Pig trials compare injectable and oral AI's

Dr Marcel Dethinne from Union Cecab Prestor, France, was just one of more than 400 veterinarians from 11 countries who assessed the performance of Draxxin® (tulathromycin) in over 200,000 pigs. The results were unveiled recently in Paris.

“There is always some understandable hesitation, as well as curiosity, whenever we are presented with something new and different,” he said.

Actual performance
“Draxxin was the first injectable antibiotic to be approved for preventive use. It looked good on paper, but the real proof is always how these new ideas perform on real farms under everyday conditions.”

The application for a preventive licence for Draxxin was supported by a number of scientific studies carried out in accordance with EMEA guidelines by Pfizer Animal Health. However, the company wanted to see how the product would perform in a range of commercial pig farms, in different European countries, under real life conditions, as Dimitri Popov, Product Manager for Swine Anti-infectives for Europe, Africa and the Middle East explained:

“Preventing swine respiratory disease using an injectable antibiotic was a new concept for European swine veterinarians and producers, so we wanted as many of them as possible to put Draxxin to the test on their own farms - hence the decision to conduct a series of reality trials.”

Commercially viable alternative
“The aim was simply to see if they thought this was a commercially viable alternative to oral antibiotics in farms with different management systems, housing, and disease complex. We wanted veterinarians and farmers to see for themselves how well Draxxin will prevent SRD compared to the norm, which has been oral antibiotics. 

At Pfizer, we knew it worked well in the lab and in scientific trials but we wanted to see how well Draxxin's superiority holds up where it matters most … in the field.  That's why we were involved in over 1000 reality trials; the highest number Pfizer had ever conducted in the EU swine market.”

The trials took place over a 10 month period and in 71% Draxxin was reported to be superior to oral anti-infectives. In 26% there was no difference between treatments and in 3% Orals were considered better.