Specific humoral immunity is mediated by glycoproteins called antibodies or immunoglobulins.

Once the first symptoms of the infection emerged in pigs the facility was locked and the possibility to get in from outside was the only used.

This article shows the different measures taken and the strategy followed to eradicate PEDv in a commercial farm: stabilization, creation of a disinfection bubble, monitoring and verification.

This article helps us to define the minimum biosecurity measures that should be internally established to prevent indirect PEDv transmission.

The current diagnostic tests are very powerful, allowing us to detect even small changes in the genome of a virus, but what do they tell us?

We were called for clinical problems on weaners that appeared a few days after a feed transition in a farrow-to-finish farm: swelling of the eyelids and forehead, incoordination, dyspnea and sudden death.

The owner contacted us because he has seen a reduction in performance in recent months, although no decline has been identified in any particular parameter. He says that, overall, “the sows are doing worse".

Does the land altitude, slope or coverage matter?

The farms that apply more vaccines are the ones that score the best in internal biosecurity. The change towards prevention directly leads to both greater use of vaccines and better internal biosecurity, as they are the only means we know to prevent the disease.

The decrease in PCV2a and PCV2b genotypes over time and the increase in PCV2d in 2012 may be due more to other, unknown, factors than to immunological selection resulting from PCV2a-based vaccination.

This case report highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach to achieve a correct differential diagnosis.

This case study describes an outbreak in a commercial unit which proved difficult to stop without vaccine. Since 2014 an increasing number of cases of this disease have been reported in Europe though it remains unclear why it has reappeared.

The prevalence of Mycoplasmal pneumonia and pericarditis lesions was significantly higher in pigs weaned at lower weights compared to their heavier cohorts, despite the provision of a superior production system for the lower weight group.

The farm reports a problem of low prolificacy (mean annual live births of 11.91) and low fertility in summer, with a marked increase in acyclic returns.

PCV-2 and PRRS are the most common infectious causes of abortions. Most abortions are also found to occur during the colder months, regardless of their cause.

PCV2 vaccination is nearly universal. Has viral presence decreased after 6 years of vaccination? Could vaccination policies be changed?

In the coming years, the use of antimicrobials will be more closely regulated, following the guidelines set by the WHO in its global report on antimicrobial resistance in 2014.

The farmer, alarmed, calls us describing a clinical picture of abortions in the last third of gestation, weak newborn piglets, stillbirths, mummified piglets, agalactia, sows with fever and small litters.

Assessment of a study, by Enric de Marco, on the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in sows at farrowing in order to reduce piglet mortality and increase the weight of piglets at weaning.

The article provides an alternative to the current vaccination programs that could be the solution for farms with early onset oedema disease. However, this alternative —consisting of vaccinating the dams at the end of gestation to achieve post-weaning piglets immunization—, also raises questions...

At autopsy, haemorrhagic enterocolitis with mucosal oedema, enlarged spleen and haemorrhagic mesentery were observed.

Without the participation in the program of all farms present in the area, progress will be minimal or nil.

All available vaccines in the European and North-American market are based on PCV2a genotype, while the most prevalent ones are PCV2b and PCV2d ones. Although significant level of cross-protection among these three genotypes has been demonstrated, it would be interesting to assess if vaccine efficiency would be equivalent in front of all these different genotypes.

Virulence and infectivity differences between strains are notorious. Moreover, the new virus is not controlled with vaccines developed from classical strains and may yield false positives in some diagnostic tests.

We got a call to visit a fattening farm where 7-week-old piglets presented meningitis and diarrhoea after weaning, with a mortality rate of 5% three weeks after weaning.

At least 25% of the pigs from 2 to 3 weeks old were reported to be lame, some so severe that they lay in the arcs shaking and unable to stand.

Any contact between fattening pigs of different age during restocking of compartments increased the risk.

It seems we have a new virus able to produce vesicular disease in pig populations.

The immune status of farms is quite possibly different from the one they had before piglets mass vaccinations.

Due to the fact that no known enteropathogen was found in clinically relevant amounts, importance of massive Blastocystis sp. infestation was counted as significant in this case.