Impact of health challenges on pig growth performance, carcass characteristics, and net returns under commercial conditions

Abstract

Understanding how disease affects commercial production is imperative for pig producers to quantify its full impact on pig performance, carcass quality, and net returns. The objective of this experiment was to assess the productivity and economic importance of naturally occurring health challenges (HC) under commercial conditions. Three 1,000 pig grow-finish facilities received 936 pigs each. The experimental period started approximately 34 d post placement at an average start BW of 13.1 ± 0.2 kg. Barns were characterized based on the relative HC, determined by diagnostic assessments as the main characterization tool, along with other health indicators. Barns were characterized as low challenge health (LCh), moderate challenge health (MCh), and high challenge health (HCh). All barns tested positive for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection prior to the start of the experiment. Additionally, the MCh and HCh barns experienced influenza type A virus of swine. Similar to commercial production conditions, the disease challenge was not imposed but rather occurred naturally. Reduced ADG, ADFI, and G:F were observed with an increased HC (P < 0.001). Similarly, mortality was increased when the HC increased (P < 0.001). Decreased ADG increased days to achieve harvest BW, by 10 and 15 d in the MCh and HCh treatments compared with LCh, respectively (P < 0.001). No differences were observed for percent lean, loin depth, or fat depth (P > 0.10). The economic impact of the HC was assessed by applying these growth performance data to two economic models encompassing the two main marketing methods used by U.S. pig producers: fixed-weight and fixed-time. Financial losses attributed to the variation in disease severity that occurred in the present study ranged from $8.49 and $26.10 U.S. dollars (USD)/pig marketed using a fixed-market weight model, or between $11.02 and $29.82 USD/pig using a fixed-time model, depending on feed costs and market hog prices. In conclusion, increasing severity of HC under commercial conditions reduced ADG by 8% and 14% and resulted in mortality as high as 19.9%. Losses of $8.49 to $29.82/pig marketed underscore the potential magnitude of the economic impact of mixed etiology concurrent diseases in pork production.

Estimating the Effect of Respiratory Disease on Production Performance in Farrow-to-Finish Pig Farms

“…On the other hand, a worsening in performance as the size of the herd increases has been reported previously. In a study analysing production parameters and production cost over time (2010-2014) in Spain, Rocadembosch et al [39] concluded that herd size affected negatively most performance indicators, including ADG in nursery and nishing stages, as also found in this other study [40].…”

Anti-inflammatory effects of animal plasma protein supplementation in mice undergoing simultaneous gut and lung inflammation

“…Pathogenic E. coli strains are common agents causing a variety of intestinal disorders in neonatal and weaning piglets, which may be followed by terminal septicaemia, an important cause of economic loss for swine producers (Lee et al, 2008). Other bacteria involved in farm infections are S. aureus, which increases mortality in farms (Osadebe et al, 2013), furthermore, other pathogens like Mycoplasma hyopenumoniare or reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) contribute to respiratory disease and impact significantly in economic losses to the swine industry (Cornelison et al, 2018;Helme et al, 2018).…”

Postweaning mortality in commercial swine production II: review of infectious contributing factors

“…2 ( USDA, 2016 ). Mortality has been shown to be significantly greater in animals experiencing a high health challenge [porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and swine influenza virus A (IAV); 19.9%)] compared to moderate health challenge (IAV; 7.7%) or low health challenge (no PRRSV or IAV; 3.3%; Cornelison et al, 2018 ). Such data illustrates the significant impact that the combination of infectious causes of mortality can have on postweaning mortality.…”