Canada: Distribution of Streptococcus suis (from 2012 to 2014) and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (from 2011 to 2014) serotypes isolated from diseased pigs.

Streptococcus suis is an important pathogen of swine and serotype determination remains a valuable tool for veterinary practitioners and/or diagnosticians to understand the epidemiology of the infection and to evaluate the need for serotype-specific vaccines in a herd (1). Due to the fact that we have a reference laboratory for S. suis serotyping, more than 60% of worldwide data on serotype distribution is from Canada (2). From January 2012 to December 2014 a total of 472 isolates were received in our laboratory for serotyping. Except for a few isolates that came from Ontario, most isolates originated from the Diagnostic Service of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Universite de Montreal and from provincial laboratories. All isolates originated from tissues of diseased pigs with a variety of clinical signs such as respiratory and nervous signs, septicemia with sudden death, arthritis, and endocarditis. Serotyping was carried out by using a coagglutination test. Untypable isolates were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the identification of S. suis species and for further serotyping (2,3).