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Patrick O’Connor recently removed in-feed medication and zinc oxide after introducing ileitis vaccination, but he didn’t do it alone.
In April last year, Patrick noticed that his second-stage weaners weren’t thriving.
“They had good weights at weaning and had done well in the first stage, but about a week after moving there was a noticeable lack of thrive with pale pigs, the presence of loose granular faeces and increased mortality,” he explained.
Patrick spoke to his vet, Miguel Rueda Lopez from Ark Animal Care in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, who carried out a clinical inspection and laboratory investigation. The presence of ileitis was confirmed by PCR test, an infectious enteric condition caused by the bacteria Lawsonia intracellularis.
As a result, a new vaccine, Porcilis Lawsonia, was initiated to control the infection. He gives the vaccine via the intradermal IDAL system mixed with another vaccine, Porcilis PCV ID, at around 21 days, prior to weaning at above 9kg about 28 days of age.
“I’ve been on the IDAL for a couple of years, it’s wonderful. In this day and age everyone should be using technology like this for ease and welfare," said Patrick.
Within a couple of weeks of introducing the vaccine, Patrick had noticed an improvement in the pigs and felt everything was stabilising.
“At that point, we started looking at using a blend of organic acids in the drinking water. Water acidification seemed to further improve things," he continued.
"We had been using in-feed medication in the creep and link because of a previous problem with Streptococcus suis, but we got on top of that, and Miguel and I felt confident in removing the antibiotics.”
Having successfully tackled the issues with ileitis and eliminated in-feed medication, Patrick turned his mind to reducing the use of zinc oxide.
“I knew the ban was coming, so reckoned I would take it out sooner rather than later in case we had problems down the line, but thankfully it just worked," he said.
The process of introducing the vaccine and removing antibiotics and zinc oxide took around three months and was a result of collaboration between Patrick, his vet Miguel and his nutritionist, Barry Hoare from Cargill.
“We worked closely together between the three of us, just a bit of joined up thinking. We were tweaking the feed and adding a pre-mix as we slowly reduced the zinc oxide inclusion rates," Patrick added.
Patrick’s results speak for themselves. The 300-sow, birth to bacon unit is going from strength to strength. Production metrics have improved: Feed conversion efficiency (FCE) is up to 2.49 from 2.6 the previous year and he is selling pigs 10kg heavier than previously.
“You just have to look at the pigs differently – just because pigs and pens are clean does not mean they are doing well," Patrick said.
"It is important to weigh pigs and measure production, because pigs off zinc oxide will be dirty, but I know they are thriving. We have also seen behavioural improvements and a reduction in tail biting incidence.”
It’s now been a year since Patrick first noticed the drop in thrive caused by ileitis and he’s glad he made the changes.
“We’ve seen a real improvement and that’s a good thing given the way feed prices have gone recently," he said.
"There’s nothing fancy or high tech about what I did, just basic improvements over a period of time, in conjunction with regular consultation with our vet and nutritionist. I say to people, be patient, give it six months – if I can do it, so can you. In hindsight I should have done it five years ago.”
Further information about Porcilis vaccines is available from your veterinary practitioner, the product SPC, MSD Animal Health, Red Oak North, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland or by visiting www.msd-animal-health.ie/pigs.
MSD Animal Health can be contacted by calling: 01 2970220, or emailing: [email protected].
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