DeGroot, M.*; Brochu, J.2.; Galé, I3.; Rodríguez-Ballarà, I3.; Nodar, L3. 1HIPRA HIPRA ANIMAL HEALTH CANADA INC., (Otawa), Canada. mike.degroot@hipra.com 2 La Coop. (Quebec), Canada. 3 HIPRA HQ. (Amer) Girona, Spain.
INTRODUCTION
The use of prophylactic antibiotics on pig farms is expected to be continually reduced over the next few years. Some bacterial diseases, such as Edema Disease (ED), may become more prevalent and require different management strategies to reduce the impact of the disease on farms. ED is caused by Verotoxin 2e (Vt2e), a bacterial enterotoxin produced in the small intestine by Verotoxigenic Escherichia Coli.1 Clinical signs include sudden death, swollen eyelids and neurological disorders.2,3 VEPURED® (HIPRA) is a recombinant V2e vaccine that reduces morbidity and mortality due to ED.4 This present study was carried out on a commercial Canadian farm to compare mortality reduction due to ED using two different vaccines (VEPURED® and Coliprotec® F4/F18), and unvaccinated pigs.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A nursery barn holding 2,300-2,700 pigs located in Quebec with historical records of mortality due to ED was used for the farm trial. Five batches of pigs were analysed: Group 1 (2,638 pigs non-vaccinated), Group 2 (2,638 pigs non-vaccinated), Group 3 (2,307 pigs vaccinated with F4-F18 water vaccine (Coliprotec® F4/F18), Group 4 (2,403 pigs vaccinated with F4-F18 water vaccine (Coliprotec® F4/F18) and Group 5 (2,723 pigs vaccinated with VEPURED®). Mortality was recorded for each group of pigs.
RESULTS
The results showed that VEPURED® significantly reduced ED mortality compared to both the unvaccinated and the Coliprotec® F4/F18 group. The mortality rate for each group is shown in Table 1.
The results were aggregated by vaccination type. The unvaccinated groups of pigs had an overall mortality rate of 4.39%. The Coliprotec® F4/F18 groups had an overall mortality rate of 3.09%. The VEPURED® vaccinated group had a mortality rate of 0.88%.
These results show that VEPURED® is significantly associated with lower mortality compared to F4-F18 water vaccine (p-value <0.001) and no vaccination (p-value <0.001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
As the Canadian swine industry faces a reduction in antibiotic use in years to come, effective vaccination programmes against bacterial diseases will become more important. Edema Disease causes acute neurological signs and sudden death. The acute nature of the disease makes individual pig treatment difficult with a poor prognosis. The best management for farms experiencing ED is to prevent the disease with vaccination. In this field trial, using VEPURED® vaccination against ED was shown to be more effective in reducing mortality than Coliprotec® F4/F18.
REFERENCES
1.Gelberg, H. 2017, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease 2. Moxley, R. Veterinary Clinics of North America Food Animal Practice 2000; 16(1):175-85 3.Zimmerman, JL et al. 2012. Diseases of Swine, 10th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell. 4. Mallorquí, J et al. Reduced mortality and morbidity associated with verotoxin 2e-induced edema disease in pigs using a recombinant verotoxin 2e vaccine. J Swine Health Prod. 2018; 26(5) :253-261.
