In these days of rising input costs and the resulting razor-thin profit margins, the last thing a livestock farmer needs is a devastating disease outbreak. And because an outbreak is the last thing you need, a good biosecurity plan should be the first.
The effects of disease in a swine operation range from severe and rapidly spreading illness to a simple decrease in feed efficiency with little-to-no outward signs of infection. When profitability depends on scrutinizing every input and output of your operation, however, it doesn’t take a herd-culling outbreak to create problems for a producer.
There are two main components to every biosecurity plan: practices to prevent the introduction of disease (bioexclusion), and practices to control disease when it’s detected (biocontainment).
All biosecurity plans start with a good understanding of the potential illnesses that can affect your herd and facilities.
Animal health experts and farmers alike keep an eye out for many diseases and pathogens, among them:
Aside from watching for visible signs of disease, producers can identify illness by closely monitoring performance records. In hog breeding operations, a farmer may see changes in the average number of pigs weaned. After weaning, changing feed-to-gain ratios can indicate something’s off.
Modern livestock farming has the benefit of automated data-collecting equipment like Osborne’s Weight Watcher Growth Management System, to help producers keep track of behavioral data and pinpoint concerns.
Management of disease is anything but one-size-fits-all. Farmers select and utilize the many tools at their disposal — pharmaceutical therapy, herd management, and more — based on a variety of factors. Farmers try to eradicate and guard against some diseases. For other diseases, either too mild or too difficult to prevent, farmers take a “maximize immunity/minimize the challenge” approach, balancing efforts to support their herd’s immunity and reduce the level of disease exposure in a manner that makes financial sense for their operation.
If you suspect a concerning disease among your pigs, you should take several steps immediately:
The financial, emotional, animal welfare, and public relations damage of disease outbreak can be devastating, so it’s no surprise farmers make avoiding one altogether a top priority. Ever heard the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”?
You’ll find solid strategies to keep both pig and producer healthy in our recent blog post, Best Practices for Swine Disease Prevention, which we’ve included here along with a few additional details:
Animal health experts acknowledge that prevention practices vary by disease, animal species, facility type, financial considerations, and other factors, but one piece of advice applies to all: Never let your guard down. Stay vigilant and remember that diseases are constantly changing. Your biosecurity plan will likely need adjustment periodically as well.