Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae transmission and clinical outbreaks

TL;DRAbstract

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is a bacterium causing respiratory disease and mortality in pigs. Outbreaks of clinical disease occur regularly in pig farms. More knowledge of the epidemiology of the bacteria in pig populations should contribute to the design of more effective measures for prevention and control. The aims of this thesis were to investigate transmission of A. pleuropneumoniae on pig farms and to study the association between clinical signs and transmission of the bacterium between pigs. Two hypotheses were addressed that could explain the occurrence and course of clinical outbreaks on farms. The first hypothesis is based on the trigger mechanism: the occurrence of clinical outbreaks is explained by simultaneous exposure of already colonised pigs to a trigger. The alternative hypothesis states that clinically diseased pigs transmit A. pleuropneumoniae after which the newly infected pigs rapidly develop clinical signs (transmission mechanism). Based on this thesis the occ

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