Infection causes mild gastrointestinal signs in young pigs and can also be transmitted as intestinal spirochetosis in humans, as it is a zoonosis.
The disease is widespread in pig-rearing countries and may be referred to as PIS, spirochaetal diarrhoea and porcine colonic spirochaetosis.
Normally, a greyish diarrhoea is seen in individual piglets, and poor growth rates and feed conversion ratios are observed on a herd level.
A definitive diagnosis can be made by culturing the bacterium on a specific blood agar medium, followed by PCR.
Alternatively, necropsy and histological examination of the large intestine can confirm the diagnosis.