I learned a lot during Boehringer Ingelheim’s (BIVI) 2011 Swine Health Seminar, but maybe my biggest take away was that there are three diseases that seem to be a problem for the swine industry: mycoplasma, flu and PRRS. I also learned some other valuable information: BIVI has a triple threat for swine disease control called 3FLEX.

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.

A very engaging session during the 2011 Swine Health Seminar hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim was the practitioner panel focusing on Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities. It came as no surprise that PRRS, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, was a hot topic among the attendees. The three panel experts include veterinarians Mike Eisenmenger with Swine Vet Center, Tom Gillespie with Rensselaer Swine Services and Randy Jones with Livestock Vet Services.

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.

Did you know that just like humans, pigs can get the flu too? To learn more about how to treat and prevent the flu in pigs, I spoke with Tom Gillespie, DVM, with Rensselaer Swine Services. Gillespie, a veterinarian who lives in northwest Indiana, participated in the Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities Panel as part of Boehringer Ingelheim’s 2011 Swine Health Seminar.

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.

Mycoplasma is found in pigs all over the world and whether or not they cause disease is really multi-factorial. To learn more about mycoplasma, treatments and swine management strategies, Boehringer Ingelheim brought in Erin Strait, DVM, the section leader for molecular and viral diagnostics at Iowa State University, to speak during their 2011 Swine Health Seminar. One of Strait’s area of expertise is mycoplasmas and she has been conducting extensive research in the area.

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.

Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) decided to mix it up a bit this year during their 2011 Swine Health Seminar held in Phoenix, Arizona this past week and one of the focal points was emerging markets for pork producers. The BI team brought Nick Giordano, Vice President and Council, International Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) to give the nearly 300 attendees an update on where the next big markets for pork will be.

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.

Just a few days ago, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) hosted its 2011 Swine Health Seminar in Phoenix. Before the first session began, I had a chance to speak with Tyler Holck, Director of Swine Technical Services. to learn about some of the trends that are happening in the swine industry.

“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.