Articles - Pig health

Despite the evident usefulness of laboratory diagnosis, we must not forget that a field necropsy allows us to us recover part of the loss caused by the death of the animal.

This farm produces its own gilts from grandmother sows, but taking advantage of the adaptation to meet the needs of the welfare law it was decided to increase its capacity from 600 sows to 1,200.

Recent reports still show high prevalence of the pathogen in most pig producing countries.

Clinical disease and outcome following PRRS infection has significant inherited components.

The abattoir is a useful endpoint to collect data on herd health status and a valuable tool for monitoring the effect of disease control measures.

PCV2 vaccination of the gilts prior to insemination with PCV2 spiked-semen showed a clear decrease of viral load in the gilts as well as a much lower viral excretion that were compatible with foetus protection.

Is the right strategy to get a farm stable, that is, control clinical signs reducing the economic impact of the disease; or should a farm adopt strategies to go “negative”? As for other questions in the epidemiological field, our answer is “it depends”.

The virus is highly resistant in the environment, showing also high resistance to chemical and thermal treatments.

Infection of pigs occurs at birth but maternal immunity suppresses viremic infection in growing pigs until immunity wanes around 10 weeks of age, when a hidden infection re-appears.

On the finisher sites, the farmer noticed that the growing pigs in all the farm sheds had become dull and lame.

Might be there is a little doubt nowadays on the beneficial clinical and economic effects of PCV2 vaccination in subclinical infections in piglets, but… which is the role that sows play in the whole picture?

One of the challenges when conducting a disease elimination project is to ensure that the pathogen has in deed been eliminated from the herd.

None of the employees on this farm had ever seen TGEv before, but were concerned that is what they were seeing.

This economic model was create to provide a decision support tool for farmers and veterinarians, who can enter their own data to calculate the severity of PMWS on their farm, the cost of disease and what could be the most cost-effective control measure.

One of the greatest long-term potentials for genomic selection is to identify specific genes or genomic regions with a significant impact on pig health and to aid selection for disease resistance and/or disease tolerance.

Ileitis can take different forms, and it is frequent that a subclinical and a more severe and clinical form coincide.

In general terms, immunization through vaccination is the easiest and safest way to stabilize a herd.

It is believed that TTSuVs themselves do not directly cause any disease but they could potentiate coinfecting pathogens and participate as triggering factors for diseases like PCVDs and PRDC.

PRRSV by itself may induce mild-to-severe respiratory disease but rarely results in mortality.

PCV2 may reach embryos/foetuses upon transplacental spread during viremia or upon insemination with contaminated semen.

Knowledge of the dynamics of infection within the herd will allow implementation of better control strategies in affected herds.

This particular case occurred in a multisite farrow to finish operation in South Western Ontario, Canada.

Resolving the basis of viral and host variation will require identification and characterization of key B- and T-cell epitopes conserved among diverse PRRSV, and of the molecular and structural details of key effector antibodies, T-cell antigen receptors, and MHC molecules that mediate broad, cross-protective immunity.

Although a commensal, M. hyorhinis may cause serious systemic disease through mechanisms that are not fully understood.