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Swine health
Pig diseases can be caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa, nutritional deficiencies, poisonous substances, internal and external parasites.
Bacterial diseases include swine erysipelas, swine dysentery, infectious poly-arthritis etc. Viral and mycoplasma diseases include African swine fever, swine influenza, enzootic pneumonia of pigs, vesicular exanthema of swine, transmissible gastroenteritis etc. Helminthiasis as a health problem in pigs is mainly caused by worms like the lungworm, ascaris worm etc. Nutritional diseases include piglet anemia, parakeratosis etc. External parasitic infections include mange, lice, jiggers etc.
How to tell that a pig is in bad health:
General signs: dullness, loss of appetite, labored or rapid breathing, sudden deaths, loss of weight, low weight gain and fever usually manifested by shivering of the pig.
Signs expressed on the skin: reddening of the skin or skin discoloration, loss of hair and hardening of some parts of the skin, itching and cracking of the skin.
Other signs: lameness, cough, abnormal nasal discharges, diarrhea with a putrid smell, abnormal content and color of feces and abortions.
Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of post-weaning treatment of piglets with zink oxide (ZnO) and colistin on health, production and Escherichia coli shedding. Materials and Methods: During two successive weaning rounds, a randomized control study was performed on three commercial pig herds. In each herd, four groups of weaners were created that either received colistin in the feed (CF) (Promycine® 400 IU/mg, premix,...
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Introduction: In the Netherlands antibiotic use in human health care and in food-producing animals is a concern for the Dutch society and the Dutch government. The use of antibiotics is controlled by law and the consequence is a strict monitoring in the diagnostics of diseases including laboratory tests to confirm disease and treatments. The message of the Dutch government is simple: use less antibiotics in animals. In this survey, we demonstrate how in a finishing farm...
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Introduction: There is a need for ante-mortem Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp) diagnostic sampling protocols to determine if populations are negative (≤1% prevalence (Pr)), remain negative over time, and to detect early infection to prevent spread. A recent study showed that increased sample size resulting from ante-mortem laryngeal swab sampling (LS) combined with pooling allowed for a higher herd detection rate by PCR while pursuing the most economical...
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Introduction: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is one of the primary pathogens involved in the Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex. Breeding sows are responsible for maintaining M. hyopneumoniae infections within the herd and young sows are more likely to transmit the pathogen to their piglets compared to older sows. Additionally, piglet colonization at weaning has been suggested as a predictor of clinical disease and lung lesions at slaughter. The aim of this...
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Introduction: Porcine brucellosis, an infectious disease caused by Brucella suis biovar 1, 2, or 3, is a zoonotic disease of public health and economic concern. The infection generally manifests itself as a reproductive disease potentially leading to abortion in sows and infertility in sows and boars. In Europe, the most common agent of swine brucellosis is B. suis biovar 2 which is endemic in European wild boar and hare populations. These wild animals may...
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Introduction: Coccidiosis occurs worldwide in association with intensive pig husbandry. In the intensive pig production piglets are supplemented with Iron to prevent iron deficiency anaemia. Traditional prevention of coccidiosis and iron deficiency anaemia has involved two separate intervention. Toltrazuril is well established product given orally to piglets in prepatent period to control coccidiosis and iron is supplemented traditionally by intramuscular route to young...
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Introduction: The field control of animal trypanosomosis has relied over the years on two broad strategies: using chemotherapeutic agents on infected animals, and vector control. At present chemotherapy and chemoprophylaxis are the only practical methods available for the control of animal trypanosomosis, but their effectiveness is being threatened by a number of factors, which include increasing parasite resistance, treatment failures and unacceptable...
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Introduction: Gastrointestinal disease is one of the leading causes of clinical signs in growing and finishing pigs. We herein describe several diagnostic cases of finisher pig colitis wherein both novel and common pathogens were discovered. Materials and Methods: Necropsies of 5 pigs, 10-13 weeks of age, with diarrhea and weight loss, were performed at two swine farms, each housing > 15,000 growing pigs. Tissue samples including colon were submitted to the...
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Introduction: The first outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) since 1996 in Japan was reported in October 2013. Also, in August 2014, Japan also had the first outbreak of dengue fever (DF) since 1945. A concern with these recent incidents is the risk of a decrease in pork consumption due to misinformation or exaggeration by the news media. Therefore, our objectives were to characterize PED and DF newspaper and google-searched articles, and identify important text...
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Introduction: During an outbreak of respiratory disease, pigs suffering of severe and usually fatal respiratory distress can be observed sporadically. During necropsy, oedema and haemorrhage of the mucosa can be observed in the trachea leading to the suspicion of severe tracheitis. However, aetiology of tracheitis remains obscure in pigs. We report here a clinical case of tracheitis in finishing pigs. Materials and Methods: This study reports on a 200 sow...
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Introduction: Pneumocystis belongs to the opportunistic fungi and is of high clinical relevance in immunocompromised patients who may develop severe interstitial pneumonia. Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. suis can frequently be detected in pigs co-infected with other respiratory pathogens. The occurrence of Pneumocystis on farm level has not yet been investigated. For this reason, the aim of the present study was the evaluation of...
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Introduction: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is characterized by reproductive failure of sows and respiratory problems of nursery and growing pigs. Present management strategies mainly focus on the prevention of infection using vaccination but are not sufficient to eradicate the virus and provide complete immunity. Therefore, in searching for agents that may prove clinically effective against PRRSV infection, seventeen Asian medicinal plant extracts were...
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Potassium diformate is a strong acidifier that is released slowly in the digestive tract with high buffering properties, which prevents excessive fluctuations in the acidity of the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Studies have shown that 85% of potassium diformate passes through the pig’s stomach and enters the duodenum in its intact form. The...
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Introduction: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae(APP) is an important pig pathogen, which is responsible for swine pleuropneumonia, a high contagious respiratory infection. The Apx toxins are species specific and all field strains produce these toxins. Apx toxin is consist of virulence domain A subunit and cell binding domain B subunit. Protein transduction domains (PTD) are small peptides able to carry proteins, peptides, nucleic acid, and nanoparticles, including...
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Introduction: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an economically important animal virus that causes reproductive failure and respiratory track illness in pigs. Current inactivated vaccines have low efficacy and/or complicated time-consuming production procedure requiring application of hazardous reactants such as formaldehyde or binary ethylenimine. Here, we studied the possibility of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) as a suitable...
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Introduction: Most common influenza A virus (IAV) control measures include sow vaccination using prefarrow, mass or a combination of prefarrow and mass vaccination protocols with either commercial, autogenous or both vaccines. Piglets prior to wean are important in the maintenance of influenza infections in breeding herds as well as in the dissemination of the virus into wean-to-finish facilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of sow vaccination...
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Introduction: Ascaris suum is a widespread parasitic nematode that causes infection in fattening pigs. The clinical symptoms are mostly vague and unspecific. Based on the high prevalence of infections with A. suum observed in fattening pigs, the questions arise whether exposure to A. suum mainly occurs in the fattening units or earlier on in farrowing and nursery units and whether serology could be used to detect exposure to A. suum in piglets. To...
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Introduction: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is a swine respiratory pathogen that leads to compromised animal welfare and economic losses in finishing pigs. The lung infection can last up to 7 months and infected animals can become asymptomatic carries capable of infecting other pigs. The pathogen is mainly transmitted by direct contact, and vertical transmission is recognized as risk factor for prevalence of M. hyopneumoniae at weaning. It is known that colonized...
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Introduction: Antimicrobials continue to be an effective measure for the control of pleuropneumonia outbreaks in swine. The Italian ministry of health recommends not to systematically use new molecules as first line treatment (Manuale Biosicurezza e uso corretto e razionale degli antibiotici in zootecnia, Sezione suini, 2012). Thus, susceptibility to alternative treatment must be documented. Trimethoprim-sulphonamide (TMP+S) combination is recommended as first choice...
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Introduction: A genetic reassortment of influenza viruses of different hosts is an important mechanism for overcome the species barrier. Therefore the aim of this study was to define the percentage of reassortants and their gene constellation after co-infection of pigs with 2 influenza virus strains of different subtype and origin. Materials and Methods: Six pigs were intranasally inoculated with A/Swine/Gent/172/08 (H3N2) and A/Duck/Italy/1447/05 (H1N1)...
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