The study was conducted on two Spanish farms affected by PCVD and involved a total of 1239 pigs. At weaning 619 were vaccinated with Circovac® while 620 were given a placebo vaccine? Pigs were weighed prior to entering the fattening unit, and again before the first batch was sent for slaughter.¹

At the first farm average daily weight gain was 10 grams per day higher among vaccinated pigs than among non-vaccinated (600 g/d versus 590 g/d). The second site showed even greater differences between the two groups of 40 grams per day (710 g/d versus 670 g/d) in favour of the vaccinated group. On the first site there was also much greater homogeneity of bodyweight and the number of smaller pigs weighing less than 80 kg at finishing was significantly reduced.

Brian Rice, Merial Animal Health’s Veterinary Adviser, said: “Clearly there are commercial advantages to delivering a uniform product whatever industry you are in. This study confirms that vaccinating piglets against PCV2 can improve the uniformity of the finished pigs, as well as increasing average daily weight gains and therefore reducing the time to finishing. The vaccination delivers measurable economic benefits to producers.“

¹ CIRCOVAC piglet vaccination improves homogeneity of pigs and production parameters up to slaughter. T.Vila, F. Joisel, M.Chevalier, L. Fischer, V.Cozette. MERIAL SAS

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