Feedstuffs in Focus
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Feedstuffs in Focus
Use or non-use of treatment therapies for respiratory disease in finishing pigs
Joining us for this episode of Feedstuffs in Focus is Dr. David Baumert, Senior Technical Services Veterinarian at Zoetis Pork, to discuss the reasons why producers sometimes choose not to treat pigs — usually heavier weight finishers — in need of swine respiratory disease (SRD) therapy and the implications of non-use from a performance, labor and economic standpoint.
This episode of Feedstuffs in Focus has been brought to you by Zoetis Pork.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION: People with known hypersensitivity to penicillin or cephalosporins should avoid exposure to EXCENEL RTU EZ. Do not use in swine found to be hypersensitive. Withdraw 6 days prior to slaughter when injection site volumes are greater than 5 mL up to 15 mL per injection site and 4 days prior to slaughter when injection site volumes are less than or equal to 5 mL per injection site. See full Prescribing Information at Excenelpork.com/PI.
References
Pantoja L, Kuhn M, Farrand E, et al. Impact of a Husbandry Education Program on nursery pig mortality, productivity, and treatment cost. Journal of Swine Health and Production [serial online]. 2013;21 (4):188-194. Available from: CAB Abstracts, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 1, 2018.
Pineiro C, Morales J, Doncecchi P, et al. Individual Pig Care program improves productive performance and animal health in nursery-growing pigs. Journal of Swine Health and Production [serial online]. 2014;22 (6):296-299. Available from: CAB Abstracts, Ipswich, MA. Accessed August 1, 2018.
Bowersock, T. L., Meeuwse, D. M., Kausche, F. M., Lucas, M. J., Bryson, W. L. and Dame, K.J. Efficacy of ceftiofur crystalline free acid and ceftiofur hydrochloride administered intramuscularly in swine inoculated with Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Pharmacia Animal Health. 2001.
Data on file, Study Document No. ZRD-PSC-004402, Zoetis Inc.
All trademarks are the property of Zoetis Services LLC or a related company or a licensor unless otherwise noted. © 2024 Zoetis Services LLC. All rights reserved. EXC-00084
Why do producers sometimes choose not to treat pigs in need of swine respiratory disease therapy? There can be several reasons, but it's important when making such a decision to consider the full picture and what's best for the pigs and overall profitability of the farm operation. Welcome to Feedstuffs in Focus, our podcast taking a look at the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry, grain and animal feed industries. I'm your host, sarah Muirhead. This episode is brought to you by Zoetis Pork. Joining us today is Dr David Baumert, veterinarian with Zoetis Pork Technical Services. Is Dr David Baumert, veterinarian with Zoetis Pork Technical Services. Dr Baumert is going to discuss with us the reason why producers sometimes choose not to treat pigs in need of swine respiratory disease therapy and the implications of non-use from a performance, labor and economic standpoint. Dr Baumert, before we get into the nuts and bolts of our discussion, why don't you clarify for us what our focus is here today relative to the producer or veterinarian's decision not to treat finishing pigs for swine respiratory disease?
Speaker 2:Well, certainly, sarah. First of all, let's start with what we're not talking about today, and we're not talking about the decision where producers raise groups of pigs or populations under an antibiotic-free or ABF-type program. In that case pigs certainly are treated as needed, and then those individual animals that go to market without the need for any antibiotic therapy are then marketed under a premium program, an ABF or an NAE-type of program, under a premium program, an ABF or an NAE type of program. What we are talking about today is the situation where a producer makes the decision, either consciously or subconsciously, to not treat animals within a population of pigs Generally we're talking about finisher populations of pigs when in reality the use of some sort of therapy actually has an opportunity to improve the animal welfare or the productivity of that group of pigs.
Speaker 1:Help us understand why producers might make the decision not to provide antibiotic therapy. You know, especially when we're talking about the finisher pigs.
Speaker 2:I think there's three scenarios where we can pick cases where finisher pigs do not get treated, even though there really is a potential to improve their performance, and those three scenarios are, first of all, where there's simply a failure to identify the pigs that are in need of therapy. Second of all, there can be labor shortages within systems, and that's common today and then, finally, misunderstandings regarding the actual cost of the treatment. I think those are the three cases that would define most of our issues where pigs don't get treated Again, pigs don't get identified, labor shortages and then, finally, misunderstandings of the cost of treatment.
Speaker 1:All right. So let's talk about each of those a bit more, and let's start with that failure to identify pigs in need of treatment. How can producers overcome that challenge?
Speaker 2:pigs in need of treatment. How can producers overcome that challenge? Well, let's step back a minute and within our finisher pig populations there's two conditions where pigs can benefit from treatment generally either lameness issues or respiratory disease. And too often animals or populations of animals are not recognized early enough in the stage of disease when clinical signs are still very subtle. Specifically, we're talking about respiratory disease. Subtle signs might be cases where pigs are simply a little bit lethargic or they might be breathing a little bit faster than their pen mates.
Speaker 2:By the time these animals are often recognized as truly being ill, severely coughing or even thumping. Those individual animals may actually be past the really golden opportunity where treatment would have had a high success rate. Now, if we can train to have training or train producers to recognize pigs when those individuals are just a little bit off, it would certainly improve the treatment success rate in those groups of pigs and I think it would improve the producer's desire to treat those pigs when they see higher success rates. Zoetis does have an individual pig care program, often known within the industry simply as the ABC Pig Care Treatment Training Program, and this program will assist producers in learning how to identify pigs early in the course of disease and, of course, earlier appropriate treatment will often result in better post-treatment outcomes.
Speaker 1:What about labor? How does that impact the decision to treat or not to treat?
Speaker 2:Labor on a farm, particularly skilled labor, is unfortunately a very common challenge, but it does take qualified caretakers in order to monitor pigs on a daily basis and, of course, to administer therapy when it's needed. Appropriate labor staffing is certainly critical for an overall treatment plan in order to be successful and in order to motivate staff to treat pigs when needed. The labor that's needed to treat pigs within a population unfortunately comes with a cost, and that cost is related to the time that's required to do the treatment process. Any additional time that is required to administer treatment products that are not promptly ready to use as bottled, for example, if they require extended shaking or mixing of ingredients, all of that additional time can be considered an additional cost of treatment.
Speaker 1:From an economic standpoint, then, how should producers be thinking about the cost of treatment versus not treating?
Speaker 2:Well, we can divide the cost of treatment into a couple of buckets. The first is the easy part. Cost of treatment could simply be defined as the cost of the product that we use to treat the pigs, for example, the cost of six mils of XNL RTU EZ to treat a 200-pound pig. The cost of treatment can also include the cost of the labor, attributed again to time spent within that population of pigs administering the treatment products. As I mentioned before, any additional time that's required to administer products because they're just not promptly ready to be injected as they come out of the bottle increases time. And so if these products require extensive shaking, or again, if products need to be mixed before they're administered to pigs or the product is pulled into a syringe, that additional time can be considered as an additional treatment cost. And then, finally, the other cost in regard to treatment is the cost of performance lost when non-use is the situation.
Speaker 1:So how do performance outcomes impact this decision and the economics?
Speaker 2:When the decision is made to not treat pigs with a potentially helpful therapeutic drug, it's often due to a misunderstanding of what the true cost of non-use is in terms of performance impact. A product like XNL RTU-EZ is labeled for the control of four major swine pathogens, specifically APP, Pasturella multocida, Salmonella, cholera suis and Strep suis. In an APP challenge study trial, pigs that were treated with X-Nile RTU-EZ had an 81% reduction in mortality and an 84% reduction in lung lesion scores when those treated pigs were compared to their non-treated cohorts. Now, while the exact cost of non-use in a finisher setting certainly will be dependent on the individual characteristics of that farm or that production system where the pigs are being raised, any time that non-use results in potentially missing an opportunity to reduce mortality by 81% or reducing lung lesions by 84%, that loss of productivity and the effect on animal welfare would intuitively be many times more than the expense of simply using an effective antibiotic in the first place.
Speaker 1:So, as we look to wrap up this important discussion, what are those things that you want swine producers to really take away from this?
Speaker 2:Well, a couple of short messages, first of all, take away from this. Well, a couple of short messages. First of all, when the potential reasons for non-use of therapeutic treatment are actually examined, it becomes pretty clear that non-use is not sustainable in modern pig production. Xnl RTU-EZ, an effective and practical safety for hydrochloride formulation, is a viable option when it comes for control of swine respiratory diseases, and it will certainly help support a sustainable, animal welfare friendly pork production, both from a labor and an economic perspective. And then, finally, given that the lack of skilled labor is often quoted as a cause for non-use is often quoted as a cause for non-use, xenel RTU-EZ also will provide producers with an injectable therapy that mixes very quickly and it helps ensure that producers are not underdosing or overdosing.
Speaker 1:Our thanks to Dr David Baumert, veterinarian with Zoetis Pork Technical Services. Some important safety information People with known hypersensitivity to penicillin or cephalosporins should avoid exposure to XNL RTU-EZ. Do not use enswine found to be hypersensitive. Withdraw six days prior to slaughter when injection site volumes are greater than 5 milliliters up to 15 milliliters per injection site, and 4 days prior to slaughter when injection site volumes are less than or equal to 5 mL per injection site. See full prescribing information at xnlporkcom backslash PI. I'm Sarah Muirhead and you have been listening to Feedstuffs in Focus. If you would like to hear more conversations about some of the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry grain and animal feed industries, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. Until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening.