New bacterium discovered that causes lung lesions

The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) has discovered a new species of lung-infecting bacteria, Glaesserella australis.

G. australis is associated with two disease scenarios. One is where there are no apparent clinical signs of disease on-farm, but at the abattoir the carcass has lesions and abscesses in the lungs that are very similar to those caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. In the other disease scenario G. australis causes clinical signs in pigs on-farm, at 12 to 20 weeks of age, with some cases being fatal.

Continuing research into G. australis has led to a diagnostic assay that is currently being validated. This involves testing 26 G. australis isolates, 15 reference strains and one field isolate of A. pleuropneumoniae, 16 reference strains for another bacterium (Pasteurella multocida) that causes respiratory disease, ,and another 47 strains and field isolates representing 12 genera and 26 species of similar bacteria.

To determine the prevalence of G. australis, the researchers sampled lungs with lesions, abscesses and pleurisy from 23 farms in NSW, 43 in Queensland, one in SA and 27 in Victoria. This data is still being analysed.

April 17, 2020/ QAAFI/ Australia.
https://qaafi.uq.edu.au/