Streptococcus suis infection in slaughtered pigs and its association with pathological lesions in the lungs, brain and tonsils

To study the prevalence of Streptococcus suis infection and associated pathological lesions in pigs, representative specimens from lungs, brains and tonsils collected aseptically from 100 pigs from a local abattoir in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India were processed for bacterial isolation and histopathological examination. S. suis isolates were confirmed by colony characteristics, biochemical profiles and PCR using primers specific to 16S rRNA gene. S. suis was isolated from 9 pigs with pathological lesions in lungs (5), brain (3) and tonsil (1). Pathogenicity testing in mice revealed that 3 of the 9 isolates (2-lungs and 1-brain) were pathogenic to mice. The study revealed that therewas 9% prevalence of S. suis infection associated with pathological lesions in slaughtered pigs in Bareilly city.