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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: Parvoviruses have been circulating in the global pig population for some time. So far, six porcine parvoviruses have been described in pigs including the classical PPV1 commonly associated with reproductive failure in breeding herds and newly recognized PPV2, PPV3, PPV4, PPV5 and PPV6. An association of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and PPV1 (also known as the classical PPV) or the PPV2 with porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD) has been established. The...
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Introduction: Cooperation and joint technical knowledge of vets and farm managers (experts) are needed for effective pig farming. They have a real influence on production indices and on manifestation and predisposing factors of Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC). At the same time the ineffective farm management is responsible for imprudent overuse of antibiotics and economic losses. In this study we surveyed Hungarian, Czech and Slovak swine farm experts’ opinion...
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Introduction: Preweaning mortality of piglets remains a welfare as well as an economic concern in commercial swine herds. Post mortem examination can give insight in specific preventive measures. Materials and Methods: A thorough investigation of preweaning piglet mortality was conducted in 14 loose housed Norwegian piglet producing herds. All dead piglets from one batch of sows in each herd, in total 1216 piglets from 378 sows, were collected for...
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Introduction: Claw lesions in piglets are common. The neonatal claw is sensible for factors such as floor temperature and roughness, and possible residuals from disinfectants. Also selenium (Se) intoxication and ergot alkaloids have been related to claw lesions. The present case describes the occurrence of hemorrhagic claw lesions in neonatal piglets of a commercial farrow-to-finish pig herd in Flanders. Materials and Methods: The herd consisted of 270 JSR...
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Introduction: Vaccination against circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae ( M.hyo ) is done round weaning, which is one of the most stressful events in the pig’s life. Therefore, vaccination should not contribute to compromised well-being to this new situation. Acute phase proteins (APPs) have been proposed as suitable biomarkers to monitor stress, for detection of inflammation and for monitoring the well-being of pigs. The aims of this study...
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Introduction: Detection of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2) in individual Placental Umbilical Cord Serum (PUCS) samples has been shown to be comparable to other sample types (e.g., colostrum, pre-suckle serum, fetal tissue) to monitor PCV2 sow herd stability. However, testing of individual samples is costly, and a frequently used method to reduce testing costs is sample pooling. The purpose of this study was to estimate the impact of PUCS sample pooling on PCV2 polymerase chain...
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Introduction: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is widespread among swine population, causing reproductive disorders in sows and respiratory disease in pigs of all ages. In Greece, PRRSV was first detected in 1993. Today, PRRSV appears in an enzootic form, with elevations and declines of reproductive problems in breeding stock and increases of respiratory problems in growing-finishing pigs, causing economic losses. The aim of this study is to...
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Introduction: It is a classical but unproven hypothesis that pigs can serve as intermediate hosts between birds and humans in the generation of novel pandemic influenza viruses. Yet the single pandemic virus of likely swine origin is the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus (2009 pdm), a virus with genetic components of swine, human and avian origin (reassortant). The latter virus has become well adapted to pigs and humans and is now widespread in both species. Avian H9N2 viruses are...
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Introduction: Improvest® (Zoetis, also known as Improvac) is an anti-GnRF vaccine for the immunological castration of male pigs for the control of boar taint. However, there is limited information on the impact of timing of 2nd Improvest dose relative to the time of harvest on growth and carcass parameters. The objective of this study was to compare different times of the 2nd on the performance of immunological-castrates (IC) relative to physical-castrates (PC) and...
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Introduction: Tildipirosin (TD) is a semi-synthetic tylosin analog that has been approved for the treatment of respiratory diseases in pigs and cattle. This macrolide is rapidly absorbed and extensively distributed to the site of respiratory infection. Thus, lung, mean TD concentrations were characterized by a peak on day 1 and a slow decline until 17 days after administration. On the other hand, pigs can become asymptomatic carriers of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae ...
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Introduction: Porcine pleuropneumonia, caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App), is worldwide in its distribution and has caused severe economic losses in most pig-rearing countries. Epidemiologically, serotyping is the gold standard method, with App being classified into 15 different serovars based on the presence of surface carbohydrates, principally of the capsule. Variances in the virulence between serotypes have been reported. Virulence is strongly correlated...
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Introduction: Actinobacillus (A) suis is a small, gram-negative rod and an opportunistic pathogen that colonizes the upper respiratory tract in pigs. Outbreaks of disease occur in high health status herds or new herds. Infected pigs may have lesions related to septicemia and/or respiratory disease, such as hemorrhagic and necrotic pneumonia. Although acute septicemia with death occurs mainly in suckling and recently weaned pigs, it can be observed in growing,...
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Introduction: Monitoring lung lesions at slaughter can be an efficient tool in estimating the prevalence and severity of respiratory diseases in fattening pigs. Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) can be associated with chronic pleurisy. German pig production can be characterized by the existence of three different epidemiological regions: Northern Germany with high pig density; Eastern Germany with fewer but larger farms and in contrast to that Southern Germany with...
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Introduction: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) is the etiological agent of pleuropneumonia in pigs. Although an old bacterial pulmonary pathogen, it is still relevant in the 21st century and occurs worldwide. At present, 15 serotypes have been differentiated by antisera. The distribution of serotypes involved in clinical cases in different regions varies drastically. Moreover, strains of a certain serotype may typically be highly virulent in one region while...
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Introduction: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae ( A. pleuropneumoniae ) is among the most important pathogens in pork production. The pathogen can cause severe economic losses due to acute or chronic pleuropneumonia accompanied by decreased performance and increased mortality. Both, therapeutic treatment and vaccination have no sustainable effect on the control or spreading of infection and in addition, vaccines are not always available. Thus, our research targets...
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Introduction: Actinobacillus (A.) pleuropneumoniae is one of the main important respiratory tract pathogens in pork production. Because of no or limited cross protection between different serotypes the disease control by vaccination is mostly hampered. In consequence high levels of antibiotics are used for combating outbreaks and limit spreading of disease. As the responsible use of antibiotics is increasingly under official control, this study aimed to...
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Introduction: Pleuropneumonia caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (Ap) results in significant losses in the pig industry worldwide. Besides acute outbreaks of respiratory disease, deaths, increased antibiotic usage, condemned carcasses and lower animal welfare, there are also subclinical manifestations in an infected herd. The consequences may be a lower average daily weight gain (ADG), a higher feed conversion rate (FCR) and a high level of chronic...
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Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance testing of enterotoxic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is used as a diagnostic decision tool for selecting classes of antibiotics for treatment in pigs. Resistance testing is often done on isolates from faecal samples collected from diseased case pigs with the advantage of high certainty of analysing E. coli stains that has caused disease in the individual pig. The objective of this current study was to investigate pen-level...
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Introduction: Swine mycoplasma Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhp) and Mycoplasma hyorhinis (Mhr) are respiratory pathogens in pigs. They are associated with enzootic pneumonia (EP) and porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC) causing huge loses to the porcine industry. Currently commercial vaccines are available only against Mhp; however, their protection ability is not complete. Therefore, use of antimicrobials often becomes necessary to limit the disease in the...
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Introduction: Ante-mortem detection of Mycoplasma hyopnuemoniae (Mhp) can be difficult during the mid stages of an infection and in vaccinated populations. Commonly used methods to determine herd status such as nasal swabs, oral fluids, and oropharyngeal swabs, have shown low sensitivity and antibody testing is inconclusive in vaccinated populations. A more sensitive ante-mortem procedure is needed. The objective of this study was to compare ante-mortem...
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