[Infection related fertility disorders in Swiss pig breeding farms at the end of the postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) epizooty]. / Infektionsbedingte Fruchtbarkeitsstörungen in schweizerischen Schweinezuchtbetrieben am Ende der «Postweaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome¼ (PMWS)-Epizootie.

Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is able to induce reproductive failures. 286 fetuses from 113 sows of 59 farms with increased reproductive disorders which included abortions, mummies, stillborn and weak born piglets were studied six years after the beginning of the epizooty of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) in Switzerland. 14 % of the cases were bacterial infections based on histological signs of inflammation and pathogen isolation. 12 % further cases showed inflammatory reactions by histology without pathogen identification. PCV2 was identified in only 4 % of cases by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Thus, PCV2 infections are of minor importance in respect to pig reproductive failures in Switzerland. Porcine parvovirus (PPV) infections were found in 3 % of the cases and seem to occur more infrequently compared to former findings. Hitherto, Enteroviruses/Teschovirus were marginally studied in etiologically undefined cases with a prevalence of 11 %. To our knowledge this is the first identification of Enteroviruses/Teschovirus in fetal tissue from reproductive failures in Switzerland. The etiology remained unclear in more than 50 % of all cases in spite of modern diagnostic methods.

Spontaneous myometrial contractility in cows suffering from endometritis-Influence of localisation, smooth muscle layer and cycle phase. An in vitro study.

Contractility of the healthy bovine myometrium depends on the reproductive state. Furthermore, contractility is influenced by localisation and the direction of smooth muscle strips. However, little is known about the contractile behaviour of the uterus when affected by endometritis. In our study, myometrial specimens from the larger horn (near the corpus and near the tip) in cows suffering from endometritis in estrus (n=8) or diestrus (n=8) were collected after slaughter. Two strips were prepared from each region corresponding to the circular and the longitudinal muscle layers, respectively. The spontaneous contractility of these strips was recorded in an organ bath. To analyse the results, the 2.5h recordings were divided into five periods of 30 min each. The variables area under curve (AUC) and maximal (A(max)) and minimal amplitude (A(min)) were calculated separately for each period, and the results were analysed using a non-parametric model regarding the influence of cycle phase (estrus vs. diestrus), region (corpus vs. tip) and muscle layer (circular vs. longitudinal). The values of both AUC and A(max) increased significantly over time. Muscle layer had a significant effect on AUC (corpus, tip) and A(max) (tip): the values of circular layers were increased compared to longitudinal layers. Dividing the data into subgroups allowed us to analyse them additionally according to muscle layer: In longitudinal layers, A(max) was increased at the corpus as compared with the tip. In this model, the factor cycle phase did not produce any significant difference in spontaneous myometrial activity. However, data of all variables showed non-significant higher values in estrus than in diestrus samples.