Just like humans need their medicinal boost to remain healthy, so do animals. In particular, a pig herd requires a vaccine programme to stay in tip-top condition and farmers need to do everything that is necessary to keep the herd healthy.
Vaccines contain antigens derived from viruses, bacteria, bacterial toxins, or parasites. They are administered to pigs, usually by injection, to generate an immune response that protects them from later natural infection with the organism from which the vaccine was made.
Dr Sakhumuzi “Sakhi” Nkosi, a technical veterinarian at Afrivet, shares the importance of vaccine programmes.
What is a vaccine programme?
He explains that this is derived from the common diseases that you face in the area or in the piggery. The vaccination is part of preventative medicine, so you are boosting and priming the immune system before they get an infection.
Nkosi says, “A vaccine programme is a programme that tells you what to vaccinate against, when to give it, how to give it, which vaccines to use, and what diseases they cover.
“So when you vaccinate, you protect your herd against diseases that you have vaccinated against. Some vaccines would cover one disease and others would cover multiple diseases.”
It does this by stimulating the herd’s immune system to create antibodies and fight off infection. Furthermore, the immune system then activates memory antibodies to continue fighting off subsequent or future infections.
“To maintain this memory, some vaccines require frequent boosters and some you can give once and boost every year,” he says.
The importance of a vaccine programme
A vaccine programme is important and very crucial to have in your piggery as it will help you reduce and control diseases and also help you prevent the introduction of diseases within your farm.
“The biggest challenge that we face in piggeries is reduced productivity which is directly related to the reduction of profit,” Nkosi says.
There is a need to meet demands, though some farmers might experience reduced productivity in terms of:
- Slow growth rate;
- Reduced weight gain;
- General sickness;
- Abortion;
- Fertility, including reduced litter.
Different vaccines
It is important to communicate with your veterinarian to help identify common diseases in your area and common diseases found on your herd, and see if there are vaccines available for that disease and then create a vaccine programme from that.
“Not all piggeries are going to have the same vaccine programmes so this differs from farm to farm and area to area, and the veterinarian that is consulting.”
Vets need to go to the farm and assess the specific challenges the farmers are facing with their herd including the history and if required, run some tests.
Piglets, sows and bores
“From that, derive a vaccination programme that will help the farm improve the herd of animals. Usually, we divide the vaccine programme in piggeries to piglets, sow units, and boar units,” he says.
“In the dry sows, we look at vaccines that will protect against reproductive failures, reduced litter abortions and stillbirths. There are vaccines on the market that can protect against viruses causing these kinds of challenges.”
He says you need a best friend and the vet is just that, so building a good relationship with the vet can make life easier. It is also important to understand the difference between a vaccination programme versus a herd health programme.
“It is important to consult your veterinarian because there are optional vaccines that protect against other vaccines that occur on your farm. It’s easy for farmers to confuse a vaccination programme with a herd health programme which is not the case. A herd health programme is a comprehensive approach to other programmes,” Nkosi says.
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