Tidying up some loose ends

Over the last few month’s, I was asked a number of questions such as ‘how effective PCV2 vaccines would be when there is a mixed respiratory infection with over 30% mortality’, and also ‘how am I meant to give all these vaccines to my growing pigs?’ Some answers are now emerging.

At the recent IPVS conference in Durban there was a seminar paper by Prof Young from Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, describing farms with these very high mortality problems associated with porcine circovirus diseases (PCVD) and their response to using piglet vaccines against PCV2 (see Table 1).

Table 1. Field trial results on three farms with PCVD in Korea to PCV2 piglet vaccination

Farm	No of sows	Diseases present post weaning	Mortality (%) weaning to 22weeks		Weight at 22 weeks (kg)
			Non-vac	Vac	Non-vac	Vac
A	300	PMWS, Glässer’s, E. coli, salmonella	48	8	70.1	86.4
B	250	PMWS, pneumonia	24	6	83.26	97.36
C	330	PMWS, pneumonia, salmonella	22	8	92.55	94.29
Average			31.3	7.3	81.97	92.68
Difference			–	-24.0	–	+10.71

Key: Non-vac = non vaccinated; Vac = PCV2 vaccinated; PMWS = post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome

There was a dramatic reduction in mortality from an average of 31.3% to 7.3%, a saving of 24%. Average bodyweights increased by 10.7kgs. I think these results are surprisingly successful and if reproducible across Asia, where there is often a high mortality rate reported, they are very exciting. It highlights the role that PCV2 infections can play in these high mortality herds.

On another side regarding multiple vaccinations, it has just been reported that the US has approved that Ingelvac CircoFLEX® for PCV2 and MycoFLEX® for Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae can be mixed together and used in combination to control both PMWS and enzootic pneumonia. I think this is a first by Boehringer Ingelheim. The mixed products contain the same adjuvant (ImpranFLEX®) which allows the two products to be mixed together and be administered to three week old piglets or older as a single shot. This has obvious benefits to the producer in saving time and labour and allowing a single injection rather than two, which were usually given two weeks apart.

Answers to the problems of controlling both PMWS and enzootic pneumonia and multi-vaccination are now really moving ahead very swiftly.