The effect of yolksfrom birds hipperimmunized birds against Escherichia coli (E. coli)pathogenic for swine on the passive immunity of newborn piglets in a producerunit of piglets was studied. It was evaluated ELISA optical density (OD) ofantibodies against E. coli, body weight and the frequency of diarrhea(FcD) in 137 newborn piglets born from 25 primiparous gilts non-vaccinated againstE. coli. The gilts were considered blocks. From each gilt, six pigletsfrom both sexes were separated, excluded the lighter and the heavier ones, anddivided into three treatments and two replications. The treatments were suppliedorally, as follows: T1: 2 mL of PBS (control treatment) in 2 doses, the firstwas given at birth and the second 2 hours later; T2: 2 mL of yolks with titerof 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 reached12 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 againstE. coli in the serum of piglets was also determined by ELISA. The ODfor T2 and T3 was significantly higher in the first 24 hours and 14 days afterbirth compared to the control . T3, T2 and T1 remained 87, 79 and 73% of thestudied period without diarrhea. Due to the lower FcD percentage, T3 pigletswere significantly heavier than T1, but did not differ from T2. The resultsof this study pointed out that the supply of hipperimmunized hen yolks againstE. coli acts effectively in diarrhea prevention and that the continuoussupply is more effective than the supply only at birth.
