Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Section for Production Nutrition and Health, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870, Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Elizabeth Stephansens vei 15, 1433, Ås, Norway.
BMC Vet Res. 2024 Feb 3;20(1):47. doi: 10.1186/s12917-024-03888-1.
Researchers and pig veterinarians are interested in assessing pigs' fecal consistency. This study developed a standardized protocol and scale for the cotton swab method, which is a way of assessing the fecal consistency in pigs. The accuracy of the cotton swab method was evaluated in weaned pigs using fecal dry-matter analysis as a golden standard. The study also proposed fecal dry-matter percentage thresholds for the categorization of fecal consistency on a four-point scale.
The thresholds of 10.3%, 16.6%, and 21.9% fecal dry-matter were suggested for categorization of the consistency of fecal samples on a four-point scale. The accuracy of the cotton swab method was high. The agreement to the four-point fecal consistency score derived from the fecal dry-matter percentage was almost perfect (weighted Gwet's agreement coefficient = 0.87 [95% confidence interval: 0.84; 0.91]). The cotton swab method had a sensitivity of 85.0% (95% confidence interval: 76.5; 91.4) and a specificity of 95.2% (95% confidence interval: 92.0; 97.3) when used to diagnose whether pigs had diarrhea or not. For non-diarrheic pigs, the method almost always (n = 287/289) required less handling than the collection of a fecal sample by digital rectal manipulation.
The cotton swab method is an accurate way to assess fecal consistency in pigs, both on a four-point scale and as a dichotomous diarrhea score. The method is quick to perform and less invasive than methods relying on the collection of fecal samples. New fecal dry-matter thresholds between feces of different consistencies were proposed.
研究人员和猪兽医都有兴趣评估猪的粪便稠度。本研究开发了一种标准化的棉拭子方法协议和量表，这是一种评估猪粪便稠度的方法。使用粪便干物质分析作为金标准，评估了断奶猪中棉拭子方法的准确性。该研究还提出了粪便干物质百分比阈值，用于将粪便稠度分为四级。
建议将粪便干物质百分比阈值分别为 10.3%、16.6%和 21.9%，用于将粪便样本的稠度分为四级。棉拭子方法的准确性很高。棉拭子法所得的粪便稠度四分制评分与粪便干物质百分比的一致性几乎完美（加权 Gwet 一致性系数=0.87[95%置信区间：0.84；0.91]）。棉拭子法诊断猪是否腹泻的敏感性为 85.0%（95%置信区间：76.5%；91.4%），特异性为 95.2%（95%置信区间：92.0%；97.3%）。对于非腹泻猪，该方法几乎总是（n=287/289）比数字直肠操作采集粪便样本的处理次数更少。
棉拭子法是一种准确评估猪粪便稠度的方法，既可以进行四分制评分，也可以作为二分类腹泻评分。该方法快速且侵入性较小，比依赖粪便样本采集的方法更具优势。本研究提出了不同粪便稠度之间的新粪便干物质阈值。
