Eleven heifers were inoculated intravenously with a suspension of 1 x lo8 conidia of Aspergillus fumigatus at 169 or 170 days after artificial insemination. These principals were killed at 4, 7, or 14 days after inoculation or thereafter when abortion occurred. Four other heifers served as controls. Mycotic placentitis was not found at 4 days after inoculation. In principals killed at 7 and 14 days, 24% of placentomes had lesions of mycotic placentitis. Heifers that aborted had necrotizing lesions in approximately 90% of placentomes as well as extensive involvement of the interplacentomal area. A theory for the spread of the mycosis in the placenta is presented.

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Background Clostridium difficile is a recognised cause of typhlocolitis and diarrhoea in neonatal pigs but has never been confirmed in association with pathology and disease in Irish pigs.Case PresentationFour neonatal piglets, with a history of diarrhoea were referred to the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Backweston for necropsy. They were from a fully integrated, commercial pig farm with approximately 1000 sows. Three piglets had acute, superficial, erosive and suppurative typhlocolitis and the other had mild suppurative mesocolitis. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) toxins A/B were detected using ELISA in the colonic contents from each piglet. C. difficile isolates from two of the piglets were PCR-ribotyped as 078 and an isolate from a third pig was ribotyped as 110.ConclusionsThis is the first report confirming C. difficile in association with typhlocolitis in Irish pigs.