IPVS CONGRESS 2010: Canada

Vancouver, in the far west of Canada, is both known for its Inuit and Indian culture. In the city's Stanley Park, a large number of totem poles can be admired.

Having hosted the Olympic Winter Games earlier this year, this summer the city also receives an overwhelming amount of swine veterinarians in the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Sunday night was the welcome reception at the Centre's sea view balcony.

Dr Ernest Sanford, IPVS president, officially opened the Congress on Monday morning, he also spoke about the current-day pig situation in Canada.

Prof Dr Hank Harris, Iowa State University, presented the first Tom Alexander Lecture, in the honour of the late Tom Alexander, who was a pioneer in the swine veterinary science. Future editions of the congress are meant to continue the tradition allowing space for young talented scientists with breakthrough visions.

Keynote lecturer Prof Dr David Fraser, University of British Columbia, managed to find the perfect match between informing and entertaining while having his audience sing pig sounds (!) in an interesting presentation on the changing perception of animal welfare through the ages.

In its satellite symposium, Pfizer Animal Health zoomed in on the future of antibiotics. Prof H. Scott Hurd discussed the hypothesis that full utilisation of antimicrobials is a veterinarian's ethical responsibility.

At the satellite symposium organised by Novartis Animal Health different topics were discussed, varying from enteric diseases to the role of vectors in transferring diseases.

Boehringer Ingelheim's satellite symposium was themed 'Translating science into performance'. The well attended symposium discussed the principles of vaccination and the use of mixed vaccines.

Bayer's satellite symposium was fully dedicated to a very interesting long-term projection of the world's pork markets by prof Dermot Hayes, Iowa State University. He included figures for many pig producing, consuming and importing countries - and zoomed in on China.

Merial, which is the only company to have a PCV2 vaccine for sows, focused in its satellite symposium on the added value of being able to protect either sows or piglets - and is busy to have its vaccine registered for use in piglets in many countries around the world. The company said that the expected merger with Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health may be approved by early 2011.

In total, six animal health sponsors presented satellite symposia. They also present themselves at a small scale trade show inside the building. This is the booth of Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. In its satellite symposium, the company zoomed in on e.g. combination possibilities with its PCV2 vaccines.

Around the satellite symposia there were many oral presentations, touching on a very wide variety of subjects, from reproduction to novel H1N1 and from nutrition to PCV2. Dr Jeonghwa Park, University of Guelph, Canada, explained about research into Staphylococcus hycius, causing greasy pig disease. She said that treatment is difficult as antibiotic resistance determinants may spread between several types of staphylococci in pigs.

Yanyung Huang, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, revealed pathological results and an initial diagnostic investigation to PWCS, a relatively new postweaning wasting disease occurring in Canada.

Closing off the day, Janssen Animal Health, headquartered in Belgium, presented the fourth edition of its Pig Management Award, this year co-sponsored by Vetsweb and Pig Progress. Prior to the award ceremony, Dr Jesús Borobia Belsué, spoke about pig management in Northern Ireland, where he is based.

The audience of more than 200 people then heard Dr Thierry Solignac, a veterinarian and nutritionist, working at Coopagri in Brittany, France, receive this year's award. He received it for his paper on the over-muscled sow syndrome, a new syndrome in hyperprolific sow herds. The jury was unanimous in its decision.

In a remarkable practitioner's line presentation, German veterinarian Christina Planz explained about a case from February 2009, when in a pig house section 147 out of 150 weaned piglets suddenly dropped dead, without any apparent signs of disease. Research eventually showed that a defect gas-fired heater had led to incomplete combustion; the pigs had died from peracute mono-oxide intoxication.

Dr Tanja Opriessnig, Iowa State University, then revealed some study results into the potential causes of Mulberry Heart Disease (MHD). She concluded that contrary to many beliefs, vitamin E or selenium levels in heart or liver are not a good diagnostic tool to determine MHD, although MHD is associated with decreased selenium levels.

Marcos Rostagno, US Department of Agriculture, zoomed in on Salmonella occurrence in the pigs' hindgut. It had already been known that pre-slaughter stress increases Salmonella levels in pigs. Rostagno showed that feed withdrawal and transport belong to the pre-slaughter stressors as well.

Lina Mur, attached to Visavet, University Complutense, Madrid, Spain, presented a clear overview of the risk of African Swine Fever coming to Europe. She indicated that the virus would most probably come from the Russian Caucasus. Likely countries to enter the European Union would be Poland or Lithuania, most probably in May or September. She estimated that the risk of an outbreak now comes down to once every 124 years.

Markku Johansen, from the Danish Pig Research Centre, zoomed in on the consequences of what happens to average daily gain (ADG) if diarrhoea is not treated in pigs from 35 kg. He said on average his team saw a reduction of 118 g/day.

Philip Vyt, Medic Lab, Diagnostic Labotory, Belgium, presented a study in which he focused on antibiotic use to fight swine dysentery, caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteria. He said a reduced susceptibility to the antibiotic pleuromutulin can be noted - which is important to know as the antibiotic has been pivotal in the country's national eradication programme.

Dr Annelies Coddens, University of Ghent, Belgium, presented a study that revolved on F18 E. coli infections and explained in detail how the bacteria operates in a pig’s gastro-intestinal tract by attaching itself to the gut. Based on her findings, she announced further research into adding certain sugars to pig feed which could work as an anti-adhesive therapy towards F18 E.coli.

Closing off, the IPVS congress voted for the location of the IPVS Congress in 2014. After two nervous voting rounds, Cancún in Mexico became the winner, and beat Dublin, Ireland and Madrid, Spain.

Time to say goodbye - Dr Ernest Sanford, after having thanked the delegates, handed over the IPVS presidency to his successor, Dr Won Hyung Lee, from South Korea. The 2012 congress will be held on the Korean island of Jeju.