Articles - Pig health

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.

A method to quantify the relative economic importance of pig health status at placement by specific pathogens (PRRSv and PEDv) and to estimate the effect of a specific type of PRRSv at a specific production system is presented.

Gilts are the population most likely to excrete M. hyo during lactation because they will probably have become infected within 200 days prior to their first farrowing.

Enric Marco sums up the essential points to control post-weaning diarrhoea in our farm.

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.

The method is based on oral fluid collection from the groups of viraemic pigs by means of cotton ropes that will be hung in the incoming gilts pens.

Swine influenza viruses are diverse at genetic and antigenic level, resulting in a limited cross-reactivity in viruses sharing a common ancestor or belonging to a same subtype.

OD will normally appear after 1 or 2 weeks post-weaning and most likely associated to the presence of other risk factors.

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

Weaning triggers a series of changes leading to the decrease of feed intake and the deterioration of the intestinal architecture which finally results in infection, diarrhoea and low performance.

The first and the most important condition at the beginning of PRRSV control program is to disrupt virus circulation in the reproductive herd.

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.

Despite not having a consistent post-vaccination serological reaction, vaccinated animals behave differently from unvaccinated animals under field conditions.The article explains why vaccines offer protection.

The economic evaluation of each assessment allows the producer to quantify the economic impact of pneumonia.

In practice, and to have active-acquired antibodies ready at weaning, piglets should be immunised 10 days to 2 weeks before weaning.

There are many open topics, such as: 1) what is the impact of the disease in endemic situations at the reproductive level (irregular return to estrus / fertility), especially in gilts; or 2) what is the productive impact in farrowing units, especially when we know that suckling piglets can play a role as a reservoir of the virus in an endemically infected farm.

Effect of modified-live porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus vaccine on the shedding of wild-type virus from an infected population of growing pigs.

Infectious outbreaks can last for more than a month at a population level, which explain that a new batch including mainly susceptible piglets can get infected if the animals are housed in a separate room but in the same compartment (airborne transmission).

After two weeks of quarantine, gilts started limping. Treatment with amoxycillins did not help, only treatment with high doses (10 mg/kg) of macrolides and spectinomycines brought a solution.

An accurate diagnosis is sometimes difficult because of the common occurrence of mixed infections, the compounding effects of environment and nutrition and the difficulties experienced in isolating and identifying all the possible pathogenic agents involved.

After 24 years of experience we still don't have a control plan agreed upon and accepted by all our technical community. Why?