Farmscape for March 28, 2023
| Full Interview 21:11 | Listen  |
An outbreak of Streptococcus equii zooepidemicus in Alberta has demonstrated the difficulty in eliminating the infection from the farm.
The Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network swine disease surveillance report for the fourth Quarter of 2022 highlights a case of Streptococcus equii zooepidemicus detected in September on a sow farm in Alberta. The outbreak occurred on a five thousand sow operation and saw high mortality in sows in late September and into October. Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network Manager Dr. Jette Christensen says the operation implemented a control strategy without depopulation but applied treatments while acclimatizing gilts though feedback, without success.
Clip-Dr. Jette Christensen-Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network:
They’ve been trying to avoid depopulating the entire premises. That has been unsuccessful. This is a really dramatic disease because it causes sudden death in sows. The report from the practitioner is that from when a sow starts to go off feed and shows a little depression until the sow is dead is less than 12 hours. It’s really hard to keep on top of that because, if you’re going to cure the sow or get it to survive you have to get in with early treatment. You really have to catch the sows developing the disease within a few hours of the first onset. This farm has experienced over 300 sows dead within the first four months. The feedback we got from them was that exposure under treatment from October to December did fail as a control measure.
Dr. Christensen says the experience also showed Strep zoo is a slow-moving disease that seems to require nose to nose contact to spread but, with the high mortality, it’s a dramatic disease.
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