Vets in Ireland have been trained to recognise the damage caused to the gut by ileitis during factory checks, in order to identify potential losses caused by the disease.

MSD Animal Health organised the training with Hungarian vet Laszlo Buza, one of the pioneers of the ‘gut scoring’ technique.

Ileitis is caused by the bacterium, Lawsonia intracellularis, which is found on all Irish pig farms. Not all infected pigs will show signs of disease, but they may experience diarrhoea characterised by grey, pasty faeces.

Piglets remain affected by permanent damage to the gut as physiological changes to the lining of the ileum caused by Lawsonia reduce the pigs’ ability to digest food and absorb essential nutrients, resulting in reduced weight gain and increased feed costs.

“Being able to see and feel the changes to the pigs’ intestines during a factory shift, really brings home the long-term damage being done by this insidious disease,” explains Maureen Prendergast, swine technical manager at MSD Animal Health.

“Ileitis is very common here in Ireland and often the signs are masked by the use of zinc oxide or antibiotics, so it really is an invisible enemy. Hopefully this new technique of gut-scoring will allow vets and farmers to see the effect it has throughout the whole of the pig’s life, right through to slaughter.”

Healthy gut (above) is pink with fine folds, whereas diseased gut (bottom image) is discoloured with raised nodules

The gut-scoring technique focuses on a small part of the ileum close to where it joins the large intestine.

Healthy guts have fine folds and ridges, but in diseased animals there are areas of thickening with discoloured lesions and raised nodules that are easily identified.

With practice, vets are able to grade the level of damage simply by touch, allowing a snapshot of the scale of damage across batches of pigs.

“Of course, there are other methods of diagnosis for Lawsonia on farm, but this is another practical tool for vets to use and the feedback from the training was incredibly positive,” Dr. Prendergast continued.

“In the same way we can use lung-scoring to identify the effects of pneumonia, clinicians can see that gut-scoring offers a quantifiable assessment of ileitis.

“We hope that with greater understanding of the scale and effect of this disease, we will be better able to control it,” she added.

Treating gut damage

Management of ileitis on farm previously relied on the use of zinc oxide and in-feed antibiotics, but with recent legislation changes, farmers are increasingly adopting vaccination as a control measure.

Vaccination with Porcilis Lawsonia from three weeks-of-age has been proven to reduce diarrhoea, reduce intestinal lesions and reduce loss of daily weight gain.

“Pig farmers are currently experiencing unprecedented rises in feed costs, so there really isn’t any feed to waste right now,” Dr. Prendergast continued.

“Porcilis Lawsonia has been shown to increase ADWG [average daily liveweight gain] by an average of 57g compared to unvaccinated pigs, and the same field trial also showed a reduction in FCR [feed conversion ratio] from 2.47 to 2.21.

“With pig feed at more than €470/t, it makes a big financial impact over the lifetime of a pig.”

The majority of pig vets in Ireland have now received the training and farmers are encouraged to discuss gut-scoring with their vets.

“In the current climate, I would recommend farmers talk about feed efficiency to their vets as well as their nutritionists. There may be underlying disease issues that need to be addressed and their vet will be best placed to diagnose and treat it,” Dr. Prendergast concluded.

Further information on Porcilis Lawsonia and Porcilis Lawsonia ID is available from your veterinary practitioner, the product SPC, or MSD Animal Health, Red Oak North, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland.

MSD Animal Health can be contacted at: 01-2970220 or emailed at: [email protected].