Streptococcus suis – An emerging zoonotic infection with serious impact on pig and public health

Streptococcus suis is a common cause of disease and death in pigs, and sometimes in humans, all over the world. Pigs may be found dead without previous signs of disease or show a range of clinical signs including meningitis, pneumonia and arthritis. Humans may be infected through contact with pigs or raw pig meat and may develop meningitis and sepsis.

So far the presence of S. suis in Swedish pig herds has not been thoroughly investigated, but there are indications that disease is becoming more and more common in this country. Because of this development we will study the presence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of the various serotypes of S. suis in Swedish pigs after weaning. We will also investigate how best to differentiate the serotypes and look at the influence of concurrent immunosuppressive infection with the virus PCV2 (associated with Postweaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome, PMWS) and S. suis infection on presence of disease.