Animal welfare is becoming an extremely important consideration in pig rearing. The safety of vaccines is an important factor in this. Stressful treatments have negative impact on weight gain. Careful observation is essential and can make all the difference:
While the advice below is generally applicable there may be exceptions, particularly for vaccines that are not delivered intramuscularly.
Avoid vaccination during the first 10 days of life*: Energy-intake may be impaired because pigs that are vaccinated need more time before they resume sucking the sow again.
Mycoplasmal infections (i.e. M.hyo) in piglets occurs typically at an age of 6-8 weeks after passive (maternal) immunity wanes.
Early infections with M.hyo are a clear indication of a poor and unstable immunity in the sow herd leading to the production of poor quality colostrum
Better control of coughing on pig farms: Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cough Index App complements efforts to prevent respiratory diseases with vaccines.
The highest level of reproductive performance will be found on farms where feed intake is adjusted to the need of each individual sow. For this reason it is necessary to have a farm-specific feeding regime where the body condition of each individual sow pre-farrowing is documented and feeding adjusted accordingly on a sow by sow basis.
It should always be the goal to create an ideal thermal environment for both the high performing sow and her offspring.
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