Articles - Pig health

There was an increase of repetitions in females (at 17-28 days, cyclic and acyclic, with a repeat rate of 22%) and mucous-like, white to brown (chocolate) vulvovaginal discharge hours after artificial insemination.

Feed is one of the risk factors in the epidemiology of salmonellosis and therefore, control of pathogens in the feed should continue to be considered an essential component of any control program for swine salmonellosis.

Vitamin D is normally produced following skin exposure to ultraviolet-B. Since most piglets (and humans too!) are raised in climate controlled housing and born year-round, direct access to sunshine is often limited, even in the summer. Fortunately, vitamin D can be added to diets to meet the animals' need for vitamin D.

The semen was destined for Japan which requires the donor boar to be tested with negative results within 60 days prior to collection for export for: Vesicular Stomatitis, Aujesky’s disease, PRRS, Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, and Tuberculosis.

This case starts with abortions that occur dramatically in April. They begin on Saturday the 23rd and during the following week continue until reaching 34 abortions.

Patterns of association are quite helpful in helping focus resources whether that is time, money, or any intervention we are seeking to implement.

Abortion occurred in 90% of first parity sows and in 10% of second parity sows.

Approximately 15-20 days after entering the growth phase, generalized coughing and weight loss were noted. The morbidity rate was almost 30% and the mortality rate was 4-6 %.

It is not possible to compare the consumption of antimicrobials in Denmark with very many other countries, because almost none have a detailed registration on their use of antibiotics for the treatment of livestock. However, among those who collect such data, Denmark has one of the lowest levels of veterinary antibiotic use.

In high-density swine regions of North America, air filtration is playing an important role in the effort to maintain PRRS free commercial sow herds

Over the last several years, new sampling, monitoring and diagnostic tools for the swine industry that are faster, simpler and more cost effective have been developed and validated. One of these techniques is the sampling and use of oral fluids (saliva) as specimens for diagnostics in swine.

Oral fluid samples can at times replace traditional blood testing while requiring less labor and technical skill. Also there is clearly reduced stress for people and pigs, which is becoming important in modern food animal production.

Here we present a table of differential diagnosis of the most common diarrheas during lactation.

Rotaviruses are important enteric pathogens that affect newborns of several animal species. In swine, they can cause gastroenteritis in piglets.

Although pigs can be infected with different species of coccidia, in suckling piglets the most important disease caused by enteric protozoa is coccidiosis due to Isospora suis.

The genus Clostridium includes numerous species of anerobic bacteria with large rod-shaped forms, spore makers, and producers of extremely potent and diverse toxins that are almost always responsible for the diseases they cause.

Escherichia coli is an enterobacteria that forms part of the normal intestinal microbiota of healthy animals. Usually, E. coli present in animals are communal antipathogenic strains and they even play a beneficial role, since they compete in several ways with the pathogenic strains in the ecological niche of the lumen.

Available data indicate that PCV2 has the ability to modulate the immune response, not only during the obvious overt disease but also in a subclinically infection.

One issue is to overcome maternal immunity, which is true for all PCV2 vaccines in the market, and another is whether the most from these vaccines is achieved independently of the PCV2 antibody titre at vaccination

Basic preventative measures of management should be included in the control of the disease, such as adequate temperature control of the barns, a complete all-in all-out hygiene and disinfection, and the avoidance of any mixing of animals from distinct sanitary origins.

The decrease in the contact time between the mother and her piglets, due to the common practice of early weaning, has led to the appearance of some piglets that are not completely colonised or that have not acquired a sufficient level of maternal antibodies. On mixing with other litters, these piglets are faced with distinct strains while lacking the necessary antibodies against the disease.

It is important to be able to identify the distinct circulating strains and to differentiate between the strains that are merely colonisers and those that have the capacity to produce disease. With this aim various methods of classification of strains or “typing” of H. parasuis have been developed.