All this week we’ve been hearing from some of the presenters at the annual Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar for swine vets held in San Diego. A panel session that featured Dr. Darin Madson from Iowa State University; Dr. Jim Lowe, a private livestock veterinary consultant in Illinois; Dr. Edgar Diaz, associate director of swine for BIVI; and Dr. Dale Polson, technical resources specialist with BIVI, (seated, left to right) talked about vertical transmission of disease, with BIVI Director of Swine Technical Services Dr. Tyler Holck moderating (standing, on right).
“Understanding [the gilt’s] immunity and her status coming in to that farm is probably the most important thing you can do,” said Madson. “It’s too late once she’s there, because that’s when you’ll have see this vertical transmission.”
Lowe urged the vets attending to have patience and understand that you need to collect data over a number of years to truly understand a problem. “One test result probably doesn’t change my attitude… 10 in a row might tell me something more.”
Diaz echoes the first two sentiments on carefully observing and being patient to gather and consolidate the right amount of data.
Polson told the audience that they need to give to gain and play well with others. While it’s good to work to better the client’s herd, “if we are too narrowly focused and too myopic on just our stuff, we don’t appreciate how much of the effort that we put in dealing with our stuff we could mitigate by giving, collaborating with the neighborhood or across businesses.”
Listen to the panel discussion here: BIVI Swine Health Seminar panel on vertical transmission