The Leman Swine conference, which draws more than 700 veterinarians and swine producers from around the world, was held in St. Paul, Minn., this summer. This annual event grows and changes and is one of three conferences several of us here at the Pipestone Veterinary Clinic have attended regularly for 25 years.
It’s a significant gathering for me because I was Al Leman’s student and spent countless hours with him on swine farms. I can clearly remember Al debating production issues that were important then and teaching us to commit ourselves to lifelong learning.
During this year’s conference, I often caught myself wondering what Al would think about PRRS, PCV (circovirus), and animal welfare activists. Although current issues are different than what he faced, I am sure that he would have encouraged all of us to work together as a team, use sound scientific practices to figure out the latest control and elimination tactics for diseases that confront us, and to continue on the path of lifelong personal growth. Needless to say, I miss Al Leman.
Making headlines
PCV is starting to get our attention, but PRRS continues to be the number-one cause of underperformance at the sow farms we manage and at nurseries receiving the weaned pigs we produce. Dr. Barry Kerkaert, Dr. Luke Minion, Dr. Joel Nerem, and Dr. Cameron Schmitt spend nearly 100% of their time in various phases of the production system (sow farm, nursery, or wean-to-finish)—even Dr. Kennedy visits a pig farm once in awhile! None of them ever quits thinking about ways to control, eliminate, or prevent a PRRS infection.
At the recent Leman conference, we presented data from one of our sow farms and wean-to-finish barns. This farm has a particular isolate of PRRS that is so bad we have decided that we cannot live with it and have started down a path to eliminate it from this production flow.
We have observed (and learned) a number of things from this experience. This virus is different from PRRS viruses on other farms. In other words, not all PRRS is the same.
We also observed that no matter what tests we’d use to predict PRRS activity on this particular sow farm, invariably the nursery pigs would be the first to know we were leaking the virus. I can’t explain this; I only know that it happened repeatedly at this sow farm and nursery.
This virus was so bad that even the market would discriminate against these pigs. If buyers were informed that pigs were available from this sow farm, they would either not buy them or discount them heavily. In economic terms, the market was efficiently dealing with positive pigs from this sow farm, which is why we needed to get rid of this virus.
I believe that we will continue to see regional and local programs and efforts to eliminate this devastating virus that has been a problem in many of our herds over the past 15 years.
On to new Opportunities
Veterinarian and production specialist Dr. Gustavo Pizarro, who spent the past three years here at the Pipestone System, has returned to Chile. Gus came to Pipestone to help us in our sow farms and to bring to the U.S. the Chilean approach to modern swine production. Gus’s passion for excellence, his desire to develop people, and his teaching gift were appreciated. While Gus will still visit us from time to time, his daily presence will be missed. We wish Gus and his family all the best as he begins a new phase of his career. |
