BackgroundSurgical castration is still practiced in many EU countries to avoid undesirable aggressive behavior and boar taint in male pigs. However, evidence shows that castration is painful and has a detrimental influence on pig health. This study investigated the clinical and productive effects of surgical castration in the suckling period.A total of 3696 male pigs, 3 to 6 days old, comprising of 721 litters from two different farms were included in the study. Within each litter, half of the males were kept as intact males (IM) and half were surgically castrated (CM). Surgical castration was conducted by a trained farmer. Average daily gain (ADG), body weight at weaning (BWW), percentage of pre-weaning mortality (PWM) and antibiotic usage were measured. Pig major acute phase protein (PigMAP) serum concentrations were analyzed prior to castration, and on days 1 and 10 after castration. Productive performance data were analyzed using a linear mixed model. Mortality and percentage of pigs treated with antibiotics were analyzed using the Fisher’s exact test.ResultsNo overall differences in BWW and ADG were observed between the two groups. However, differences were observed when the same effects were analyzed in the 25% lightest, 50% medium and 25% heaviest pigs at birth. PWM was higher in CM than in IM groups (6.3% vs 3.6%; p < 0.001), especially in the light (12.2% vs 6.2%; p = 0.02) and in the medium (5.5% vs 2.7%; p = 0.04) weight groups. In the heaviest pigs group PWM was not affected by castration, but IM tended to show higher ADG (p = 0.06) and showed higher BWW (8.0 kg vs 7.8 kg; p = 0.05) than CM. There were no differences in percentage of pigs treated with antibiotics between the two groups (5.8% vs 5.8%; p = 0.98) in this study. Furthermore, PigMAP was increased in CM the day after castration (0.944 mg/ml vs 0.847 mg/ml; p = 0.025), but there was no difference between CM and IM groups at day 10.ConclusionsSurgical castration has a negative impact on production in the suckling period because it causes an increase in PWM, especially in pigs in the three lower quartiles for body weight, and negatively affects the BWW in pigs born in the highest quartile for body weight.
The efficacy of chlortetracycline (CTC) in-feed medication to treat pigs with clinical respiratory disease was investigated in a farrow-to-finish pig herd infected with Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, and with clinical respiratory disease in growing pigs. In total, 533 pigs were included. The animals were vaccinated against M hyopneumoniae and porcine circovirus type 2 at weaning. At onset of clinical respiratory disease, they were randomly allocated to one of the following treatment groups: chlortetracycline 1 (CTC1) (two consecutive weeks, 500 ppm), chlortetracycline 2 (CTC2) (two non-consecutive weeks, with a non-medicated week interval in between, 500 ppm) or tylosin (T) (three consecutive weeks, 100 ppm). Performance (daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio), pneumonia lesions at slaughter and clinical parameters (respiratory disease score) were assessed. Only numeric differences in favour of the CTC2 group were obtained for the performance and the clinical parameters. The prevalence of pneumonia lesions was 20.5, 13.1 and 23.0 per cent (P<0.05) for the CTC1, CTC2 and T groups, respectively. The study demonstrated that CTC, when administered at onset of clinical respiratory disease via the feed at a dose of 500 ppm during two alternative weeks, was able to decrease the prevalence of pneumonia lesions, and numerically reduce performance losses and clinical signs.
Swine dysentery causes severe economic losses in swine industry. Eliminating the disease at farm level can become problematic when resistance of the causative agent, Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, against pleuromutilins is reported. In this study, the use of tylvalosin (Aivlosin®) in eliminating the disease in a single-site, farrow-to-finish herd was evaluated. In addition, productivity parameters and antimicrobial use were compared prior to and after implementing the elimination protocol. On a mixed farm of 200 sows and 1500 finishers with a history of chronic dysentery, the B. hyodysenteriae isolate was resistant to pleuromutilins but had a low minimum inhibitory concentration for tylvalosin (2 μg/ml). Combined with a strict program for rodent control and hygiene, sows were treated with tylvalosin at a dose of 4.25 mg/kg BW daily for four weeks. The sows were washed one week after the start of the treatment before entering a clean stable. Piglets born from sows that had received this treatment, were considered free from dysentery and were kept separated from infected, untreated animals on the farm. A monitoring program with monthly sampling of sows and fatteners was installed to evaluate the absence of B. hyodysenteriae on the farm. After treatment, the clinical symptoms in the treated sows disappeared and remained absent in the offspring born after the procedure. Fecal samples examined by PCR remained negative for the whole testing period (14 months after the end of the treatment) and no clinical outbreaks were reported afterwards. The feed conversion ratio improved by 12%, the mortality rate with 37% and the antimicrobial use decreased by 71.5%. We conclude that the elimination of swine dysentery on a single-site, farrow-to-finish herd is possible using tylvalosin (AivlosinR) combined with strict hygiene and rodent control. The improvements of the technical parameters in this study are not only the result of the elimination of B. hyodysenteriae, but also changes in management practices influenced these parameters.
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