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View from the Farm-Mycoplasmal pneumonia. John A Korslund DVM Korn-Land Hog Farm 3335 230 th St. Eagle Grove IA 50533. My Farm. My Credentials:. Extensive Clinical Experience- n=1 herd 40 years among hogs Reading and meeting “junkie” On Beth Lautner’s list!. 1970’s Finishing Pig.
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View from the Farm-Mycoplasmal pneumonia John A Korslund DVM Korn-Land Hog Farm 3335 230th St. Eagle Grove IA 50533
My Credentials: • Extensive Clinical Experience- n=1 herd • 40 years among hogs • Reading and meeting “junkie” • On Beth Lautner’s list!
1970’s Finishing Pig • Driven on the gravel • The drive is leisurely • Continuous flow • Mixed infections • Mixed immunity • Little pigs in one end/ big pigs out the other • Continuous treatment • Mycoplasma always there • Production ebb and flow
2002 Finishing Pig • Driven on the race track • The drive is fast and crowded • AIAO Separate Site Flow • Fewer resident infections • Little natural immunity • No new pigs until old ones all gone- new naïveté • No treatment until a problem • Mycoplasma not there?? • Production high or very low
Continuous Flow Weaned older Pathogen transfer Immunity wear-down Rolling infection Non-massive dose Antibiotic suppression Separate Site Weaned younger < Pathogen transfer >Immunity @weaning Epidemic infection Massive dose No antibiotic suppression Differences related to Mycoplasma
Elements of Our Mycoplasmal Control Program • Separate site AIAO production • Early weaning • High levels of passive immunity • Nursery antibiotics • Denaguard/CTC • Lincomix 200 • Monitoring
Results of Recent Monitoring • Clinical disease not been a problem • Coughing has been minimal • Pigs are NOT all M.hyo.-free • Other viral pathogens have been present w/o flare-ups of M.hyo.
Cost of Our Control Program Avg. Dose/Sow • Cost lowered by early medication • Piglet vaccine not used • Extra handling avoided
Why Don’t We Vaccinate Pigs? • We haven’t needed to! • Labor considerations/ timing • Broken needles/ abscesses • Cost
Where Vaccine Should Be Used • Older weaning ages • Variable passive immunity • Young sow herd • Severe secondary (co-)infections • PRRS • Influenza • “Community” nurseries/ commingled weanlings • Finishing barn concentration areas • History of PRDC
Feed-Grade Antibiotics • Economics is poor for continuous use • $30 per ton at 5 lb per day costs $.50 per pig per week. • Even 3 pulses will take 15% of a $10 profit • Regulatory future is uncertain • Need to retain Rx as treatment for humane responsibility to the animals
New Treatments? • Is the market there? • If eradication schemes make progress? • If feed grade antibiotics go away? • If animal health divestiture continues? • If vaccines improve? • Where is the line between diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments? • USDA-vaccines, diagnostics? • FDA-”drugs” • EPA-oral/aerosol products/transgenics?
Ideal Treatment Concepts • Eradicate organism from the sow herd • Prevent/treat infection of piglets • Eradicate organism from juvenile pig • Easily administered “-cidal” entities to pigs
Faster/ Better/ Cheaper… • Living with M.hyo. is not economically sustainable • “How do we treat?” is the wrong question in the long term • “Treatment” needs to be viewed as a systems approach toward elimination of economic losses, if not eradication • More success may lead to fewer treatment options (pharmaceutical economics)