I asked Reid to provide a wrapup viewpoint about how this year’s seminar went. He says this year’s program came together really well. The seminar keeps growing each year and this year was no different. BIVI supplies a list of speakers that are involved in area control projects, several of whom you’ve heard from here on AgWired. Reid says that as new tools and studies are developed on PRRS this seminar becomes more important to producers. The value for both the participants and BIVI is the interaction and sharing of information.

You can listen to my interview with Reid here: Reid Phillips Interview

2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

The message he had included the need to talk individually with producers in the project area. That one on one approach works well since he’s only had one producer who didn’t want to cooperate in the program. So besides having full participation if possible he says the next crucial thing is testing and this is a challenge. He says they’re doing surveillance testing but not as often as “we need to, to know everything.” He also spoke about there being too much pig movement within the area project he’s been involved with. He believes this is causing a lot of the problems they’ve been having.

You can listen to my interview with Jim here: Dr. Jim Branstad Interview

2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

Jim says that he spends a lot of time dealing with PRRS and this program allows him time to visit with colleagues and share information. He’s involved with several regional control projects and says this ability to share information is very valuable. He says these projects are “a tough row to hoe.” One of the things he’s been seeing is that the small well-defined projects with good producer participation are having some success. There’s that need for participation coming up again in one of my interviews. Jim says that sometimes it’s not so much a science project as much as a “persuasion” project to get producers to participate.

You can listen to my interview with Jim here: Jim Lowe Interview

2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

He says they looked at a Minnesota project which they felt best exemplified success at elimination of the disease and asked the question, “What was the value of the productivity improvements in that county after they successfully eliminated the virus there?” So they made a comparison between having the virus eliminated and projecting out to 2018, to if the area had continued in that time period without having the virus eliminated. The difference was positive $4.2 million to the county, using a net present value analysis, if they completed the project. That sounds like real value for going to the effort of getting rid of this disease!

You can listen to my interview with Derold here: Dr. Derold Holtkamp Interview

2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

Noel says the PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) project has been going on for about two years and early on they were feeling pretty good about it. However, as many have noticed, the fall season presents challenges. He says the question being dealt with now is manure pumping at that time of year. As he puts it, “we’re chilling pigs and stressing them so maybe there’s something that happens there.” So they’re taking a look at that like other projects in other areas are also doing. He also mentions that participation in the area has to be one hundred percent which is a constant struggle. Looking ahead he says that using filters may be the way to go.

You can listen to my interview with Noel here: Dr. Noel Garbes Interview

2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

I’m collecting photos and interviews. The interview will be posted during the next week since I’ve almost completely lost my voice. I’ll have to edit myself back in so you can understand me better. Hate it when this happens. Actually it has never happened like this before!

So, here’s where you can find photos from this event: 2011 Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar Photo Album

“It’s a state of the art facility,” said Dr. Phil Hayes, BIVI Executive Director for Biologicals Development. “To demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of new vaccines, we must start with pigs that are healthy.”

To keep the research pigs healthy, Phil says there is very limited access – which is why the dedication ceremony this week was held at the Ridge Golf Clubhouse down the road. “Shower in, shower out. The researchers who enter the facility gown as if they were entering a surgical operating room,” Phil explains. “The air that enters the facility is sterile-filtered. Anything that could interfere with the health of the pigs is excluded.”

Listen to my interview with Phil Hayes here. Dr. Phil Hayes at BIVI research facility dedication

BIVI Sioux Center Facility Dedication Photos

“The state is very proud to partner with a quality company like Boehringer Ingelheim,” said Governor Branstad. “We are an agricultural state and we’re proud to be an agricultural state. I was governor before back in the 80s when agriculture was going through what we called the farm crisis and agriculture was the weakest part of the economy – today it’s the strongest.”

I got to do a quick interview with the governor at the dedication where I also asked about his reaction to the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk trophy settlement – which he is pleased with.

Listen to my interview with Governor Branstad here. Governor Terry Branstad at BIVI research facility dedication

Watch the ribbon cutting below and see photos from the dedication here.

The big barefoot kid in this photo surrounded by smaller kids is BIVI’s Dan “The Man” Johnson, who is organizer of this great annual event on the beach in North Carolina that combines just the right amount of work and play. The producers spend a day getting swine health and industry updates on Friday and then get family activity time on Saturday. “We want to be more than a vendor to our customers,” Dan says. “We know that their families are important to our producers, so they are important to us as well.”

This year’s meeting had a pirate theme and concluded with a really fun and funny pirate magic show put on by No Sleeves Magic. It was great fun and the photos are proof!

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

At the BIVI Swine Health Seminar in North Carolina last week, Dr. Greg Cline gave an update on the acceptance of the 3-way vaccine to combat Porcine Circovirus, Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae AND PRRS. “The acceptance and reaction has been phenomenal,” Greg says. “It delivers in a lot of areas and we look for the acceptance to continue to accelerate as time goes by.”

The 3FLEX product is the first 3-way combination approved by the USDA to be mixed and administered as a single shot for pigs three weeks of age or older, combining BIVI’s Ingelvac CircoFLEX® 1, Ingelvac MycoFLEX® 2 and Ingelvac® PRRS MLV 3 in one 2 mL shot. “it was a vision by Boehringer-Ingelheim’s a very convenient vaccine in a one-dose, small dose delivery and have it still be convenient, safe and effective,” Greg said, calling it a winning team for hog producers. Chuck interviewed Greg last September when 3FLEX was first introduced.

Listen to my interview with Greg here: Dr. Greg Cline at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

The trial results were presented at last week’s Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar in North Carolina by Dr. Joel Nerem of Pipestone Vet Clinic. “What we found was that vaccinated pigs shed virus for fewer days and for a shorter duration of time than the vaccinated control pigs,” he said.

Why is that important in the fight against Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS)? “It is important when we are working on maintaining a high health status for a particular region,” Joel explained. “One of the things our group is looking at, is in the control of PRRS, can we establish regions that are free of the virus and what technologies can we utilize to maintain those PRRS-free regions?”

Listen to my interview with Joel here: Dr. Joel Nerem at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

Dr. Erin Strait with Iowa State University talked about getting the most out of diagnostics for M. hyopneumoniae. “The biggest issue I usually see is over-interpretation of diagnostics and not understanding that those diagnostics are often skewed towards false negative,” she said. “Mycoplasma hyopneumonia in live pigs can be pretty hard to detect and the diagnostics tend to be a lagging indicator. Determining prevalence in the nursery stage can be very challenging.”

Listen to my interview with Erin here: Dr. Erin Strait at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

Dr. Rick Tubbs with Green River Swine Consultants is a practicing vet who serves Tosh Farms, a family-owned hog operation in Tennessee. He presented information on the impact of the modified live PRRS virus vaccine for control of PRRS in an endemically infected continuous flow finish site. He described how they ended up with a PCV2 problem which they dealt with by depopulating finisher sites, moving to a wean-to-finish operation, changing wean age and vaccinating all pigs for PCV2.

“This particular virus disease is a constantly evolving challenge and we have to adapt to meet the challenge,” Rick says. “The PCV2 vaccine is a wonderful product. It’s been one of those home runs in the industry.”

Listen to my interview with Rick here: Dr. Rick Tubbs at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

Dr. Hurt says government policies like biofuels and even food stamps were built upon a “psychology of surplus” to increase prices. “We continue to see a psychology of surplus in our policy from Washington, when it turns out we are in a period of shortage of basic food ingredients,” he said.

Hurt says that corn for ethanol has been a demand shock for the market since 2005, but another big demand shock has been soybeans to China. “If you put it on acres of land, back in 2005 we were using about 16 million acres for those two demands,” he said. “By the time we got to the 2010 crop, that was 46 million acres – almost a tripling of the acreage.”

The hog industry has finally reduced herds enough to adjust to the higher feed prices, which has increased consumer prices for pork and that has led to stagnated growth for domestic consumption. However, Hurt says exports are increasing tremendously and now make up 20% of production, with big demand coming from Mexico and China in particular.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Hurt here: Dr. Chris Hurt at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

If you are in the livestock industry, unless you live in a cave, you have heard of Dr. Grandin. In fact, a decent portion of the general public now knows this amazing woman, thanks to the HBO movie starring Claire Danes which celebrates Temple’s triumph over autism. That movie and her best-selling books have allowed her to get out and talk to the general public about animal welfare issues, something she considers to be very important for the livestock industry to do.

Temple spoke this morning to the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar in North Carolina. One of her suggestions about handling pigs humanely and effectively is to walk the pens. “Pigs are visual animals,” she explains. “Walk the pens and teach them to follow you.”

Dr. Grandin has a new book on animal welfare for the industry, called “Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach.” Buy it on Amazon.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Grandin here: Dr. Temple Grandin at BIVI Swine Health Seminar

Check out photos from the BIVI Swine Health Seminar.

Controlling enteric diseases caused by ileitis and Salmonella can help both keep food safe and pork producer profits growing. “Enteric diseases are sometimes below the threshold of detection,” said Kent Schwartz, DVM with Iowa State University. “Feed is the largest input into the cost of production and anything that comprises intestinal function has a propensity to cost money and among many other factors are infectious diseases.”

Dr. Schwartz recommends that producers keep good records on animals and determine whether they are achieving their potential. “Lawsonia and Salmonella are very common infections,” he said. “These agents can cause disease that are not necessarily visual but can impact feed to gain and we do have for those two agents very effective vaccines that can take them out of the equation.”

Listen to or download an interview with Dr. Schwartz here: Dr. Kent Schwartz

Since control of Salmonella is a food safety concern, BIVI senior veterinarian John Kolb says it is is something producers can and should address. “Salmonella’s always going to be there,” he said. “One more thing that we can do to reduce the amount of Salmonella in the pig itself, is use vaccination.”

Dr. Kolb recommends producers get their vet involved and determine when exposure to Salmonella starts and make sure the vaccine gets in ahead of it.

Listen to or download an interview with Dr. Kolb here: John Kolb with BIVI

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

This I learned more about from Tim Bettington, BIVI’s Executive Director of the Swine Division who told me that as an animal health company, PRDC is a critical component of their business because it is one the biggest challenges they face in the swine industry. That is what drove them to create their 3FLEX product, which addresses three of the four key critical pathogens that comprise PRDC (Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex): circa virus, mycoplasma, PRRS and influenza. 3FLEX consists of three vaccines: Ingelvac CircoFLEX®, Ingelvac MycoFLEX® and Ingelvac® PRRS MLV in one 2 mL shot.

Bettington said at this time 3FLEX doesn’t address the flu, but that is an area of opportunity that they are working on.

The FLEX concept has dual meaning for the industry. The speakers all noted that oftentimes when a pig contracts one disease, it becomes more susceptible to others. This vaccine helps to address that issue. Second, each of the veterinarians mentioned that they have used the 3FLEX product in different ways with success so it is important to work with your local veterinarian on the best ways and the best times to integrate this new product into your sow management strategies.

To learn more about the FLEX concept, listen to my full interview Tim Bettington here: Tim Bettington Discusses 3FLEX

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Randy Jones is located in Eastern North Carolina and practices in a very pig dense area and PRRS is the number one disease that he deals with. He said it is a very frustrating disease to deal with from a control perspective. I asked him about the cycle of PRRS and he said that his area had been dealing with it, then circa virus came along and overwhelmed PRRS and to some extent it was forgotten about. Then once a vaccine became available for circa virus and they were so effective in protecting the pig that now they’re back fighting the same diseases again such as PRRS.

Jones also noted that because viruses change and mutate they are hard to control so diagnostics is key. “The core of our program is diagnostics. You’ve got to do diagnostics to know what you’ve got, when you’ve got it. Because the timing makes all the difference in the in world in what type of control program you put in place.”

You can learn more about PRRS diagnostics in my full interview with Randy Jones here: Randy Jones Discusses The Role of Diagnostics in PRRS

Mike Eisenmenger practices in St. Peter, Minnesota but travels throughout the upper Midwest and like Jones, PRRS is the most prevalent disease he sees. He notes its a very smart virus and it stays one step ahead of the industry’s control programs. However, he believes that in general, they have been able to develop methods to manage sow farms where they’ve been able to consistently make negative pigs even though the sow farm would be considered positive for the virus.

Also, like Jones, Eisenmenger promotes consistent diagnostics strategies and he stresses that pigs need to be tested frequently, for example at least one a month. If the pigs are negative, then he suggests vaccinating them shortly after weaning them with the PRRS virus. Then after they are sent off to go live in the “real world” tissue samples can be done to test to see if they continue to be PRRS negative. Should a finishing site become infected with PRRS, Eisenmenger said there are strategies, such as antibiotics, that can be taken, to mitigate the problem. If not treated, pigs will become much more susceptible to other bacterial diseases.

You can learn more about PRRS diagnostics, and control and mitigation strategies in my full interview with Mike Eisenmenger here: Mike Eisenmenger Discusses All Things PRRS

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

What happens when a pig gets a flu? Gillespie explained that the flu virus is very similar to what happens in people. In 1918 the classic H1N1 flu strain caused a lot of death in humans. It was thought for many, many years that the virus jumped from pigs to humans and infected them at that time. What we know today is that humans, more than not, affect the hog units. So we have biosecurity programs in place. “That’s been the biggest change in the past three years in how we’re looking at influenza,” said Gillespie.

Flu symptoms in pigs are similar to those in humans but don’t usually last more than 3 or 4 days. I asked Gillespie how to diagnose if your pig has the flu. He said that you can do nasal swabs. Once you’ve determined that the flu is in fact what your pig is suffering from, then you treat the secondary bacterial infections. From there, you go into a preventative type program where you determine if there are any commercial products available to help. He noted that these are now becoming multi-strain so they provide better cross protection.

You can learn more about what to do if your pig gets the flu in my full interview with Tom here: Tom Gillespie Discusses Treatment For The Flu

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

There are many strains of mycoplasma and four pathogenic strains believed to cause the most disease. She noted that a pig can be positive for any one of these and not have problems or you can be positive and have a lot of problems. Strait explained that various things can cause a tipping point, for example co-infections. So if you have a pig with PRRS and mycoplasma, they both will be worse.

Strait said it can be really hard early on to detect mycoplasma especially hyopneumoniaes. Some percentage of pigs are infected from sow to piglet transmission and then those piglets go after weaning and then mix with all the other piglets and then become a source of infection for everybody else. In most cases, if you don’t have a lot of pigs infected early on then it takes longer to circulate through the system and then most likely you don’t see problems quite as severely but if you have a lot of pigs infected early on, then you might have a lot of problems.

I asked Strait what the best way was to test your pigs for mycoplasma. She said serology is the best way to test the hyopneumoniaes but its really going to tell you after the fact.

“So really the only thing you can do is PCR and most people will test for PCR in nasal swabs because that’s an accessible sample to collect but multiple studies have shown its not very sensitive because it doesn’t colonize in the nose, it colonizes lower down in the trachea and lower airways,” said Strait. “So ideally you’d get samples from the large airway. So we discussed the potential of doing a trachea bronchial swab would be very reflective and very reflective of the status of the individual pig.”

There are several ways to treat your pigs once they have a mycoplasma as well as ways to manage your sow to lesson problems that include antibiotics and vaccines. In addition, Strait said she and her team are available to assist if major mycoplasma problems arise in your sow herd.

You can learn more about mycoplasma in my full interview with Erin: Erin Strait: Emerging Mycoplasma Diagnostics

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

BIVI brought in some native Indian dancers that just lit up the stage. The Yellow Bird Indian Dancers have been wowing audiences throughout the country for 25 years and they wowed the BIVI’s guests and employees as well. In this video Doreen Duncan and her husband Ken Duncan perform the Apache Rainbow Dance. Following this dance, several of their sons including Alan, Sky, Kevin and Tony, perform variations of the Hoop Dance. Each one of the sons has won national competitions.

You can learn more about the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers on their website. And special thanks for BIVI for bringing us such an amazing opportunity to experience part of the local culture first hand.

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Giordano said there are four markets that are commonly referred to as emerging markets and they are known as the BRIC markets: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Giordano said that while Brazil is a competitor, the U.S. is well-stacked to compete, in part because U.S. pork producers offer the lowest-cost, safest pork in the world. He also noted that as you look at the growing middle class in the world, approximately 9 billion people by 2045, most of the economic growth will be outside the United States, and people will be switching to meat-based diets.

“No question Brazil will continue to be a competitor,” said Giordano. “You can look at the U.S. and Brazil as really being the supermarkets to the world.”

There will be significant growth in Russia in large part due to the down payment the U.S. received in 2004 on Russia’s succession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Giordano said there will be continued opportunity but not in the same league as China.

While India has a history of vegetarianism in the country, the younger generation is becoming more open to eating meat. India is expected to surpass China as most populated country in the world. Giordano said the U.S. can’t currently ship to India but NPPC is working on overcoming these barriers and opening the market.

Giordano said of the BRIC markets, there is no question that the greatest opportunity is in China. The cost of production is double ours and pork very important part of their diet. In fact, China is the biggest pork consuming market in the world but imports only 2 percent of their meat. “If we got just one quarter of one percent of additional Chinese consumption it would generate over 3,300 direct new jobs in the pork industry, create exports of over $250 million and add over $3 to the value of each live hog market in the US,” said Giordano.

Other areas of growth for the pork industry include those countries included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) including Vietnam.

You can learn more about emerging markets for pork as well as the role NPPC has played in the Mexican trucking dispute that drastically reduced US imports to Mexico in my full interview with Nick here. Nick Giordano Discusses Emerging Markets for Pork Industry

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

“The industry continues to consolidate. So with all the different issues related with costs and profitability, the environment, and welfare, we’re seeing it’s getting focused in fewer and fewer hands,” said Holck. “So one of the big issues we deal with is that the customer base actually shrinks while the pig base is actually growing. So another challenge that is related to one of our big issues is profitability. They’re looking at us to give them good answers with regard to animal health.”

Holck said that BI wants to be available for all its customers so as they grow, they want to be able to provide more technical services.  That means they are making sure they’re providing the services most valuable to them while still being available to their entire customer base.

To meet these goals, they have tremendously grown their team – more than triple in nearly 4 years. This is on the technical side of the business, so Holck said its provided a lot of opportunity to focus on the disease side like PRRS but also in supporting new products like their FLEX line that includes CircoFLEX®, Ingelvac MycoFLEX® and Ingelvac® PRRS MLV.

In addition, it has made his team more responsive and able to do more long-term projects. They do a lot of field trials and customer projects such as diagnostic investigations with their customers in a timely manner that helps them make good decisions. The results have not only been closer working relationship with these customers but also more information for the industry as whole.

The 2011 Swine Health Seminar is not the only time BI hosts events of this type. Holck said they often hosts seminars in conjunction with major meetings and they are continuously striving to bring to market products and information that will benefit the industry.

You can learn more about BI on their website and also in my full interview with Tyler here. Tyler Holck Discusses Trends in Swine Industry

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

They will also be learning about the big issues in the swine industry from some top experts. BIVI has put together a great educational program for this afternoon that includes:

• Nick Giordano, NPPC Vice President and Legal Council who will be discussing Emerging Markets;
• Erin Strait, DVM with Iowa State University will be discussing Emering Mycoplasma Diagnostics; and
• A practitioner panel featuring Mike Eisenmenger, DVM at the Swine Vet Center; Tom Gillespie, DVM with Rensselaer Swine Services; and Randy Jones, DVM with Livestock Vet Services who will be discussing Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities.

Several hundred of BIVI team members and customers will be on hand for the seminar this afternoon (and the fun to follow). For BIVI’s customer’s, they hope the information will help them become more profitable.

For those who couldn’t make it – no worries. I’ll be bringing you the information from the meeting right here on AgWired.com.

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Dr. Dale Polson, a member of the BIVI Area Solutions Team for PRRS which leads the company’s Area Regional Control and Elimination (ARC&E) efforts, says their concept is a game changing strategy of producers, veterinarians and industry working together. “We’ve got to do things differently to make progress because we’ve been dealing with PRRS for so many years,” he says. “So we just have to fundamentally change the way we approach it and that’s where change the game comes in.”

BIVI introduced the idea of ARC&E about three years ago and Dale says it is slowly gaining momentum. “Success builds on itself,” he says. “What we’ve seen is that people are starting to recognize that this is working better than what we were doing and could work even better if we have more areas involved.”

Listen to my interview with Dale here here: Dale Polson

2010 BIVI PRRS Area Regional Control Workshop photos

“It actually grows like every month,” says Dr. Laura Batista, a member of the Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) PRRS Area Solutions Team, who organized the recent ARC&E workshop and update in Chicago. “Last year I think we were supporting five and now we’re about 14 projects.” Some of the newer projects include Iowa County, IA and north central Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

Laura says they expect the number of projects to continue growing. “Because some of the projects are not in densely populated areas, we consider some of them pilot projects,” she said. “We need to separate those areas in little clusters. So I think we are going to go to projects where there is more pig population.”

BIVI embraced the concept of ARC&E for PRRS (Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome) about three years ago and created the Area Solutions Team to help coordinate research and support the efforts of ARC&E working groups.

Listen to my interview with Laura here here: Laura Batista

2010 BIVI PRRS Area Regional Control Workshop photos

Scott was the moderator of last week’s Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) Area Regional Control Workshop in Chicago just prior to the start of the 2010 International PRRS Symposium – the third time they have held such an event which has gotten larger with every year. “It’s great to see new faces in the audience, but also a lot of the same people keep coming back and bringing new information,” Scott said. “We heard about projects that are happening throughout our continent, we’re hearing how people are doing it and it’s very similar.” The program featured updates from about a dozen ARCs in Canada and the US, as well as new tools that are being used.

The Minnesota PRRS ARC is one of the nation’s first, started in 2004. “For the longest time, we didn’t know where we were going, what we were doing. Then all of the sudden it turned the corner and before we knew it, the thing was basically PRRS-free in a very large geographical area of Minnesota,” Scott said.

Listen to my interview with Scott here here: Scott Dee

2010 BIVI PRRS Area Regional Control Workshop photos