By Melissa Hensch, DVM, Director of Health and Animal Care, The Maschhoffs
Enteric scours continue to be a topic of high concern in the U.S. pork industry. It impacted both farrowing house and nursery pig performance at The Maschhoffs over the past year. Because of this, The Maschhoffs health team has investigated possible causes of piglet and growing pig scours, highlighting the need for a more holistic approach to address enteric challenges in pigs beyond a pathogen and antimicrobial treatment strategy.
This approach led to determining multifactorial, complex causes and solutions. Rather than focus on this large list of pathogens and causes identified, I want to focus on one specific production practice that has had a significant impact on enteric health.
Although the bulk of enteric scours has often been observed in the nursery-age pig, it is widely known that pig gut health starts much sooner than that. In the farrowing house, whitewashing was identified as a potential solution to improve on farrowing house sanitation and address piglet gut health at an early stage. Whitewashing is the practice of hydrating and slaking a lime solution, then using that solution to cover farrowing house surfaces much like the application of a disinfectant.
There are unique hurdles to using whitewash, including specific equipment for mixing and application, as well as safety concerns due to the caustic nature of the product. Alternatively, there are also many potential positives of the practice, including visual affirmation of crate coverage, drying properties and a highly basic nature that may give it the ability to reduce pathogens that are different from the spectrum of other types of commonly used disinfectants. One of those pathogens considered was Isospora suis, which causes coccidiosis in piglets.
In order to understand whitewash further, The Maschhoffs health team completed a study comparing Whitewash to the system’s most often used farrowing house disinfectant. This study identified a significant reduction in the prevalence of piglet scours at day three of age, in addition to a trend towards improved pre-wean mortality in comparison to the disinfectant.
Safety precautions used throughout the study were required personal protective equipment (PPE), including safety glasses, safety-toed boots, chemical goggles, rain suit and chemical-resistant gloves), as well as ensuring the room dried completely.
The production system has since employed whitewashing as a tool systemwide and increased use of this hygiene practice for farms and flows with gut health challenges. This change in hygiene practice doesn’t address all multifactorial causes of enteric issues, so utilizing other solutions such as all-in, all-out by room and increasing drying time between loading rooms for farrowing house management may also be beneficial.
Although there are many other factors to address when it comes to working through a holistic approach to managing pig gut health, whitewashing has been a new, unique solution The Maschhoffs have used to address gut health challenges. The team will continue to explore more solutions beyond the bugs and drugs, such as nutrition, sanitation and immune development both at the sow and piglet level.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Lawsonia: It’s Time for a Gut Check
Advances in Sampling Offer Greater Success in Enteric Disease Control
