The effect of yolks from birds hipperimmunized birds against Escherichia coli (E. coli) pathogenic for swine on the passive immunity of newborn piglets in a producer unit of piglets was studied. It was evaluated ELISA optical density (OD) of antibodies against E. coli, body weight and the frequency of diarrhea (FcD) in 137 newborn piglets born from 25 primiparous gilts non-vaccinated against E. coli. The gilts were considered blocks. From each gilt, six piglets from both sexes were separated, excluded the lighter and the heavier ones, and divided into three treatments and two replications. The treatments were supplied orally, as follows: T1: 2 mL of PBS (control treatment) in 2 doses, the first was given at birth and the second 2 hours later; T2: 2 mL of yolks with titer of 100,000 of antibodies (IgY) against E. coli in the same two doses; T3: equal to T2, followed by 2 mL of yolks every 3 days until piglets reached 12 days old. Old two blood samples were collected from 1 piglet/treatment/gilt: 24 hours after birth and when piglets were 14 days old. The ammount of IgY against E. coli in the serum of piglets was also determined by ELISA. The OD for T2 and T3 was significantly higher in the first 24 hours and 14 days after birth compared to the control . T3, T2 and T1 remained 87, 79 and 73% of the studied period without diarrhea. Due to the lower FcD percentage, T3 piglets were significantly heavier than T1, but did not differ from T2. The results of this study pointed out that the supply of hipperimmunized hen yolks against E. coli acts effectively in diarrhea prevention and that the continuous supply is more effective than the supply only at birth.
diarrhea; Escherichia coli; yolk; immunoglobulin Y; passive immunity; piglets
