Steven McOrist

The pros, cons, and current limitations of using black soldier fly larvae as an alternative protein source.

This clinical case describes how, after discovering large numbers of dead and dying pigs in the sheds over a 4-day period, an expert team of veterinarians diagnosed African Swine Fever.

The current situation for PED is that of continual occurrence of moderate to severe outbreaks in many pig farms, across Asia, USA and elsewhere, on both naïve farms and those that have suffered previous episodes.

At autopsy of some affected pigs, the soft gelatinous oedema was evident in the eyelids, but also in the meso-colonic area of the spiral colon.

Post-weaning colibacillosis and oedema disease are common global infection among farmed pigs – these strains of E coli appear to be "embedded" in most pig farms, so elimination is not a current option. Vaccination of sows or gilts with ETEC vaccines has no effect on post-weaning E. coli infections.

This article will focus on clinical signs of some E coli infections: neonatal colibacillosis, post-weaning colibacillosis diarrhoea and oedema disease.

The first cause of PCV vaccine failure is the purchase and use of generic vaccine of low quality and titre, but the exact cause of the failures can occur in various forms.

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

Control of outbreaks on problem farms in Asia remains an attempt to raise herd immunity by use of live virus feedback material. However, the current outbreaks have shown only transient herd immunity with these programs.

The pen and farm charts indicated a rapid jump to 40 % mortality in several finisher sheds over one to 2 weeks.

The pig farm management team in charge of the post-weaned piglet nursery areas on these wean-to-finish sites has found serious problems with diarrhoea in recent batches of piglets arriving from the breeding farms.

The “normal” sporadic and unexplained abortion rate in pigs is approximately 1 to 2 % of pigs that are mated and achieve a pregnancy.