Genetic Selection Offers One Option for Reducing Impact of PCVAD

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Porcine Circovirus Associated Disease appears to be triggered by a virus present in pig populations along with other cofactors.

Clinical signs include reduced feed conversion and growth rates and increased mortality.

Dr. Josh Poppe, with the Morden Vet Clinic says PCVAD has been at the forefront of research and a lot has been learned about the disease over the last few years.

Dr. Josh Poppe-Morden Vet Clinic

The vaccines have been the real savior.

They've been the miracle with circovirus.

We have one sow vaccination and right now three piglet vaccinations available to us.

The piglet vaccines have worked wonderfully well for preventing disease in the grow finish barn and in nurseries.

The sow vaccination has been a little less successful there but currently right now most producers that have problems are using the piglet vaccinations in their growing herds.

There are other things that are common good animal husbandry, good management practices and they involve good hygiene, good environmental controls, good nutrition, basically all the things that make you a successful pig farmer in the first place.

Genetics play a role.

There's a lot of research being done on that right now.

From what we know so far is that certain lines of boars and certain lines of sows will give offspring that for what ever reason are resistant to this virus so there will be some control certainly being used using genetic information.

Dr. Poppe notes the presence of other diseases, such as PRRS especially and also mycoplasma, can make this disease a lot worse.

He says, in herds that don't have PRRS or mycoplasma, the circovirus infections have not been as severe.

However he says economically this disease is very costly to producers, mainly from the mortality point of view and from the reduced performance side of things.

ThePigSite News Desk

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