Explore all the information onSwine 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: WGV0917(KCTC 12783BP), WGV1014(KCTC 12784BP), and WGV1107(KCTC 12785BP) were originally isolated from neonatal piglets that were shown typical PRRSV infected symptoms. These strains had genetically characterized the NA (WGV0917 and WGV1014) and EU (WGV1107) strains and culturally passaged on PAM cells for adaptation and MARC-145 cells for attenuation. This study was to compare their immunogenicity of attenuated virulent PRRSV NA and EU strains with Ingelvac...
Introduction: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae infection is one of the causes of respiratory disease in pigs which is the primary agent in enzootic pneumonia. Enzootic Pneumonia is a chronic disease with low mortality but high morbidity causing economic loss in swine production through retarded growth, poor feed conversion, and predisposal to bacterial pulmonary infections. In Nepal, pig farming is increasing widely and the respiratory and reproductivity problem is also increasing...
Introduction: The members of the Pestivirus genus are antigenically related, consequently cross-infections, such as BVDV infections in swine, are often reported. The virus neutralization assay (VN) is the standard diagnostic assay for BVDV infections in cattle according to the OIE. However, very little information is available in the scientific literature about the use of VN to detect and quantify antibodies anti-BVDV in swine serum. This study focused on describing our...
Introduction: The new porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) outbreak has been documented in China since late 2010 and now with global distribution, resulting in enormous economic losses to swine industry. Autophagy is a highly conserved intracellular degradation process and be manipulated by some viruses for their benefits. Our previous proteomic data indicated that autophagy might participate in PEDV infection. However, the concrete role of autophagy is unknown. In the present study,...
Introduction: Hoof lesions, which are very common in modern sows, were associated with high risk of early culling and compromised welfare of sows. Some hoof lesions were also associated with decreased litter weight, increased pre-weaning piglet mortality and higher odds of stillborn and crushed piglets. Evidently, if hoof lesions negatively affect not only sow longevity but also the important reproductive parameters which determine the utilisation of breeding herd’s...
Introduction: Extended-spectrum penicillins have a similar spectrum of activity to 2nd and 3rd generation cephalosporins and they include aminopenicillins such as amoxicillin and ampicillin and amoxicillin in combination with clavulanic acid. Bacterial resistance to extended-spectrum penicillins has evolved rapidly in recent years specially in Enterobacteriaceae because these bacteria could carry beta-lactamases capable of hydrolyzing important beta-lactam...
Introduction: The positive effects of antibiotic treatment on growth and health of pigs during the weaner stage are well known. However the long term ‘carryover’ effects are less well known. There is some evidence that in-feed antibiotics during the weaner stage may have a detrimental impact on the development of the immune system and therefore negative consequences for pig health. We studied the effects of an antibiotic treatment during the weaner stage on the...
Introduction: Due to consumption of Porcine Cysticercosis infected pork, a serious and life-threatening disease named Neuro- Cysticercosis has been reported in the 2-3% of weaker section of human population of rural and slum areas of Rajasthan state in India. 75% of hospitalized patients with neurocysticercosis were at productive age, and are frequently unable to work soon after the onset of symptoms associated with epilepsy. 90% of the pig’s population is raised by weaker...
Introduction: This case study examines a herd with a history of endemic K88 E. coli and Salmonella diarrhea post wean. Signs included acutely: diarrhea and dehydration; subacutely: acute signs plus gradual fat loss; and chronically: muscle loss and rough hair coat. Control is sporadic with both vaccination and medication attempts. Currently Neomycin therapy is used. In an effort to increase treatment efficacy, reduce dependence on antibiotics, and support health and...
Introduction: Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic serovars of Leptospira sp. The disease in swine is mainly transmitted by contact with infected urine, blood, tissues, organs, contaminated water and feed. Leptospirosis can be spread by rodents or by direct contact of infected pigs. Clinical symptoms such as abortion, stillbirths and sometimes infertility are the most often observed consequences of Leptospira sp. infection in...
Introduction: Since 2006, Antibiotic growth promotors (AGP) are banned in the EU. Questions are raising in EU as well as in other parts of the world about the effectiveness of alternatives to replace AGPs. Commonly used alternatives in EU are products based on butyric acid. Butyric acid (C4) is a short chain fatty acid (SCFA) with a biological role, consistently present in the intestinal ecosystem, as it is naturally produced by fermentation of polysaccharides by the intestinal...
Introduction: During slaughtering procedure, every animal should be unconscious chiefly to avoid inflicting undue pain during bleeding. Exsanguination without prior stunning is an extremely controversial practice from the standpoint of animal welfare because some animals take a long time to lose brain function. CO 2 stunning can be reversible or irreversible; pigs may recover consciousness before dying, such that the time between stunning and exsanguination is a...
Introduction: It is well known that stomach barrier (acidity) acts against diverse pathogenic agents. This function is particularly influenced by particle size distribution in the diet. Diarrhoea causing E. coli is an agent of relevance in today’s pig production that can lead to weight gains up to high losses. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the ability of a specific pathogenic E. coli to survive stomach passage, in vivo and in vitro...
Introduction: Congenital tremors is a disease of neonatal pigs characterized by action-related repetitive myoclonus. Despite early documentation (nearly 100 years ago) and worldwide distribution of the disease, the etiology of a majority of contemporary outbreaks remains a mystery but has been speculated to be an unidentified virus. This investigation describes the identification of a divergent lineage pestivirus in samples from piglets with congenital tremors and not unaffected...
Introduction: Porcine parvovirus 4 (PPV4) is a representative of the Copiparvovirus genus classified as Ungulate copiparvovirus 2. PPV4 was detected recently in the lung lavage samples of diseased pigs co-infected with porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2). PPV4 is unique in that its genomic sequence is most closely related to bovine parvovirus 2 classified as Ungulate copiparvovirus 1. The pathogenic nature of PPV4 remains to be determined while it seems that PPV4 is...
Introduction: Parvoviruses are small, non-enveloped icosahedral viruses ubiquitous in different animal species. Porcine parvovirus 3 (PPV3) or according to novel classification Ungulate tetraparvovirus 2 belongs to the Tetraparvovirus genus. PPV3 was found in tissues of healthy and sick pigs. The aim of this study was to detect PPV3, using two in situ methods that target nucleic acids, like in situ hybridization (ISH) and in situ polymerase chain reaction (IS-PCR) and to apply...
Introduction: The sterile alpha motif and HD domain 1 (SAMHD1) protein has been identified as a novel innate immunity restriction factor that inhibits HIV-1 infection in myeloid cells, and is a type I interferon (IFN) inducible restriction factor. Previous study showed that overexpression of porcine SAMHD1 efficiently blocked highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (HP-PRRSV) replication in MARC-145 cells, and SAMHD1 is activated in target cells...
Introduction: Swine influenza outbreaks are usually recognized by the sudden appearance of respiratory signs and also by quick recovery of sick animals. However, influenza A virus (IAV) can endemically circulate without causing such typical clinical outbreaks. In addition, the complexity of influenza circulation in large multi-site and multi-source herds has not been well described. The objectives of this study were to describe the dynamics of IAV circulation in...
Introduction: The aetiology of tail biting is highly complex and its appearance in a herd can hardly be predicted. Thus, it becomes extremely important to recognise that tail biting is not a singular symptom. Cases of primary cannibalism are rather rare and need differentiation from cases of tail necrosis without support of other pigs, and from cases of secondary cannibalism as a result of primary necrosis of the tail. The aim of the present study was to show that tail necrosis...
Introduction: Spray dried plasma (SDP) is a specialty protein source used in pig diets due to its beneficial effects on post-weaning performance and survival. Processing of SDP produces a safe product; however, further evaluation of redundant safety steps may be investigated. The objectives were to determine the effect of commercially produced ultraviolet light (UV) treated liquid porcine plasma containing PEDV genome with a special UV system developed for turbid liquids...