Herd health, diagnostics & biosecurity

Question 1

What are the aims of herd health investigations?

Answer 1

• Leave what is working as it is!
• Learn to read the pigs – they will tell you what is happening
• Prevention is always best
• No two farms are the same…ever
• The majority of issues stem from mismanagement

Question 2

Describe the pre-herd health visit plan of action

Answer 2

• Establish the purpose of the visit
• Understand the ground rules – e.g. biosecurity If there is a new clinical problem
• There may be some records to look at

Question 3

Describe the herd health visit plan of action

Answer 3

• Gain a history of the pertinent areas from the staff (owner)
• What’s the overall feel / appearance
• Question any interesting figures in the records
• Examine the pigs: evenness, response, any issues, vices, muck, listen
• Examine the areas of the farm
• Follow a pattern, any issues?
• Nutrition
• Hospital pens
• Vaccine / medicine use
• Summaries your thoughts – then decide is sampling required?

Question 4

Describe the post-herd health visit plan of action

Answer 4

Report back any results from diagnostics
Write a report – does not need to be a book!

Question 5

What samples might you want for diagnostic purposes?

Answer 5

Blood samples
Saliva samples
Post-mortems & samples
Slaughterhouse samples
Skin / ear scrapes

Question 6

Describe the considerations of blood sample collection in pigs

Answer 6

• Which animals to sample?
• How many to take?
• Where to take them?
• Jugular or cranial vena cava
• Tail vein: not easy, but small sample volumes
• Ear vein: very friable and collapse easily – also very sensitive. Good for ‘prick’ samples though

Question 7

Describe the considerations of post mortems for diagnostics

Answer 7

• Always do more than you think – one post mortem, although useful, will always be bettered by 4 more…
• Not all dead pigs will be representative of the problem: natural losses
• Choose a sensible candidate: showing signs - not overly chronic
• Check and double check before taking samples
• Very acute disease challenges will show very little grossly
• Watch out for post mortem changes