Porcine Health Management

For many producers the only practical way to assess the impact of any change is by comparing the performance of successive batches of pigs.  This example illustrates the potential limitations of this approach as well as the value of diagnostic data in...

Future breeding gilts are often vaccinated as piglets against both Circovirus and M. hyopneumoniae.  Later, typically before moving at around 12 weeks of age, it may be desirable to confirm low or absent M. hyopneumoniae infection by demonstrating a...

Piglet vaccination against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M.hyo) is an effective method to tackle enzootic pneumonia (EP), reducing clinical signs and improving performance. The aim of this study was to compare lung lesions at slaughter from pigs vaccinated...

Vaccines against PRRSV are useful to: 1) reduce clinical signs, 2) improve zootechnical parameters and 3) decrease virus transmission. In the present study, the efficacy of three PRRSV1 live vaccines were compared in a PRRSV1 challenge model of weaned...

New neonatal porcine diarrhea syndrome (NNPDS) frequently occurs in pig herds. The exact
pathogenesis remains unknown, but the intestinal tract microbiota of neonatal piglets likely plays
an important role. Management ways to control NNPDS outbreaks have not been widely described
so far.

Among livestock, piglets are considered the most susceptible species to developing iron deficiency (or anemia). This study investigated the effect of four different iron dosing schemes, which combine intramuscular and oral iron supplementation, on preventing anemia in piglets.

The porcine placenta is epitheliochorial, which is impermeable to different substances such as immunoglobulins or nucleotides. Nursing pigs receive nucleotides from the diet via colostrum and milk. The milk of the sow is the only direct source of nucleotides for piglets. This is the reason whereby the amount of nutrients, such as nucleotides, that are transferred during lactation they are critical to protect newborns from future intestinal disorders and immune function

Exogenous enzymes favour the release of shorter polymers of the dietary fibre and could promote the development of a beneficial digestive microflora. The bacterial xylanase in weaning pig diet was tested for the impact on the intestinal microbiota and digestive homeostasis. Pigs genetically susceptible to enteropathogen Escherichia coli K88ac(ETEC) were used to not preclude the possibility of highlighting the response to xylanase on post-weaning diarrhoea and dis-microbiosis.

Skin lesions due to fighting before slaughter are a welfare problem with economic losses for producers and abattoirs. The Aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of skin lesions at a slaughterhouse over one year in relation to slaughter season and overnight lairage, determining if they could have an impact on ham defects.

Modern pig farming is associated with high piglet mortality. The duration of farrowing is critical and has an impact on survival and subsequent thriving of the piglets. Since tedious labour caused by weak muscle tonus is linked to blood calcium level, it was thought that increasing Ca in the sows´ diet might improve the reproductive performance. However, previous experiments showed that neither Ca-supplementation nor a supplementation with Vitamin D or 25-hydroxyvitamin-D had any effect.

The use of dietetic fiber in pig diets can reduce animal aggressiveness and improve gut health maintaining performance. However, pig’s enzymatic capacity is limited to breakdown fibre. Moreover, NSP was found to change gene expression patterns and microbiotica composition in the hind gut, reflecting reduced gut health and its productivity

Fibre-high feed ingredients can decrease the cost of pigs diets because of their lower costs compared to the conventional raw materials. The experimental trial was conducted on 9 pigs divided in 3 groups (C, E1, E2) for a period of 8 weeks. The pigs were housed in individual digestibility cages which allowed the daily recording of the feed intake and of the excreta.

The objective of this study was evaluated the replacement of 5% starch per 5% sunflower oil (SO), in growing and finishing pigs diet, on behavior and animal welfare. Seventy-two crossbred males (51± 6,29 kg body weight-BW) were housed according to the initial BW, in climate-controlled rooms (collective pens), and exposed to heat stress conditions (30-32°C).

Some medical conditions as PED or accidents may necessitate to rapidly induced sow parturition before full term. That’s what happened following a major fire completely destroying the farrowing facility of an 800 sows breeding herd (two weeks farrowing batches). Sending some sows to slaughterhouse was impossible since recent administration of a vaccine with a 21 days withdrawal period was done.

The susceptibility of pigs to Fusarium mycotoxins is a widely discussed topic. Feed quality control and feed safety regulations may lead to the conclusion that mycotoxins are under control and not of concern for pig health, but the interactive and subclinical effects, even at low mycotoxin contaminations, are underestimated