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Interisol® Ileitis vaccine is a hightech product with high-tech results – if it’s used correctly.

Storage, timing and administration are all critical to the vaccine’s ability to protect pigs from Lawsonia intracellularis, the organism that causes ileitis.

“And if you commit the resources to use it right, the vaccine is very efficacious,” says swine practitioner Jim Lowe.

Lowe, a DVM with Carthage Veterinary Services, has one client – Maschhoff Farms – one of the largest integrators in the country. The huge system, based in Carlyle, Ill., markets over 2 million head per year.

Every pig in the 300-site Maschhoff system is vaccinated for ileitis. It wasn’t always so. Only last March did the production company make the switch to oral immunization via the pigs’ drinking water.

What convinced Lowe to recommend the ileitis vaccine? “We were using various combinations of in-feed medications,” he recalls. “On a seasonal basis, about 12 percent of the sites would still have acute outbreaks after 18 weeks post weaning. Those outbreaks cost about $8 per head.

“Knock on wood, I don’t believe we’ve had any outbreaks since going to the vaccine, based on mortality and growth rate,” says Lowe. “Late finishing mortality has had a large reduction. We track diagnostics in late finishing and we knew we could go back and pin down confirmed ileitis cases. This summer, it’s been zero.”

Pre-planning before vaccination, proper execution and product education in general have helped with their success, Lowe adds.

Dedicated field advisors who oversee 50,000 to 80,000 pigs are responsible for administering the product in the late nursery stage, or at about 30 lb. Lowe prefers an antibiotic-free window of 7-14 days before pigs receive vaccine.

The standard recommendation is to withdraw feed antibiotics at least three days before and three days after administration to avoid inactivating the live culture vaccine.

At Maschhoffs, no antibiotics are fed post vaccination through the remainder of the grow-finish period.

A similar philosophy is shared by Minnesota veterinarian Paul Yeske. The swine practitioner tells his clients to withhold medication 7 days before and after vaccination, typically during the late nursery phase before pigs move to growfinish.

“If this is not possible, it needs to be communicated with the finisher ahead of time so there are no medications in the feed when pigs are received into the finisher,” says Yeske.

“Populations are generally stable at that point, which offers an advantage of going antibiotic-free after administration,” he explains.

Pigs receiving Enterisol are typically vaccinated in the nursery or early finisher. Most important is timing the vaccine so pigs develop immunity before exposure to ileitis – vaccinate at least three to four weeks prior to infection.

Yeske is part of a multi-partner practice – Swine Vet Center – in St. Peter, Minn.

This swine practitioner has added a new twist to his ileitis control program. Replacement gilts entering sow farms receive a booster vaccination in isolation/acclimation.

“Historically, ileitis has been a problem in breeding herds,” Yeske points out. “Vaccinating gilts reduces concern that sow farms will have periodic clinical outbreaks – especially on startups and repopulations. That becomes an even bigger challenge.”

Yeske prefers the frozen vaccine for his clients, but since it must be used quickly, he says he appreciates Boehringer Ingelheim’s vaccine replacement policy. In other words, if product has been ordered and pigs unexpectedly get sick, requiring medication which postpones vaccination, replacement vaccine is reshipped rather than using product with a potentially compromised shelf-life.

And his take today on ileitis prevention? “Oral vaccines are an easy way to vaccinate pigs as long as details are followed,” Yeske says. “Ileitis is still a problem in the industry, but it’s controllable.”

One of the industry challenges has been porcine circovirus (PCV2). This disease certainly may have complicated ileitis problems since the clinical signs can be similar. Now that there are PCV2 vaccines available and most pigs are vaccinated, all programs will need to be evaluated with these vaccinations in place because of the complications with coinfections.

“The nice thing about vaccine, however, is if everything is working well in a herd, controls are in place. With feed grade medications, you may have product coming in and going out, so there is more potential for breaks. Producers who elect to keep feed grade in all the time to keep ileitis from being a problem and still have clinical breaks to treat have more expense.”