Comparing PCV2 piglet vaccines on several Dutch farms

Porcine circovirus (associated) diseases (PCV(A)D) are one of the main health problems in modern porcine industry. The disease has become endemic, ubiquitous and can nowadays be seen with milder clinical signs than in the past, from severe to unapparent, from the weaning age to the finisher stage and in the gilts and sows. Several commercial PCV2 vaccines are used in piglets in production to reduce or eliminate the clinical problems. The present paper reports a large field trial on 8 farms comparing the results from different piglet vaccines against PCV2.

On 8 different Dutch farms PCVD was controlled in the piglets with several different strategies. Overall 3 different commercial vaccines were used. On the 8 farms pre-Circovac (PC) data were compared with Circovac (CV) data, in most cases both periods for 1 year, depending on the farm data available. 5 farms used Circoflex, 2 farms Suvaxyn PCV and 1 farm Porcilis PCV. CIRCOVAC® (Merial, Lyon, France) was introduced in the piglet herds at or around weaning, 0.5 mL by intramuscular (IM) injection.

Technical data from the finishers were collected and compared, from 10 WOA, 25 kg till 117 kg live weight: average daily weight gain (Corrected Daily Growth), mortality and feed conversion (Energy Value conversion). The economical improvements were calculated on the basis of the Dutch economical values “Waarderingsnormen vleesvarkens 2013” of the Agricultural University of Wageningen.

The number of sows on the 8 farms ranged from 105 – 900 sows, in total 4.180 sows, on average 523.

From these farms in total 108.543 piglets were followed in time, 51.726 in PC and 56.817 in CV, with on average 5.747 piglets in the PC and 6.313 piglets in the CV groups.

Overall the average Corrected Daily Growth (25 till 117 kg) of the PC group was 794 ± 36 g/d and from the CV group 819 ± 43 g/d (p = 0.066). Energy Value Conversion was respectively 2.689 ± 0.097 and 2.674 ± 0.077 (p = 0.44). Mortality was respectively 2.85 ± 1.24 % and 2.14 ± 0.80 % (p = 0.06). The average financial improvement of these 8 farms was calculated on € 17.797,-.

In this large field trial with 8 farrow-to-finish sow farms the overall technical data improved in the finishing pigs when changing from another commercial PCV2 piglet vaccine to Circovac 0.5 mL IM. The Corrected Daily Growth increased, the Energy Value Conversion decreased, both significantly.

The Mortality was reduced, non-significantly. This resulted in an average economic improvement of € 17.797,- per farm as a result of the use of Circovac vaccination in piglets.

Disclosure of Interest: A. Verhaegen Conflict with: Merial B.V., V. Dekens Conflict with: Merial B.V., T. Meyns Conflict with: Merial N.V., H. Smits Conflict with: Merial B.V.