Managing ileitis vaccination for maximum reward
The recent commercial release of a highly effective oral vaccine against ileitis has greatly improved the ability to control the damaging effects of ileitis immunologically. Large-scale field studies prove the vaccine can contribute to long-lasting duration of immunity, uniform population immunity, and improvements in productivity and survivability.
Better still, specific studies on many farms have now indicated that the need to resort to antibiotics to control ileitis later in the production flow can be reduced — and in some cases eliminated entirely. The ability of vaccination to stimulate protective immunity controls both the endemic chronic and the acute forms of the disease — without relying on low-level antibiotic feeding. Reducing that input cost represents a significant savings on farms that use the vaccine, which along with an improved rate of growth accounts for the five-to-one return on investment demonstrated by studies on more than 120,000 pigs.
By working closely with swine producers and veterinarians, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc., has identified several critical drivers that help producers achieve best return on their vaccination investment. This issue of Insight outlines tips to optimize this new technology on your operation.
Tools
Why the oral vaccine?
Create protection by immunity rather than by continuously fed antimicrobials.
Provide a return on investment of five to one vs. use of feed medication alone.
Reduce dependence on antimicrobial medication in the future.
More info
Walter D. 2003. Reducing reliance upon continuous feeding of antimicrobials in swine production. Proc AASV Applied Pharmacology Seminar 2003:19-25.
Jordan D.M.; et. al. A Lawsonia intracellularis transmission study using a pure culture inoculated seeder-pig sentinel model. Veterinary Micriobiology 2004, In press.