Selecting your protocols

As for the testing protocols to include, “It varies depending on the virus or bacteria,” Toohill said. “We find some are simpler to treat with vaccines and antibiotics, so it really depends on which ones we can accurately test status and more easily prevent or control. Circovirus is a good example — the vaccines work well, so pigs shouldn’t contract it. But if you take sow processing fluids and those are showing low CTs or the virus, it could indicate something interfering with the vaccine’s ability to work or could show a gap in vaccine protocol.”

Also, “as we as an industry move toward ever more responsible use of antibiotics, realizing the endemic bacteria pigs routinely have is going to be more important, especially if we start to rely more on autogenous vaccines instead of antibiotics for healthy pigs. Those are situations where the regular tissue diagnostics are going to be valuable.”

To decide on protocols for routine testing, Toohill begins with a common factor: Herd mortality, and how a producer wants to address it. Mortality a ready metric from which everyone can work, after all. Does the producer want to reduce mortality in their herd a specific percentage? How low?

“If a producer is willing to accept higher mortality rates, they may not wish to invest in such detailed routine testing costs, or for as many conditions, especially if they need to make spending reductions somewhere,” she explained.

Another means of settling on testing protocols is to ask a producer if they observe their animals exhibiting clinical signs of illness, consistently, at particular stages of development. Are they seeing diarrhea? Lameness? Coughing? This both helps narrow down diseases for which to routinely test and establishes when the testing will be most helpful for future pigs.

Oral fluids are simple enough for a producer to collect themselves, as are fecal samples and fecal or nasal swabs, said Toohill. Tissue collection is more specialized, but producers and farm workers can learn it and do not always need a vet. Blood testing requires more training but again, with practice, non-vets can learn this skill as necessary.

If a producer cannot put into place a frequent testing program, they can collect processing fluids and freeze, which is valuable if clinical signs of an illness present later for a disease such as PRRS. Being able to test those fluids may help in determining when the virus entered the herd and can help in updating biosecurity protocols to guard better against it. Toohill recommends keeping frozen samples for up to three months.