Prevention of swine dysentery with a combination of lincomycin and spectinomycin and resistance of swine dysentery to tylosin and sodium arsanilate.

The addition of a combination of lincomycin and spectinomycin to feed at the total concentrations of 44 and 77 mg/kg, beginning at the time of exposure and continuing for 8 weeks, prevented experimentally induced swine dysentery in swine. The disease did not develop after the medication was withdrawn. In contrast, swine dysentery, similar to that seen in the nonmedicated swine, did develop in simultaneously exposed swine treated with feed containing either 44 mg of tylosin or 99 mg sodium arsanilate/kg. The swine fed sodium arsanilate and which developed hemorrhagic diarrhea had a more severe form of this type of diarrhea than did the nonmedicated swine. After reexposure to inefective inoculum of swine dysentery 86 days after initial exposure, all remaining swine previously medicated with either tylosin or sodium arsanilate and all nonmedicated swine were immune; whereas 17 of the 24 swine fed the combination of lincomycin and spectinomycin were susceptible to swine dysentery and developed diarrhea.