A pig is like a disease juggler.
When it has a couple of diseases, it doesn’t have much of a problem handling them.
Add a couple more, and usually the pig manages to keep juggling.
But if the pig gets too many diseases, eventually all the balls will come falling down.
That’s what’s behind Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex, Stratford, Ont., veterinarian George Charbonneau told the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium held here.
“It really isn’t a new syndrome. It’s the same expression of respiratory problems we’ve always seen,” Charbonneau said.
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But people are growing more concerned because a complex amalgamation of respiratory diseases isn’t supposed to occur in multi-site, highly managed hog operations.
The growth of PRDC in these operations proves that producers must occasionally clean out all the pigs in their barns as a disease management practice.
A main reason producers moved to segregated early weaning and multi-site operations is they wanted to break disease cycles and prevent diseases from spreading.
But with many multi-site operations, especially in Ontario, after a few years many of the old diseases are back, breaking out in a chaotic pattern of symptoms.
“I’m sure there was a bunch of red-faced veterinarians standing there at finishing barns looking at pens of sick pigs trying to explain where those respiratory diseases were coming from,” he said.
When pigs contract more diseases than their immune systems can handle, diseases begin periodically breaking out, regardless of good management practices and strict environmental controls.
Producers may have to get rid of all the pigs in their barn to wipe out the disease problem, Charbonneau said. Depopulation as a management tool became unfashionable when segregated early weaning was adopted, but now producers realize the weaning practice has limits as a means of control- ling disease.
“It’s like changing the oil on a tractor,” Charbonneau said. “You don’t buy a $100,000 machine and not every once in a while change the oil when it’s soiled and not working any more.”
Once the facility is cleansed of all disease, a new pig population can be brought in.
Producers should take care with the breeders who supply the new pigs. They should ask questions about what diseases the animals carry and what type of disease prevention program the breeder has.
Producers may want to decide beforehand what diseases they’re willing to tolerate, and then try to restrict their animals’ contact to those.
Some diseases will almost inevitably infect the barns if there are nearby infected farms, Charbonneau said, but other diseases can be held off for years.
