Ever wonder if you really need to vaccinate your swine herd? Or, maybe if you can just get by with partial doses of vaccine? Well, the veterinarians who attended the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE got an important lesson from farmers in South America who found out just how important vaccine really is.
Dr. Edgar Diaz, a technical manager for BI, told the group how in Chile, farmers had years when they vaccinated against PCVAD. Then, because of economic issues, they stopped vaccinating. Now, they’ve started vaccinating again and are seeing much better survival rates in their swine herds.
“The reduction in mortality was around 60 percent, and the improvement in prime market pigs was around 30 percent.”
Dr. Diaz says the numbers were enough for the South American operation to go from operating in the red to a profitable company once again. He says data like this is invaluable to BI as it is able to show farmers black and white numbers on how a vaccine program, such as the ones his company offers, can make or break a producer’s bottom line.
It should also be noted that Dr. Diaz filled in at the last minute for his colleague, Gonzalo Castro, who was in Chile taking care of personal business after the tragic earthquake in that country.
You can hear more of my conversation with Dr. Diaz below.
In practically every discussion at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE, the talk has been about Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome … better known as PRRS.
It’s estimated that the disease costs pork producers $560 million a year in this country alone. And it’s why Dr. Randy Jones, a veterinarian with Livestock Veterinary Services, has told his fellow vets that the only real option is eliminating the disease altogether.
“If we can’t control it, we need to eradicate it.”
But Dr. Jones says that eradicating it is easier said than done. So in the meantime, producers have to minimize their risks.
“We can’t take [risk] away, but we can minimize it with immunizations and biosecurity.”
He says if they can get outbreaks of PRRS down to once every five years instead of once a year, farmers will save money. Dr. Jones says that eradication is probably still years away, underscoring the importance of good vaccines and good management practices. He adds that while the current PRRS vaccine isn’t a perfect tool, it is a tool that can help cut down on those outbreaks and, hopefully, preserve some bottom lines.
You can hear more of my conversation with Dr. Jones below.
His presentation was entitled “The quagmire of Enzootic Pneumonia: a view from the trenches.” But while that was a mouthful of a title looking at one disease, Dr. James Lowe’s real message to his fellow veterinarians was to take a more holistic approach when looking at the health strategy of a swine herd.
The visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Illinois and veterinarian with the Carthage Veterinary Service told attendees of the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE that they need to think about not just controlling or eliminating the disease-causing organisms, but how do they control overall disease in pigs.
“We really have got to think about that in a holistic approach. We have to think about the system and, really, what tools are available to us.”
He says when vets think about managing diseases, such as PRRS, they really need to use all of the tools in their tool bag, such as how gilts entering the farm are handled and how pigs leaving the farm are taken care of as well. He says the right vaccine strategy in concert with the pig flow in and out of the farm is that holistic approach.
“I don’t care about the agent. What I really want to know is how much disease we have, because that’s what costs us profit.”
He also encourages producers and veterinarians to look at the long-term, not just what they do today and tomorrow.
More of my conversation with Dr. Lowe is available below.
Since learning never seems to stop in the real world, an Iowa State University veterinary diagnostician has advised his fellow veterinarians to do their homework.
Dr. Kent Schwartz was one of the featured speakers at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE, and he told the group that diagnosing endemic diseases is a lot more work than epidemic diseases.
“There’s a lot of risk factors that contribute to it, so assessment requires diligence in diagnostic workup, but moreover, diligence in assessing production practices, parameters and outcomes.”
He says the most common answer to questions regarding biology is: “It depends.” You need to take into account production practices and all the other factors that might affect the health of the herd. Dr. Schwartz says veterinarians must be open to exploring holes in their dogma or in areas that need further investigation. He says that means getting better at field trials. And that’s where BIVI comes in. He says the company has some top-notch field research that has trustworthy results.
“I truly think BI’s a leader in that.”
Dr. Schwartz hopes the veterinarians that have participated in this BIVI Swine Health Seminar will be able to go back and think about how they think about things and challenge their own assumptions.
More of my conversation with Dr. Schwartz is below.
Researchers at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) have unveiled the results of a performance study of their swine vaccine products during BIVI’s Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE.
Dr. Keith Bretey, a professional service veterinarian at BI, told the group of veterinarians in attendance that the company’s CircoFLEX and PRRS vaccines were safe to be used concurrently and did not affect the performance of the swine herd.
“Because concurrent use is something we’re seeing a lot of out in the industry today, so we needed some evidence to say, ‘Is that a good idea or not?’ ”
Dr. Bretey says there was a significant improvement in using both of Inglevac’s CircoFLEX and PRSS vaccines.
“In the nursery, the non-vaccinated pigs performed the same as the vaccinated pigs. And what this tells us is, with very little pathogen presence in the nursery, the vaccines did no harm in the nursery.” He says lots of producers ask the question whether the vaccine will hurt the performance of the non-infected pigs. Dr. Bretey says they now have conclusive evidence the vaccines are very non-stressful and smooth to the pigs.
They also found the vaccines were helpful in several finisher performance categories.
You can hear more of my conversation with Dr. Bretey below.
A great opening session at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, with BIVI’s own Director of Technical Services, Dr. Tyler Holck, talking to attendees about FLEX vaccinology.
Dr. Holck talked about how Ingelvac’s CircoFLEX and MycoFLEX vaccines have nearly three years and 200 million doses of experience in U.S. swine herds. He says that has given the company lots of information on the vaccines.
“When we look at what we have for CircoFLEX, for example, we’ve got over 30 different trials conducted … either efficacy or safety.” And Holck says that can make for a mountain of data (even comparing it to the great mounds of snow Midwesterners have dealt with this winter!). He says BIVI’s goal is to simplify this vast amount of information for producers and veterinarians to make good, interpretive recommendations from that knowledge. Dr. Holck calls it distilling down to the simple side of complex.
“We do look at a lot of different things, but at the end of the day, we’re looking at what’s most economical for the producer.”
Dr. Holck says that really comes down to average daily gain and feed efficiency. He says, for example, a product like CircoFLEX can return on investment $4-5 for every one dollar a producer spends, so it’s too important not to monitor and have all the tools needed.
Hear more of my conversation with Dr. Holck below.
Just got in to Omaha just a few minutes ago to cover the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar. Should be a pretty interesting event with a host of veterinarians here to present and answer questions from the audience. I’ll have more details after things kick off a little later.
In the meantime, I’ll let you see my MOJO (even if you don’t know me that well ).
In my mobile journalism kit, I’ve got my trusty computer, along with the Zoom Handy Recorder H2 audio recorder and my backup emergency camera, the Canon Powershot SD630 (not sure how I can take a picture of the primary camera I’m using for this picture -the Nikon D200). Oh, and I forgot … I have a Flip camera I left in the bag but might use later.
Also, I just started tweeting, so look for me on Twitter @jdavisreporter.
Any way, I’m not quite as tech savvy as Chuck – who REALLY has his MOJO going. But we’ll be able to show you and let you hear from some of the good folks from BIVI who are sponsoring this seminar.
New things are coming to the cattle industry market from Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica. During a media breakfast at the recent Cattle Industry Convention I spoke with Craig Jones, Sr. Associate Director Cattle Services. He told me that the company has had great interaction with producers who have been visiting with them in their booth.
Their acquisition of products like Cydectin, Pyramid and others from Ft. Dodge Animal Health has enhanced their product lines but it has raised questions about who to get what product from. He thinks it has gone very smoothly though. At this convention their main goal was to get their name out and help producers understand the changes that have taken place.
The equine group at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica has produced a short video to help promote it’s new Vetera virus protection.
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI), announces the introduction of its Vetera™ West Nile virus family of vaccines, the only vaccines containing the North American Equine E159™ 2005 horse isolate representative of the virus that is most likely to infect horses today. The Vetera family of vaccines includes protection against West Nile virus; Eastern, Western and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis; and tetanus, in a variety of combinations.
Dr. Bob Rowland with Kansas State University (left) and Dr. Max Rodibaugh (center), a swine practitioner from Indiana, were the last two speakers at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica’s (BIVI) Area Regional Control of PRRS seminar last week in Chicago. They are pictured here during the final segment of the seminar featuring a roundtable discussion with all presenters.
Max, who serves as chairman of the PRRS Task Force of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, says building industry cooperation and support is critical to having a plan to control PRRS. “There has been a flurry of activity this summer and fall of different groups working on ideas for PRRS and we see a need to pull those together so we can keep that information in one place and disseminate it to the industry,” he says. The task force is considering a website specifically for PRRS control.
Bob Rowland is a professor at K State’s college of vet medicine and director of the PRRS CAP project which provides funding for PRRS control research through USDA. Ultimately, he says funding for PRRS control has to come from every segment of the industry. “I outlined kind of a NASCAR concept in which we bring together a lot of little legs on a caterpillar and use that to fund a large project,” Rowland says. Even though the swine industry is going through some very tough times right now, Rowland believes it is the ideal time to attack PRRS control as producers change to adapt to the economic situation.
Listen to or download back-to-back interviews with Drs. Rodibaugh and Rowland here:
Her name is Dr. Montserrat Torremorell, but most people just call her Dr. Montse (mont-see). She is an international expert in swine health at the University of Minnesota, joining the College of Veterinary Medicine earlier this year as the Al Leman Chair in Swine Medicine. So, she definitely knows her stuff when it comes to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, better known as PRRS.
She was on the program at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica’s (BIVI) Area Regional Control of PRRS seminar last week in Chicago, just prior to the start of the 2009 International PRRS Symposium. Her topic was building and executing herd plans within ARC projects.
“We do need herd plans in order to move forward on PRRS elimination,” Dr. Montse says. “A herd plan is putting in writing all the steps to take to clean up a farm or clean up an area. What we intend to do with that is to use those documents for communication purposes, to bring everybody on board, and at the same time to identify the limitations we may encounter in the future.”
Listen to or download my interview with Dr. Monste about PRRS control herd plans here:
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) has taken the lead in promoting game changing Area Regional Control (ARC) of PRRS, or porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome – which costs swine producers an estimated $560 million annually.
“The challenge is we really need to learn to work together,” says Dr. Laura Batista, Knowledge Manager for BIVI’s PRRS Area Solutions Team. “We’re really not competing at all. It has to be by the producers, the veterinarians, the local communities. We just want to help and complement.”
I talked with Laura about the effort during BIVI’s seminar about PRRS control in Chicago. Listen to or download that interview here:
Last year when we interviewed Dr. Bob Morrison with the University of Minnesota at the first PRRS control seminar sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) he said they were “just at the beginning of this process to create area and regional PRRS control.”
At the second seminar held last week, Morrison said, “We’re one year further ahead, one year more experience. Really it’s like a snowball moving down a hill in terms of momentum and knowledge.” Morrison reviewed the progress made in trying to control PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) since 2002 when the concept was first introduced.
Listen to or download my interview with Bob Morrison here:
“There is a renewed optimism in our ability to put together area regional control and hopefully eradication programs for this disease and it’s an optimism I haven’t seen in the 20 some years I have been working with this disease,” said Dr. Scott Dee with the Swine Disease Eradication Center in Minnesota. He says the Minnesota project has gotten off to a good start and there is interest from other states in expanding the effort.
Listen to or download my interview with Scott here:
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) is hosting its second annual “Area Regional Control of PRRS” seminar in Chicago today, prior to the start of the 2009 International PRRS Symposium. The theme this year is “From Ideas to Implementation” – actually getting the concept of area regional control (ARC) on the ground and running.
BIVI has taken an active role in the challenge of managing PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) for the benefit of the swine industry. I talked with BIVI’s Stephan Lange who told me the purpose of today’s seminar is “to get the swine industry together to talk about a ‘game changing’ approach to PRRS control, meaning you step away from individual farm control and really go into area control.”
I will be posting much more from the seminar after I get back in the office, since internet access is very slow here. Listen to or download my interview with Stephan here:
To get a complete overview of Boehringer Inghelheim Vetmedica Dr. Steve Peterson, DVM, Senior Manager, spoke to the media gathered in St. Joseph, MO recently.
Steve started out his presentation showing us a Flomax commercial as an example of how diverse the parent company is. BI is a family owned company that was started in 1885 and he calls the animal health side of the business “the tip of the dog’s tail.” It is the largest family owned pharmaceutical company in the world with sales last year of $17 Billion. On the human side of the business you might also recognize OTC products like Dulcolax and Zyrtec. With the acquisition of the Ft. Dodge Animal Health products he expects the animal health annual sales in the range of $1 Billion.
When it comes to the BI commitment to animal health Steve says the family owns animals and is very committed to this side of their business. He says that although the past year has been tough economically in some industries, BIVI has seen increases in its business and that “products have continued to grow beyond budget.”
It sure sounds like Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica did very well in the cattle market with their acquisition of a portion of Ft. Dodge Animal Health. To tell us about is Tim Bettington, Director Livestock Marketing. He says that although BIVI has been a long standing player in the cattle business it has only been in certain segments like the stocker and feedlot sector. But now he says they have great opportunities in the cow/calf and dairy sectors.
According to Tim, the stand out products will be Cydectin, Today and Tomorrow Mastitis Tubes and newer vaccines like Triangle. He says that although there is an integration of staff, customers will see the same look and feel of the products and deal with the same representatives they were dealing with.
As we’ve learned what the acquisition of a portion of Ft. Dodge Animal Health means to Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica we’ve heard about cattle, hogs, dairy but how about dogs and cats? You’ll find many of them at your average farm of course. But this is a huge area for the animal health business.
According to Matt Musselman, Executive Director, Pet Division, BIVI, they now have the great opportunity to combine the chronic care pharmaceuticals they had with the vaccines they’ve acquired. He says, “As we look at the combination of that portfolio we really like the ability to surround the veterinarian and the pet owner with a set of products and services that allows them to care for that dog and cat throughout their life.” Looking forward he says that the strong bond people have with their pets and the desire to keep their pet healthy is something BIVI can help with by providing “Value Through Innovation.”
The big product story he says is their launch of PROZINC for the treatment of feline diabetes. He points to it as an example of the type of novel chronic care products we’ll see from BIVI in the future.
When it comes to R&D at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Kevin Fowler is a go to guy. He’s seen here showing research labs at the BIVI facilities in St. Joseph, MO to a group of ag media.
The first thing that excites Kevin after BIVI acquired some of the Ft. Dodge Animal Health business is the ability to expand more into the dog and cat vaccine lines of products. He says this is a perfect fit and gives the company a great opportunity for future growth.
At the St. Joseph site they have 80 acres of research, manufacturing and engineering services. They have similar facilities at the Ft. Dodge, IA site they just acquired but it’s much larger at 320 acres.
Kevin thinks that one of the things that sets BIVI apart from other companies when bringing a product to market is their R&D group which is very team-oriented. He’s working on a 10 year plan to grow and integrate in an organized manner.
The head of the U.S. cattle business for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica is Colin Meyers. Colin says the main thing the acquisition of Ft. Dodge Animal Health means to the company is that they now have a much broader range of products to offer. One product in particular, Cydectin, moves them into the anti-parasitic market with a very well recognized name.
When it comes to the cattle market he says that in the vaccine area they’ll have about 20 percent of the market and increases in other areas as well. They’ll have a larger sales and veterinarian force to reach out to customers and a bigger distribution network. They’ve spent the last three weeks bringing in new staff, distributors and others to help enable a smooth transition for customers.
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
Ever wonder if you really need to vaccinate your swine herd? Or, maybe if you can just get by with partial doses of vaccine? Well, the veterinarians who attended the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE got an important lesson from farmers in South America who found out just how important vaccine really is.
).
New things are coming to the cattle industry market from Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica. During a media breakfast at the recent Cattle Industry Convention I spoke with Craig Jones, Sr. Associate Director Cattle Services. He told me that the company has had great interaction with producers who have been visiting with them in their booth.
Dr. Bob Rowland with Kansas State University (left) and Dr. Max Rodibaugh (center), a swine practitioner from Indiana, were the last two speakers at the 
Her name is Dr. Montserrat Torremorell, but most people just call her Dr. Montse (mont-see). She is an international expert in swine health at the University of Minnesota, joining the College of Veterinary Medicine earlier this year as the Al Leman Chair in Swine Medicine. So, she definitely knows her stuff when it comes to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, better known as PRRS.
Last year when we 
Optimism was the key word at the 
BIVI has taken an active role in the challenge of managing PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) for the benefit of the swine industry. I talked with BIVI’s Stephan Lange who told me the purpose of today’s seminar is “to get the swine industry together to talk about a ‘game changing’ approach to PRRS control, meaning you step away from individual farm control and really go into area control.”
To get a complete overview of 
It sure sounds like 
As we’ve learned what the acquisition of a portion of Ft. Dodge Animal Health means to 
When it comes to R&D at 
The head of the U.S. cattle business for 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
