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There's a reason continuous medication became popular: To put pulse-dosed strategic medication to work requires a higher level of management in return for those higher rewards. Here's how to start:

• When putting together a plan of attack against production-limiting disease, remember to look at all available interventions — vaccines, strategic medication, and changes in production flow.

• The key to making strategic medication work is to time its application to prevent clinical disease outbreak — and thus reduce its impact — even while you allow for development of natural immunity. Best case scenario: If the onset of disease is predictable and consistent, place the first pulse dose just prior to the expected onset of clinical signs. Typically, that means it should target high-stress periods:

  • Immediately post-weaning
  • When animals move to grow-finish units
  • When disease events occur.

• Don't fly blind. Of course, to hit the medication target window between natural exposure and development of clinical disease, diagnostic profiling is critical. A good herd diagnostic program identifies significant pathogens, frames the timing of infection, and helps select an appropriate drug and dose.

  Some of that diagnostic profiling may entail:

  • Clinical observations such as barn walk throughs and cough and scour indexing
  • Serological profiling using consistent methodology that permits you to accurately identify when natural exposure is occurring
  • Post-mortems to help identify what other disease agents may be interacting and to help decide on a plan of action for each.

• Once the initial timing targets are identified, adjustments can be made based on observations and capabilities. Be prepared to adjust medication timing if the timing of disease onset changes. For example, if symptoms start to appear just prior to the second scheduled pulse dose, move the timing of that pulse ahead by one week on the next group of pigs. You can also fine tune the number of medication pulses, their duration, and the duration of the non-medicated intervals as needed to maintain good disease control and reduce costs. Medicating via the water can be useful when quick changes in medication timing are needed. In contrast, when disease patterns are consistent and feed delivery schedules can be coordinated, medication changes can be scheduled into budgeted diets.

Christianson, E.L. 2001. Control strategies for mortality in a multiple site finishing system. Proc Leman Swine Conf 2001:201-202.

Yeske, P. 2001. Experiences with Mycoplasma vaccinations: What to do if vaccination doesn't live up to expectations. Proc Leman Swine Conf 2001:108-110.

Indications

Is it time to try pulse dosing?

• You find yourself unable to exclude infection that's causing disease outbreaks later in the production flow.
• Vaccines to control the production-limiting disease(s) are either not available or not adequately effective.
• You can't get vaccination accomplished before animals are exposed to the disease.
• So many disease challenges are involved that you need a broad-spectrum intervention.
• Market limitations or production constraints are making continuous use of antibiotics unacceptable.