomosis characterized by fever, pale mucous membranes, anorexia, dullness, reduction in feed intake, reduced weight gain, weight loss, emaciation, short and moist cough, moist rales, mucopurulent ocular discharges, hyperemia of the skin, lethargy, un-coordinated movements, posterior paresis, recumbency and death of two infected gilts. The gilts in the control group carried their pregnancies to term and farrowed normally but those in the experimental group had their pregnancies terminated between 40 and 58 days post breeding. The probable cause of loss of pregnancy of these gilts was pyrexia