{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T05:03:02Z","timestamp":1773896582249,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,17]],"date-time":"2021-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629158400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009882","name":"Regione Lombardia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["30210444"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["30210444"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009882","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Pig livestock was influenced by several global concerns that imposed a re-thinking of the farming system, which included the reduction in chemical dependency and the development of antimicrobial alternatives. Post-weaning diarrhea and enterotoxaemia caused by Escherichia coli, are serious threats that are responsible for the economic losses related to mortality, morbidity and stunted growth in weaning piglets. The aim of the study was to set up experimental conditions to simulate the simultaneous outbreak of post-weaning diarrhea and enterotoxaemia in weaned piglets, through verocytotoxic O138 Escherichia coli challenge, with a multidisciplinary approach. Eighteen piglets susceptible to F18 VTEC infection were selected by polymerase chain reaction for polymorphism on the fucosyltransferase 1 gene and randomly divided in two experimental groups, non-infected controls (C; n = 6) and infected ones (I; n = 12) and housed into individual pens at the same environmental conditions for 29 days. At day 20, I pigs were orally inoculated with Escherichia coli O138 and fed a high protein ration for 3 days. Zootechnical, clinical, microbiological, histological and immunological parameters were evaluated along the follow up (3 and 9 days). Experimental infection, confirmed by bacteria faecal shedding of the I group, significantly affected the clinical status. The I group showed significantly higher total scores, corresponding to medians of the sum of daily scores from days 1 to 3 (\u03a33) and 1 to 9 (\u03a39) post infection, epiphora, vitality, hair irregularity, oedema and depression. Histological examination showed evident inflammatory infiltrate of lymphocytes, and follicular hyperplasia in I pigs; in the same group, the immunohistochemical and immunological assays revealed an increase in IgG in the intestinal crypts and CD3-positive T cells in intestinal epithelium. The experimental Escherichia coli infection in controlled conditions is crucial for both the evaluation of innovative compounds and the elucidation of the mechanisms associated with the persistence of antibacterial resistant strains. In conclusion, the adopted infection model, carried out on receptor-mediated susceptible piglets, allowed us to identify a discriminative panel of clinical symptoms related to Escherichia coli O138 infection, and could be used to assess the protective effect of antibiotic alternatives.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani11082415","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,17]],"date-time":"2021-08-17T03:43:04Z","timestamp":1629171784000},"page":"2415","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Translational Approach to Induce and Evaluate Verocytotoxic E. coli O138 Based Disease in Piglets"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1178-4683","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luciana","family":"Rossi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety \u201cCarlo Cantoni\u201d (VESPA), Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lauretta","family":"Turin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giovanni Loris","family":"Alborali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lombardy and Emilia Romagna Experimental Zootechnic Institute (IZSLER), 25124 Brescia, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6733-9098","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eugenio","family":"Demartini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety \u201cCarlo Cantoni\u201d (VESPA), Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8849-2051","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joel Fernando Soares","family":"Filipe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1270-1627","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Federica","family":"Riva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pietro","family":"Riccaboni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eugenio","family":"Scanziani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7019-6828","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paolo","family":"Trevisi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Universit\u00e0 di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8542-9476","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paola","family":"Dall\u2019Ara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2171-864X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matteo","family":"Dell\u2019Anno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety \u201cCarlo Cantoni\u201d (VESPA), Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Antonella","family":"Baldi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety \u201cCarlo Cantoni\u201d (VESPA), Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1028","DOI":"10.1017\/S1751731112002418","article-title":"Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st 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