Preventive Medicine Programs in Pigs Notes

Pigs are farmed worldwide, offering diverse career opportunities in technical, management, welfare, economics, nutrition, engineering, and public health.
Veterinary services play a crucial role in pig production, preventative medicine, and consulting.
Monitoring disease, reproductive performance, and abattoir parameters are integral to preventative health management.

The number of pig producers is decreasing, while herd sizes are increasing, leading to concentration and mergers.
Challenges include low prices, high feed grain prices, water availability, environmental constraints, African Swine Fever (ASF), and JEV.

Breeding/Mating: Occurs approximately 1 week after weaning, involving natural mating or artificial insemination.
Gestation: Lasts about 16 weeks, with sows housed in stalls or pens.
Lactation: 3-5 weeks.
Weaner: 3-10 weeks.
Grower/Finisher: 10-25 weeks.

Common breeds include Large White, Landrace, and Duroc.
Crossbreeding strategies include two-breed rotational cross and three-breed rotational/terminal crosses to optimize traits.

Addresses issues such as high pork production costs, poor reproductive performance (pigs weaned/sow/year), and poor growth performance (growth rate, mortality, feed efficiency).
Involves disease surveillance, biosecurity, production monitoring, medication strategies, vaccination, welfare, environmental and nutritional management, and food safety.

Focuses on herd profitability, volume of meat produced, cost of production, breeding and growing herd efficiency, health, welfare, nutrition, management, genetics, and environment.
Monitors performance and productivity via regular farm visits, performance targets and comparing potential pathogens.

Involves piggery and abattoir inspections, clinical observation, record analysis, environmental assessment, necropsies, and sample collection.
Important diseases to monitor include JEV (zoonotic) and FMD/ASF (foreign animal diseases).

Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV): Causes stillbirths, weak piglets, reproductive losses, and encephalitis (rarely) in pigs; encephalitis in humans.
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD): Causes foot lesions, lameness, detachment of the claw horn, and vesicles; outbreaks common in Asia, Middle East, South America, and Africa.
African Swine Fever (ASF): No vaccine; causes high fever, loss of appetite, unexpected deaths, skin blotching, and blue extremities; affects only pigs.

Swill feeding is offering food waste to pigs and it's prohibited.
Prohibited pig feed includes material of mammal origin or contact with mammalian material.
Diseases associated with swill feeding include FMD, ASF, CSF, and Hepatitis E virus.

Common causes include Non-Haemolytic E. coli, Coccidia (Isospora suis), and Haemolytic E. coli.
Colibacillosis is characterized by fluid-filled small intestine and is caused by hygiene, temperature and sow immunity issues.
Treatment of NHEC includes electrolytes, dextrose, warmth, and antibiotics (e.g., Trimethoprim, Amoxycillin, Neomycin, Apramycin, Sulphadimidine).
Prevention includes vaccination with killed vaccine.

Breeder Herd: Vaccinate gilts and boars at selection (120-160d) and booster 4 weeks later for Erysipelas, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, E. coli. Vaccinate 3 weeks before farrowing (gilts and sows) for Erysipelas, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, and E. coli. Vaccinate boars every 6 months for Erysipelas, parvovirus, and Leptospirosis.
Grower Herd: Vaccinations target respiratory diseases (Mycoplasma, APP, Haemophilus), gastrointestinal diseases (Colibacillosis, Lawsonia), and multiple clinical syndromes (PCV2).

Piglets require iron supplementation due to low liver stores and insufficient iron in sow’s milk.
Administer iron dextran (150-200mg) via IM injection on day 1-3 of life.
Toxicosis can occur, especially with concurrent Vitamin E deficiency.

Includes inspection for conditions like sarcoptic mange. Lung scoring is also performed to identify issues like Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae.