Expert opinion
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Mycotoxins are More Dangerous to Profits than Enteric Diseases
The cost of
incurring and treating enteric diseases (E coli scours, PED, Porcine
Enteropathy, Salmonellosis, Swine dysentery, Colitis, etc.) spread across the
whole finishing herd seems to be in the region of $1.90/pig (€1.60, £1.00),
raising production cost by about 2% finished pig.
The cost of incurring and treating enteric diseases (E
coli scours, PED,
Porcine Enteropathy,
Salmonellosis,
Swine dysentery
, Colitis, etc.) spread
across the whole finishing herd seems to be in the region of $1.90/pig (€1.60,
£1.00), raising production cost by about 2% finished pig.
We are all familiar with these diseases and what to do about them in terms
of veterinary help and drug treatment.
Not so with
mycotoxins.
Not so at all, it seems! For the past 5 years I`ve been collecting figures on
what mycotoxicosis in all its variants has cost from clients farms and, where
available, from descriptions I`ve seen in the press and elsewhere.
Examples:
- Mild mycotoxicosis
in pigs 3 to 35 kg raised production cost by18%.
- Severe mycotoxicosis lasting 4 to 5 weeks raised the
cost of the section of the herd of finishing pigs which were affected by 24%.
- Mycotoxicosis in gilts caused whole herd empty days
to rise by 19 days- a production cost rise of €45/ sow /year (€2/ finished
pig) or 2%.
- Mycotoxicosis in sows (anoestrus, returns-to-service, abortions,
mummifieds, splay-legs and veterinary-diagnosed associated secondary
infections) of varying severity caused production cost to rise between 30-74%
varying from 6 weeks to 6 months.
Because of the
inherent variability of these costs it is difficult to provide a ballpark figure
on what a typical extra cost might be per finished pig from herds affected in
this way, but it must be considerable year-on-year.
When one
considers that the payback from a comprehensive annual protective protocol
against mycotoxicoses, including extra labour costs, can provide a return of up
to 7 to 1, it suggests that greater attention on how to combat the insidious
effect of fungal-borne diseases is overdue.
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