Loading...
Estimating the Effect of Respiratory Disease on Production Performance in Farrow-to-Finish Pig Farms
Citations
Altmetric:
Date
2020-05-22
Collections
Files
Loading...
main preprint
Adobe PDF, 354.79 KB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Rodrigues da Costa, M., Rovira, A., Torremorell, M., Fitzgerald, R. M., Gasa, J., O'Shea, H., Garcia Manzanila, E. Estimating the Effect of Respiratory Disease on Production Performance in Farrow-to-Finish Pig Farms, 22 May 2020, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-30441/v1
Abstract
Background Respiratory disease is one of the most important factors impacting pig production
worldwide. However, the literature highlights the multitude of confounding factors complicating the clear
attribution of growth impairment to respiratory disease, and the extrapolation of the effects of respiratory
disease to a wider population has not been thoroughly researched. The objective of this study was to
estimate the impact of respiratory disease on production performance in a subset of 56 Irish farrow-to-
nish
pig farms. Proxies for respiratory disease status such as serology for four major pathogens
(inuenza
A virus, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and
Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae ), slaughter checks (pleurisy, pneumonia, lung abscesses, pericarditis
and liver milk spots) and vaccination information were used as predictors for production performance.
Results The models to estimate production performance from serology, slaughter checks, and
vaccination were able to explain the variability of weaner and nisher
mortality by 26 and 20%,
respectively, and average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG) and age at slaughter by 47,
40 and 41%, respectively. Feed conversion ratio and sow performance were not explained by the studied
predictors.
Conclusions The models tted,
especially those for ADFI, ADG and age at slaughter, emphasize the
usefulness of sourcing information at different levels to understand the impact of farm health status on
pig performance, and highlight the impact of respiratory disease on production performance.