Porcine Health Management

Dedicated programs to monitor for freedom of several economically important diseases are present within most breeding companies currently delivering high health breeding animals to their end customers. Serology is the preferential approach in order to screen for most of these diseases, such as Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M.hyo). However, in case of positive serology, further decisions on farm health status and related consequences are based on detection of the pathogen. The objective was to detect M. hyo using trachea-bronchial swab (TBS) sampling following dubious M. hyo-seropositivity.

Monitoring of respiratory disease by lung scoring is beneficial to assess the farm health status. Correlation between lung lesions, the economic impact of the disease and the efficiency of vaccination has been reported. Ceva Lung Program (CLP) was confirmed as a valuable tool to establish the prevalence and severity of Enzootic Pneumonia (EP) and pleuropneumonia. The aim of this study is to evaluate level of EP and A.p- like lesions on Czech pig farms in the period of 2015-2017. Material & Methods The survey was conducted on conventional pig farms excluding those with M.hyo and A.p. SPF status.

The Dr. Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP) is a voluntary program managed by the University of Minnesota in which U.S. producers and veterinarians share sow farm PRRS status weekly. Currently, the project participants account for 50 % of the U.S. sow population. One of the MSHMP’s main goals is to contribute to the understanding of PRRS epidemiological features and, ultimately, to build a nationwide system should a foreign animal disease enter the country. Material and methods The dataset has been analyzed through different approaches, including time series, spatial, phylogenetic and ecological analysis.

Swine dysentery (SD) induce animal ill-thrift and financial losses. One way to control the disease is to eradicate it, but farmers may hesitate for costs.   Materials & methods</strong> A two-sited integrated pig herd with 300 sows and growers on one site and fatteners 1 km away. Every third week, 40 sows farrowed. Piglets were weaned at 33 days of age. Intestinal disorders had frequently been recorded in growers/fatteners since years, and occasionally also in gilts/sows. <i>Brachyspira hyodysenteriae</i> (BH), sensitive to tiamulin and tylosin, had been demonstrated in diseased pigs.

It has previously been established that pigs with severe gastric ulcers have a reduced daily weight gain (DWG). But the association between gastric ulcers and feed conversion rate (FCR) is unknown. A common cause of diarrhoea is <i>L. intracellularis</i>, and high excreting pigs have a reduced daily weight gain. Furthermore, it has been reported that pigs with unspecific diarrhoea have a poorer FCR. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between gastric ulcers, diarrhoea, DWG, and FCR in finisher pigs. A total of 526 pigs (Danish LYxD, females/castrates) were followed from 30 kg live weight until slaughter.

Currently, the generation of knowledge and implementation of biosecurity on farms is essential in pig production. The development of tools to identify where to focus efforts for improving biosecurity and objectively compare the level of biosecurity among farms is an important component. The aim of this study was to evaluate the external biosecurity of pig farms in Argentina by adapting a previously developed tool (Allepuz et al. 2017). It was applied in the context of a hypothetical porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) outbreak were PED herd prevalence was obtained from Beam et al. (2015).

High intramuscular (IM) fat content and backfat depth are important requirements for pigs
destined for high-quality cured products (HQCP). Those pigs are commonly slaughtered at heavy
live-weights; therefore need to be castrated to avoid boar taint and unacceptable male behaviour

Introduction The development of data mining and time series analyses allows extracting information of the health swine population at almost real time from non-specific data. In the North-Eastern Spain, the Grup de Sanejament Porcí (GSP) implemented an...

Introduction Oral fluids (OF) are a convenient surveillance sample because they are easily collected and tested for nucleic acids and/or antibodies for PRRSV and a variety of pathogens. However, sampling guidelines for OF are not readily available. The...

Introduction: Biosecurity procedures impact diseases such as PRRS, but applying and following biosecurity rules is often difficult. B-eSecure is an electronic system that besides external biosecurity, tracks and reports correct and wrong movements of...

Introduction Early detection of clinical respiratory disease in growing pigs can improve productivity and profitability by enabling earlier more effective treatment. Clinical disease detection is typically the direct responsibility of farm workers, and...

Introduction: Congenital-tremors (CT) type A-II outbreaks occur in new born piglets. CT-APPV was identified by next generation sequencing platform VIDISCA and proven as causative agent in an infection trial. This study describes technical and economic...

Introduction The robustness of piglets at weaning can be seen as ability to express optimal growth performances without health problems whatever weaning conditions. In this study, we approached piglet robustness at weaning through growth performances...

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp) diagnostic tools, such as Multiple Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA) and P146 sequencing have been used to characterize this microorganism at the molecular level. Multiple variants have been identified by MLVA; however, the extent of genetic variability within production stages in swine flows has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to assess the genetic variability of Mhp within swine production flows in USA.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is among the diseases with the highest economic impact in pig production worldwide. Losses due to the disease were estimated as high as 560 Mio. US$ per year in the USA. Yet, the economic impact of the disease at farm level is not well understood as, especially in pig herds chronically infected with PRRS virus, the losses caused are often not obvious for farmers and veterinarians