AgWired

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.