Asurvey was conducted on swine toxoplasmosis at the Matsumoto Slaughterhouse in Kagoshima Prefecture over a period from 1966 to 1968. The immunofluorescent (IF) test was much more efficient than Giemsa staining to prove the presence of toxoplasmas in clinical cases of swine toxoplasmosis. The lung and liver lymph nodes of clinically and laboratory diagnosed swines were markedly swollen to 4.5-6.0×1.5-2.5 cm and 6.0×2.3-3.0 cm, respectively, while those of healthy swine were 1.6-3.0.×0.6-1.5 cm and 1.6-4.0×1.1-2.0 cm, respectively.
The authors observed toxoplasmas in the palatine tonsil of swine for the first time in Japan by the IF test, as well as by Giemsa staining. On the other hand, when 401 healthy (not diagnosed as toxoplasmosis) swine were examined, 28 and 20 of them showed swelling of liver and lung lymph nodes, respectively. The swelling of these lymph nodes was apparently attributed to some extent to pneumonia, but the principal cause of it was unknown.
The swelling of those lymph nodes was not so severe as was seen in the true case of swine toxoplasmosis. Of 56 healthy swine examined. 18 were positive for the hemagglutination (HA) test and 4 proved by the IF test to harbor toxoplasmas in the lung and liver lymph nodes. These, 4 pigs, except one, exhibited high HA titers.
View full abstract