This year, the Swine Health Information Center began including nationwide monitoring for Escherichia coli (E. coli) in its Swine Disease Reporting System (SDRS) monthly domestic summary. This SDRS database is the largest publicly available source of pig health information, reporting diagnostic data for all phases of development, and right now tracks nine domestic pathogens — including E. coli, swine influenza A and more.
Although the E. coli bacterium can cause enteric challenges in all ages of swine, it disproportionately lands on newborn and newly weaned pigs, where infection can create notable economic losses in higher mortality and costs for treatment. E. coli is certainly not new among pigs, but it tends to ebb and flow over time — right now, infections happen to be in a peak trend, including post-weaning colibacillosis.
Of course, E. coli is just one of a host of potential pathogens that can cause suckling-pig diarrhea in a producer’s barn — this laundry list also includes the likes of rotavirus, salmonella, coccidia, porcine sapovirus and Clostridium perfringens. Moreover, they could be dealing with both a primary virus or bacterium and one or more tagalong pathogens contributing to the disease complex.
Diagnosing the Illness
For this reason, I recommend producers submit both fecal swabs and tissue samples — such as intestinal — for laboratory testing. A thorough diagnostic allows the pathologist to determine which bacteria and/or viruses are present at the cellular level in the tissue since a fecal swab is good for capturing what pathogens are present but not for pinpointing which is causing the diarrhea. This helps guide your veterinarian on treatment and control strategies too.
I find that producers tend to respond to advice on seeking diagnostics depending on their economic situation, value of the pigs involved and severity of the problem. For instance, if only 5-10 percent of their litters are experiencing diarrhea at a few days old, scour for a couple days then respond to initial treatment well, that producer is not likely to pursue the above level of diagnostic testing. If, however, half or more of their litters have diarrhea that helps slow body condition gain and their sows stop milking because piglets are not suckling, this is a big potential preweaning mortality problem — and they are more likely to invest in such diagnostics.
Getting those test results may be faster than you think. Depending on shipping and testing procedures, a producer could get initial PCR (polymerase chain reaction) results within 1-2 days and cultured results in less than a week.
Another factor in how a producer responds may depend on how many other preventive and environmental strategies they’ve implemented. If they are already doing a good job with sanitation and environment, such as heat lamp management and day-one care, and a diarrhea problem that crops up doesn’t resolve quickly, they may feel the need to go further to determine the specific primary pathogen.
Neonatal Support Strategies
Piglet immunity goes all the way back to acclimation of the replacement or incoming gilt before she conceives the first time. Gilts should be exposed to microbial and other “bugs” endemic to the sow barn before pregnancy so they can begin building specific immunity to pass to offspring.
The second phase of this takes place pre-farrowing, through vaccines and controlled exposure to live viral pathogens, or feedback, to stimulate additional immunity in the sow’s colostrum. Exposing a pre-farrowing sow to bacteria isn’t typically a wise feedback strategy, since those pathogens could just overload her system and multiply on the newborns.
Farrowing room sanitation also plays an important role in piglet health from the start. The best way to clean the room is to completely empty it of animals — no half-stocked while washing the other half! — and to fully wash all surfaces. This means under mats and beneath removable dividers. A well-trained power-washer who knows how and where to wield the nozzle to fully clean a room is worth their weight in gold.
Use hot water and detergent or degreaser to remove all organic material and biofilm, and let disinfectants work for the full time directed for them to coat surfaces. Finally, if it is possible to completely dry the room with a fan and/or heaters before flowing in new sows, cutting down on moisture is best for their health and the newborn piglets’.
An immunized, healthy sow and clean farrowing room are a great start to productive piglets. Next, be sure to provide first-day care in the form of getting those newborns warm and dry, and suckling, as quickly as possible. Too often, producers will focus on assisting the sow to the detriment of not providing enough support to her piglets through udder training or split-suckling — these help ensure each one ends up with a full tummy of critical colostrum in their first hours.
Speaking of which: While a full stomach is important, don’t forget that it’s their own mother’s colostrum that best boosts a piglet’s immune system. Although immediate post-birth cross-fostering is not as prevalent as it once was, it is still used — but delay if possible. Each sow’s first colostrum is aligned to provide her piglets with the specific antibodies they need to begin assembling their post-birth immunity.
Older-Pig E. Coli Care
As mentioned earlier, suckling swine aren’t the only ones that can contract E. coli. If any in your herd suffer related diarrhea, the first thing is to target antibiotic treatment to affected animals. There are also diet strategies you can try to induce them to eat more and bind the contents of their digestive system to produce a more solid waste, such as acidification of feed and/or water to stimulate appetite.
Be certain to provide proper environmental care, even for older pigs. If the barn is cool, warm it by 3-5 degrees and see if that has a positive impact before deciding whether to add another incremental change in temperature, depending on zone heating and pig symptoms.
While biosecurity measures are critical to blocking the worst of pathogens, the fact is that every barn is likely to experience the very common E. coli at some point — and having supportive care measures and correct antibiotic use is the best way to reduce potential losses at every life stage.
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