Combined in-vitro and on-farm evaluation of commercial disinfectants used against Brachyspira hyodysenteriae

BACKGROUND: Swine dysentery (SD) is a severe infectious disease with a relevant impact on pig production usually caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, although B. hampsonii causes an identical clinical picture. SD control relies on antimicrobials, good management practices and strict biosecurity with cleaning and disinfection as crucial tools to avoid the pathogen transmission. This study evaluates the in-vitro efficacy of an array of commercial disinfectants against a collection of B. hyodysenteriae isolates using broth tests. The efficacy of cleaning and disinfection protocols was also evaluated on two farms with endemic SD using surface swabs collected in emptied pens before and after cleaning and disinfection procedures, using both real-time PCR and bacterial microbiological culture. RESULTS: Most of the commercial disinfectants evaluated were effective against all B. hyodysenteriae isolates tested, with a reduction of more than 5.00 log(10) CFU/mL (bactericidal efficacy of 99.999%). However, some isolates exhibited reduced susceptibility to Virkon-S and Limoseptic disinfectants. The evaluation of cleaning and disinfection protocols on farms with SD outbreaks showed that approximately half the pens tested (n = 25) were positive by real-time PCR after pigs removal (mean B. hyodysenteriae counts 5.72 ± 1.04 log(10) CFU/mL) while almost 20% of the pens remained positive after cleaning (n = 7) and disinfection (n = 5) procedures although with significantly lower, mean estimates (4.31 ± 0.43 log(10) CFU/mL and 4.01 ± 0.55 log(10) CFU/mL, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These results show the efficacy of disinfectants against B. hyodysenteriae but also stress the need to implement adequately the cleaning and disinfection protocols on pig farms and review and revise their efficiency periodically.