4TH MERIAL FORUM

HAVE WE GOT PCVD &

SWINE INFLUENZA UNDER

CONTROL?

PCVD session 3

Moderator: Dr Thaïs Vila

• PCVD in 2012: a special focus on sub clinical forms, Pr. J. Segalés

• CIRCOVAC piglet vaccination: successful field experience in Spain, Dr A. Finestra

• PCVD control in 2012: how to design the best PCV2 vaccination programme? Drs F. Smeets & G. Perreul

CIRCOVAC piglet vaccination:

successful field experience in

Spain

Albert Finestra

tsc

Le Borges Blanques-Lleida

Summary

• Self-introduction

• Farm description

• Why did we decide to start vaccination?

– Evolution of the production parameters

– Diagnosis of PMWS

• Impact of the vaccination

• Conclusions

Who am I, and where I come from?

• tsc is a consultancy funded in 2004 by two swine

specialist vets.

• We are devoted to:

– Optimize the efficiency of pig farms

– Design and implement disease eradication programs

both at farm, region or nation level

– Giving advice on pig feeding and nutrition.

– Design and implement field trials. We also own an

experimental fattening unit of 350 pig capacity.

Company description

• They had 2400 sows in 3 farms:

– 550 GP sows in Ginestar (Tarragona) to produce F1

for their farms and external sales

– Owned 600 and 1250 production sows in Arbeca

(Lleida)

• Also have Feed mill to elaborate their feeds

• Fatteners: 5500 heads and other with 7500 pigs

• owned fatteners and sow units work with liquid food (a

mix of feed and by-products)

• Others fatteners are integrated

Farm description

• 2 site production 600 sows farrow-to-finish farm

• Batch farrowing on a weekly base

– About 300 pigs weaned/week

• Fattening unit 500 m apart from Site 1+2

• Batch size: about 600 animals

• Wet feeding based on by-products

Sow farm I: sites 1+2

Feed mill Kitchen-wet feeding

Sow farm and nurseries

Piglet management

• Weaning age: 24-25 days (Wednesdays)

• Piglets are left in the farrowing unit an

additional week.

• Post-weaning: 32-33 days

• Age at starting of fattening: 60-61 days

Finishers

Feed mill

Fattening unit

Olive trees

Yearly evolution of some

production parameters Yearly evolution of some of the production parameters in fattening

2,410

2,250

2,290

2,190

2,160

2,210

2,280

2,2502,240

2,300

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Year

% l

osses/€

2,000

2,050

2,100

2,150

2,200

2,250

2,300

2,350

2,400

2,450

FC

R (

kg

/kg

)

% losses

Medication cost (€)

FCR (kg/kg)

April 07 New genetic

line

Circovac

Started new Vet in the company Oct 2007

Why vaccination? • In April 07 a new genetic line was introduced in

the system. It had an obvious sanitary impact.

2 2,1

6,9 7,1

1,9

Mortalidad

Mortality evolution

2006 1 sem 2007 2 sem 2007 1 sem 2008 2 sem 2008

Why vaccination? • In April 07 a new genetic line was introduced in

the system. It had an obvious sanitary impact.

Health impact

• We progressively observed:

– An increase of the mortality rate from an average of

3% to a peak of 9%

– The need to treat more animals

– Less efficay of the antibiotic treatments

– A negative impact on the homogeneity of the group

• As we suspected PMWS, we decided to submit

some animals to the diagnosis lab: UAB/CReSA

Facilities

Facilities

Clinical signs

Clinical signs

Clinical signs

Lesions at necropsy

Gastric ulcers

Diagnosis Table 1.- Summary of the laboratory report of the first samples sent to the UAB (November 2007)

Sample Microscopic

lesions1

ISH for PCV2 Remarks

1 Mild to moderate (LN) or moderate

(T) lymphoid depletion

Low to moderate amount of PCV2

genome

Subclinical PCV2 infection+ Diarrhoea

2 Mild lymphoid depletion (LN+T)

Low amount of genome

Subclinical PCV2 infection + Pneumonia

3 Moderate to intense (LN+T)

lymphoid depletion

Moderate amount of genome

PMWS positive

4 Moderate (T) to intense (LN)

lymphoid depletion

Moderate amount of genome

PMWS positive

1LN= Lymph nodes T= tonsil

Vaccination schedule

• Piglet vaccination: 0.5 ml of CIRCOVAC®1

– The first batch was vaccinated in February 08

in the fattening unit

– The subsequent batches were vaccinated 7

days after weaning

1The decision was made to vaccinate piglets in order to see the results faster. As at that time the only vaccine available in Spain against PCV2 was CIRCOVAC, we decided to use this approach following Merial recommendations

Impact of vaccination on mortality • In 2007 an abrupt increase of mortality was observed

• Circovac not only neutralized it but led to lower levels of

mortality than previously observed.

New genetic line

CIRCOVAC

Impact of vaccination: ADWG • While initially the genetic change led to an impairement

of the ADWG, CIRCOVAC subsequently allowed the

manifestation of their genetic potential

Evolution of the average daily gain (g/d)

450

500

550

600

650

700

750

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25

Batch

AD

G (

g/d

)

ADG

CIRCOVAC

Impact of vaccination: treatments

• The recovery of the sanitary balance had a

significant impact on the medication

expenses

Evolution of the medication expenses (€/pig)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25

Batch

€/

pig

Cost of treatment

CIRCOVAC

Impact of vaccination:

production flow

• The negative impact of the genetic change

on the production flow was clearly

neutralized by Circovac

Evolution of the number of pigs sent to slaughter

480

500

520

540

560

580

600

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Batch

Nb

. o

f p

igs

Sold pigs

This batch consisted of 30 animals less

CIRCOVAC

Impact of vaccination: FCR

• The vaccination restored the deteriorated

conversion index allowing the

manifestation of the genetic potential. Evolution of the FCR

1

1,2

1,4

1,6

1,8

2

2,2

2,4

2,6

2,8

3

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25

Batch number

FC

R (

Kg

/kg

)

FCR

CIRCOVAC

Financial impact (€ / pig)

Parameter Before CIRCOVAC Difference Estimated

Impact (€)

% losses 5.7 2.2 3.5

(-175 kg)

+0.20

FCR 2.36 2.18 0.18

(+16 kg/pig)

+3.2

ADWG 597 673 76

(+17 days)

+1.61

Medication 5.7 2.6 3.1 +3.1

Estimated ROI: 8.1

1Average cost of integration 12€/pig & 130 days of fattening period

Conclusions

• In 2007 we experienced an outbreak of PMWS

in a farm with a stabilized sanitary situation

• It looks like this fact was the consequence of a

change in the genetic line

• The introduction of CIRCOVAC a few months

after the beginning of the outbreak not only re-

stablished the sanitary balance but led also to

an improvement of the production parameters