Pigs are dying. The question is why?

Is it simply the presence of PCV2, which is found in virtually every swine herd worldwide?

Or is it the co-factors? PRRS? Mycoplasma? Salmonella? What is their motive?

That is what the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) project known as MAGIC – or Monitoring Assignment for a Global Insight into Circovirus associated diseases – is trying to find out. Much like the popular TV show which celebrates the skills of crime scene investigators, researchers are digging deep and looking at every possible factor to determine what is causing what they are calling PCVAD, Porcine Circovirus Associated Diseases, characterized by progressive weight loss, lesions, infections and elevated mortality in mainly early finishing pigs.


In the picture taken at the BIVI PCVAD update meeting last week, Dr. Ken Schwartz of Iowa State University posts a recently deceased pig that might have had PCVAD and demonstrates the proper way to take all the necessary tissue samples for the MAGIC project. Samples are placed in carefully labeled bags and jars to be sent to the lab for study.

Here’s a 4:00 interview with Klaas Okkinga, BIVI swine marketing manager, with more about PCVAD and MAGIC. Klaas Okkinga.