From PPRS to PEDV, the health challenges facing swine farms today aren’t going away. Farm Journal’s PORK asked four veterinarians to share their perspectives, including what they would encourage pork producers to pay special attention to right now regarding swine health.
The experts include (top: Will Fombelle, DVM, Carthage Veterinary Service; bottom (l to r): Allison Knox, DVM, Walcott Veterinary Clinic; Ross Kiehne, DVM, Swine Vet Center; and Lauren Glowzenski, VMD, TriOak Foods.)
Q. What is one thing producers need to pay special attention to right now regarding swine health?
WF: Biosecurity always seems to be an area for attention. Historically we’ve seen diseases show up in our swine herds seasonally, however as we’ve seen in the last few years, viruses like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) have been showing up during the warm weather months. As we continue to see movement of this novel PRRS 1-4-4 lineage C, this virus has shown us that we need to continue emphasizing very tight biosecurity practices year-round.
LG: It cannot be overstated that we must focus biosecurity and individual site opportunities, now, for foreign animal disease (FAD) preparedness. African swine fever (ASF) is an absolute game-changer if (or when) it is detected in the U.S. and it is ultimately the producer who will bear the greatest burden. The more you can do now to close biosecurity gaps that exist and ensure protocols are being executed, every day, every time, is absolutely critical. ASF can present like other common diseases in swine, such as PRRS, in the early stages and is a slow moving disease within a population where it can take weeks before the disease is detected. This means we may not know we have it in the country for some time and risks moving the disease around the nation efficiently if we aren’t executing on basic biosecurity proactively. There is no better time than now to address site-specific biosecurity concerns to protect your assets and investment. Those who can protect their business are the ones who will withstand a FAD outbreak.
RK: It is easy to say we need to worry about PRRS. Producers certainly need to pay attention to diseases that cause death loss, however with corn prices, I believe the focus needs to be on the diseases that are always present and costing the farm on average daily gain and feed conversion. Those diseases could be Ileitis, Mycoplasma, Rotavirus, E. coli and so on. It would be beneficial to clean those diseases up and help with feed cost.
AK: Growing up, I remember my parents telling me “you can’t control what other people do, you can only control yourself and your response to their actions.” While it’s good life advice, it’s even better when applied to biosecurity practices. Especially in hog dense areas, the health status of neighboring farms can absolutely impact your pigs’ health. While we can’t control what our neighbors do, we can control the biosecurity measures we take with our own barns and equipment. With summer months ahead, we used to be able to expect lower disease challenges. But as the last couple years have shown us with the introduction of PRRS 1-4-4 lineage C, resistant hemolytic E.coli strains, and what seems to be a never-ending flu season, summer isn’t a guarantee of better health. Summer is also the peak season of local and state fair livestock shows, which comes with frequent pig movements and commingling of pigs from farms across the country and are the perfect conditions to create widespread disease challenges. Heading into summer, now is a great time to review your current biosecurity practices with your veterinarian and ask their opinion on what else you can do to mitigate risk.
Q. What is the biggest challenge facing veterinarians today?
WF: We continue to see the size of sow herds increase for the efficiency of both sow farm and downstream finishing production. While this increase in herd size is very beneficial to production, we are seeing the success rate of disease eliminations, especially PRRS decrease. The larger the herd, the more places for disease to hide out. On another front, we are seeing the swine industry continue to expand in geography to spread the herds out for biosecurity purposes. With this shift of geography comes the need for better communication between producers and veterinarians that simply can’t visit these sites quite as frequently due to the distance. The evolution of video calling has greatly improved this, however seeing pigs in real time is always more beneficial.
LG: Labor, for multiple reasons. Although this does not sound like a health concern, apart from simply finding people to care for the pigs on a day-to-day basis, it is becoming more obvious as we are tight on labor that there is quite a bit of crossover of people between producers that is resulting in more disease breaks and pathogen spread in the swine industry. Whether it is the daily caretaker, vaccination teams, load-out crews or otherwise, the swine industry is becoming more reliant on contracted labor, which presents a challenge to influence and control when it is not your direct employee. Between contracted labor and personnel moonlighting, there is a lot of movement between sites that we aren’t even aware of. This emphasizes the importance of individual on-site biosecurity, ensuring there are stop gaps in place to prevent disease from literally walking into the facility, be it on persons, equipment or supplies moving site-to-site.
RK: The data. We have multiple, complex systems with different selling strategies, sow farm strategies, weaning strategies, etc. I believe the most difficult part is learning about them and staying current so we can do the right thing for each flow and/or farm to optimize the correct target area for that farmer or group of pigs.
AK: Like most industries today, including the swine industry, veterinarians are short-staffed. With only so many hours in a week, it can be difficult to balance crucial biosecurity downtime with scheduling necessary herd health visits. While veterinary groups such as the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) work hard to recruit new veterinarians to the profession, the vast majority of new grads are headed into companion animal medicine, where the only pigs they are likely to encounter are of the potbelly or teacup varieties. The lack of new grads in the profession is compounded with the retirement of senior swine veterinarians, which further contributes to the short staffing issues. The time constraints faced currently by practicing vets and the lack of new blood in the profession will continue to be a challenge moving forward. Both the veterinary and the swine industry will have to adapt, and further development of technologies and use of telemedicine will likely be a component of this. In the meantime, ensure you have an established VCPR (veterinary-client-patient relationship) with your veterinarian, and work with them on a herd health plan including vaccines, medication protocols, nutrition and biosecurity measures. This will help to ensure your veterinarian is best able to utilize the time they have to help you and are more available when a major health challenge occurs.
Q. What swine disease is causing the greatest problems for producers in your area and why?
WF: In the last 12 months or so, we have seen a re-emergence of Hemolytic E.coli. For the first five or six years of my career, we never really saw this disease. However, when we did, we would normally see in specific gilt flows or genetic systems. Now, we are seeing across the genetic companies, gilt flows and production systems. This disease, especially the F-18, can show up very quickly and drive large amounts of nursery pig mortality over the course of a week or so. This disease is especially frustrating as this disease can show up randomly in a pig flow and can be hard to forecast.
LG: PRRS continues to be the primary issue across the industry and the prevalence is not exclusive to a specific region. It impacts and is a threat to all of us. It is the lateral introductions to the finishers that has been most concerning, where in some cases, we are seeing pigs on the finishing floor go through multiple PRRS introductions in the same turn, with different strains, causing several bumps in mortality and morbidity along the way. In sow farms, PRRS elimination plans are taking longer to clear the virus, with extended herd closures in excess of one year, as opposed to historical, where the virus could be predictably eliminated in a fraction of the time. Virulence also appears to be greater than historical, as the virus continues to evolve, with certain strains resulting in tremendous mortality. In the past, many would consider PRRS pressure to be more seasonal, but in my experience, PRRS is a year-round threat, with spring and summer breaks being more common in both sow herds and in growing hogs. First and foremost, PRRS is the most limiting disease to production in the U.S.
RK: PRRS is still the No.1 disease. This year has been a devastating year in terms of causing severe outcomes/issues impacted by this disease. We have evaluated biosecurity at the very least. This PRRS attacks the sow farm and also has an incredible ability due to the virus load to kill several pigs in the nursery as well. It is a different beast. Just attending to the sow farm is not enough. We have clients who have done a great job evaluating ways to keep it out and acknowledging that we can’t be part of moving it around in wean-to-finish population. As well, we must practice good biocontainment on positive sites to make sure not to spread to other farms.
AK: While PRRS is always on my radar, my most recent challenges have been with PED. Breaking with PED takes such a toll on farm production, finances and caretaker morale. In my two most recent sow farm PED breaks, both occurred within a week after manure pits had been pumped. It’s hard to keep caretakers motivated and invested in their own biosecurity practices when failures in the pumping equipment or virus aerosolized from the pits during agitation can so easily introduce the virus. Orchestrating a successful PED cleanup protocol takes a lot of effort and coordination between the vet team, farm managers and caretakers. But with each break, we get a little smarter and a little better at our recovery procedures. We’ve started incorporating PED vaccine usage into our pre-farrow vaccination plan in the weeks subsequent to the break. This seems to bolster the immunity achieved by whole herd feedback and helps the first few groups of farrowed pigs to perform a little better during PED recovery.
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