We’ve heard about the oral testing of hogs for disease from Jeff Zimmerman, DVM, Iowa State University, before, here and here. But a guy with a last name of Zimmerman is worth hearing again! And that’s what we did at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar.
Jeff has found in his work that there is a better way to test pigs and that’s via oral fluids. It saves on manpower and that alone makes it a good idea for hog producers. But there are other advantages that include better reliability in testing for diseases like PRRS. Additionally, he says that there is research being done to use this type of diagnostics to monitor for antibiotics in oral fluid. Jeff showed us several video clips from his research showing how they’ve actually trained pigs to create the samples. It makes for a much easier, less volatile situation when you need to test your herd. Jeff Zimmerman Interview