Storage and Timing Essential to Successful Vaccination
Storage and Timing Essential to Successful Vaccination
Long-time Enterisol Ileitis user Andy Eichelberger has frozen vaccine shipped to his veterinarian’s clinic.
That way the Wayland, Iowa, producer doesn’t worry that improper storage will damage the live culture ileitis vaccine. His veterinarian has an ultra-low freezer equipped with an alarm. If the temperature in the freezer gets above minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, they know about it.
Eichelberger picks up the frozen vaccines from his veterinarian’s clinic the day it’s used and thaws them under cold trickling water for 30-45 minutes before administration. Product efficacy has been excellent since his storage and handling practices are sound.
Pulling antibiotics from the diet prior to vaccination also can’t be emphasized enough.
Eichelberger, who is nursery-finishing manager for his family’s 30,000-sow farrow-to-finish operation, strives for a seven-day non-medicated feed window before pigs are vaccinated at about 50 lb. late in the nursery period.
From a Voice of Experience
Veterinarian Steve Patterson, a swine practitioner from Shelbina, Mo., had this advice for ileitis vaccine users: “Producers need a clear understanding with the person responsible for feed ordering to know a bin just doesn’t get low, but actually is emptied before adding nonmedicated feed.”
Patterson prefers two nonmedicated phases back to back in bigger systems, which need a wider nonmedicated window, before vaccination. Vaccine is then administered during the second phase for a higher comfort level of achieving at least five days before vaccination.
Post-vaccination, the Missouri practitioner wants medication out of feed at least a week.
As more finishing flows move toward higher health, ileitis has taken a turn from acute outbreaks to chronic, subclinical problems, Patterson points out, which interferes with performance.
That subclinical picture changes in a heartbeat if circovirus enters the mix.
“When we attacked circovirus first, it made the ileitis control program much more effective,” he says.
“The vaccine is very successful if we handle it properly, administer it correctly and consistently vaccinate at the right time.”