94 per cent of swine herds have subclinical ileitis

A study showed 94 per cent of swine herds with no clinical signs of ileitis tested positive for Lawsonia intracellularis.¹

This same study showed that nearly 70 per cent of flows found to be sero-negative for L. intracellularis at 18 weeks of age were found positive between 21 and 27 weeks.¹

Even though ileitis is a very common problem, the most recent NAHMS study showed that only 41.7 per cent of producers knew or suspected ileitis to have caused sickness or death in their grow/finish pigs during the previous 12 months.²

Michael Senn, DVM, MS, manager of veterinary operations at Pfizer Animal Health, says that if operations are not meeting their performance goals, they may want to ask their veterinarian to look for evidence of subclinical ileitis.

“Feed efficiency gets worse as pigs age, and if they come down with subclinical ileitis, the producer loses even more,” says Mr Senn.

Subclinical ileitis has been reported to slash average daily gain by 38 per cent and feed efficiency by 27 per cent.³ Getting a handle on a hidden profit robber like subclinical ileitis is one more way to increase profit margins.

1. Armbruster GA, Deen J, Gebhart CJ, Pelger GA, Keffaber KK, Parks CW. Review of Lawsonia intracellularis seroprevalence screening in the United States, June 2003 to July 2006, in Proceedings. 38th Annu Meet Amer Assoc Swine Vet, 2007.
2. USDA, National Animal Health Monitoring System, APHIS, Veterinary Services. Disease in Nursery and Grower/Finisher Pigs in 2000 and 2006 – and Vaccine and Antimicrobial Use in 2006. January 2008.
3. Paradis MA, McKay RI, Wilson JB, Vessie GH, Winkelman NL, Gebhart CJ. Subclinical ileitis produced by sequential dilutions of Lawsonia intracellularis in a mucosal homogenate challenge model, in Proceedings. 36th Annu Meet Amer Assoc Swine Vet, 2005.

Further Reading

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