Clinical variation in melioidosis in pigs with clonal infection following possible environmental contamination from bore water

Abstract

An outbreak of melioidosis occurred in pigs on a rural property in the tropical north of the Northern Territory of Australia. The pigs were mostly asymptomatic but lesions in the parotid glands suggested an oral route of infection. Skin lesions were also common and one piglet had disseminated infection. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed an identical pattern amongst Burkholderia pseudomallei isolates from the pigs, with similarity to an isolate from the unchlorinated bore water supplying the property.