Disease incidence in Swedish pigs

Antimicrobial usage is comparably low in Swedish pig production, but previous studies have shown that there is room for improvement in some herds especially for suckling piglets. The aim of this study was to investigate for which diseases treatments were most commonly performed in different age groups and what antimicrobials were used.

Treatment records for 3 batches were collected from 9 pig herds, which included 1,095 sows, 15,346 suckling piglets, 12,570 weaning piglets and 9,919 fattening pigs. Treatments including antimicrobial substance and total volume were recorded by disease symptoms and age group.

The most common cause of treatment for suckling piglets was arthritis (58.1% of treatments), followed by diarrhea (30.5%), for which 17.2 and 9.1% of the piglets were treated, respectively. In weaners, diarrhea was most common (67.7% of treatments) followed by arthritis (15.0%). However, in total, only 4.9 and 1.1% of the weaners were treated for these symptoms. Arthritis was the dominating cause of treatment in fatteners, (58.3%) for which 1.6% were treated. For lactating sows, MMA was most common (50.8% of treatments), followed by mastitis (40.6% of treatments), corresponding to 22.1 and 17.6% of sows treated for these symptoms. Trimethoprim sulphonamide (TS) (40.4%), amoxicillin (28.4%) and neomycin (22.6%), were used for treatment of diarrhea in suckling piglets. For treatments of arthritis, benzylpenicillin (PC) dominated (86.4% of treatments). Diarrhea in weaning pigs was treated with colistin (46.0%), TS (25.8%) and tylosin (12.9%). PC was mainly used for treating arthritis in fatteners (78.4%) whereas TS (62.5%) or tiamulin (37.5%) was used for diarrhea. In sows, MMA was treated with TS (74.2%) or PC (25.8%) and mastitis with PC (99%).

In the studied population of pigs, treatments were common only for suckling piglets and lactating sows, where arthritis and diarrhea, and MMA and mastitis, were the most common causes for antimicrobial treatments. To reduce antimicrobial use and improve health in these herds, special attention should be paid to disease preventive measures during the farrowing and suckling period. The frequent use of colistin to treat diarrhea in weaners needs to be addressed in particular due to the recent finding of plasmid-mediated polymyxin resistance.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared.