The isolation and identification of Serpulina hyodysenteriae is considered necessary to obtain a definitive diagnosis of swine dysentery (1). Identification has traditionally been carried out using phenotypic tests, although recently DNA hybridisation tests have been reported as an alternative (2). The usefulness of these and other tests relies on their ability to distinguish between S. hyodysenteriae and other spirochaetes that are frequently isolated from the porcine colon (3). Identification of pathogenic bacteria has been successfully carried out using the polymerase chain reaction ( PRC) ( 4), and in the current study this method was investigated as a means of identifying S. hyodysenteriae
