Posted by Dr. Steve Dudley on June 29 2009 08:32
- October 25th I was called to a nursery to exam pigs that were doing poorly.
- Owner complained of some Strep type pigs and some increased death loss.
- (Of course this was on a saturday morning when no lab work is available)
- The owner was busy in the fields harvesting corn and was not available to go through the nursery.
- The producer had received 800 piglets weighing 15 pounds starting in September 15th through October 1st.
- Approximately 8 dead pigs were laying outside the nursery when I arrived.
- The nursery was comprised of two different buildings
- A double L nursery with 20 pens with 8 pigs per pen.
- An older reconverted barn that had 12 pigs with 50 pigs per pen
- There were 3 pigs laying in the alleyway paddling in the double L nursery
- There were 2 pigs laying in the older nursery paddling or huddling. A number of pigs were in the pen and unable to rise.
- Some of the pigs appeared purplish in color
- There was very little diarrhea in the pens
- A number of poor pigs were present throughout both buildings that showed fall behind, guant and unthrifty pigs and a slight cough.
Thoughts and Rule Outs
Infectious
- Step suis
- Haemophilus parasuis
- Beta hemolytic E.coli F18 (gut edema)
- Pseudorabies
- Other
Environmental
- Water Deprivation
- Carbon Monoxide poisoning
- Hydrogen sulfide poisoning
Nutritional
- "Bad feed"
- Insecticide such as an organophosphate in ration
- Mycotoxins in ration
- Other unknown feed contaminant
Additional History and Post Mortems
- Temperatures were very low
- One pig with 104 temp but most were in the 102 to 103 Fahrenheit
- Post mortem
- showed no fibrin tags in abdominal cavity
- No evidence of hemolytic contents to the intestines
- Stomachs were empty
- No excess fluid to thorax or abdomen
- Pneumonia present and ranged from 5% to 30% on some pigs
Additional History
- Climbed into each pen to check the water flow
- Observed the LB white heaters to assess flame
- Observed temperature of the room 80
Confused and stumped for an "old vet"
- Strep didn't work- no fever
- E.coli- no diarrhea and no hemolytic contents
- H. parasuis no fibin nor fluid
- Water deprivation- water was flowing
- Feed problem from organophosphate would affect a higher percentage of pigs.
Recommendations
- Treat all the pigs with Nuflor and Banamine combination
- Place amoxicillin in the water
- Consider moving pigs to a finisher to remove from the environment
- Recheck water flow
History and Progress
- Pigs no response to treatment. Pigs continue to die.
- 12 pigs died on Saturday
- 12 pigs died on Sunday
- Monday tissues sent to ISU
- New pigs delivered for Post Mortems
Diagnosis- Agent X
- Agent X is a pestivirus which is similar to Classic Swine Fever and Bovine Virus Diarrhea
- Not a lot known about the disease
- New viral agent that has caused CNS lesions and abortions in sow units and grow finish pigs.
- 2 years ago we started to see an increase in this problem.