AgWired

Evaluating the performance of a pig is a key element in good health management. Enteric Technical Manager for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedia, Inc. (BIVI), Jessica Seate, said the best thing a producer can do is become an investigator. Finding a diagnosis with your vet before you make changes to your protocol should be the first thing producers do. I sat down with Jessica at a recent BIVI event to learn more about antibiotic use in the swine industry and the role it plays in the prevention vs. treatment game.

“For BIVI and for the industry, we always want to do what is best for the pig. As an industry we are going the way of less antibiotic in production. Boehringer Ingelheim’s point of view is prevention works. Having a vaccination up front is a great way to help with a health management program and in turn use less antibiotics and control diseases ahead of time.”

Jessica said vaccinations should be one tool in a producers tool box. Other factors like management, biosecurity, sanitation and rodent control should also come into play. Vaccination programs will vary geographically, but most producers will be vaccinating for myco circo, ileitis, PRRS, salmonella, e-coli, etc. Jessica said you could talk to every vet and every schedule could be a little different.

Using ileitis as an example, Jessica said, “Vets will use the ileitis vaccination either by the label at three weeks of age and others are pushing it to five or six weeks of age. The exposure is usually in late nursery. Also you have to worry about the maternal antibody interference.”

Ease of application is always at the minds of producers. “Especially with enteric diseases, oral vaccinations are the way to go. You can easily put it in the water and we have a lot of methods and programs in place to make that even easier. It take times down. It takes labor down. And it is easier on the pig and easier on people.”

Listen to my complete interview Jessica here:Interview with Dr. Jessica Seate, Boehringer Ingelheim

View photos from the event here: 2015 BIVI Leman Media Event

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. hosted media in St. Paul, MN this weekend to talk about how proven prevention drives the use of less antibiotics. Dr. Mike Eisenmenger, Swine Vet Center, spoke on how to drive pig performance in today’s world of antibiotic usage.

“Instead of just saying our overall goal is to use less antibiotics at all costs, we are looking at different prevention strategies, i.e. vaccinations, to take the place of antibiotics like we have used in the past. It is just the right thing to do. The animal is always going to be happier with a prevention, never getting sick in the first place.”

He said the ways to accomplish using less and still having an ‘easy’ pig to raise stems around the elimination of diseases when possible, strong biosecurity programs and the development of a robust vaccination program.

Dr. Eisenmenger talked about what a typical vaccination program looks like at each stage of the growing cycle. He used ileitis as an example since it’s a disease that hits late in a pigs life. “Even if we institute a treatment program at that point in time, we are forced to use a lot of antibiotics. We want to back clear up to the nursery stage and apply an oral vaccine that will eliminate the problem that we would normally see without vaccinating.”

There seems to be a clear advantage to using oral vaccines and Dr. Eisenmenger said it’s simply ease of administration. “It is very easy to vaccinate a large number of pigs in short order and it provides almost no stress at all to the pigs themselves.” He added that if we could figure out how to put every vaccine in oral, it would be done. But science isn’t quite there yet.

“I think we as veterinarians need to protect antibiotics so we can continue to use it as a valuable asset in the future. My responsibility is to teach people that have been use to using a lot antibiotics the appropriate use of antibiotics, when to use them when you need them and when not to use them when another method of control could be done.”

Dr. Eisenmenger said his idea of a complete evaluation of pig performance is centered around pigs that grow fast to maximize production, but without forgetting about the environment, our duty to be stewards of the land and of course human health. “Buried within that is the use of antibiotics in a manner that protects them for the future and we will still be able to get good productions if we look at animal health from a prevention strategy rather than a treatment and control strategy.”

Listen to my complete interview with Dr. Eisenmenger here: Interview with Dr. Mike Eisenmenger, Swine Vet Center

View photos from the event here: 2015 BIVI Leman Media Event