Premium
Epidemiological studies of pig diseases: 2. Post‐weaning diarrhoea and performance in Western Australian pigs
Author(s) -
SKIRROW SZ,
BUDDLE JR,
MERCY AR,
MADEC F.,
NICHOLLS RR
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1997.tb10098.x
Subject(s) - weaning , herd , zoology , veterinary medicine , epidemiology , biology , risk factor , diarrhea , medicine
Objective To determine in Australian pig herds the accuracy of French protocols for risk factor assessment of post‐weaning diarrhoea and illthrift. Procedure French protocols for the collection of data on health indicators and risk factors for post‐weaning diarrhoea were conducted on 54 batches of weaner pigs from 28 Western Australian pig herds during three years. Results Large variations in post‐weaning performance were found. About one‐third of the batches were growing at <200 g/day during the 3 weeks after weaning, and 54% had growth rates of <250 g/day. Weaning age and weight of at least 30 days and 7.9 kg, respectively, optimised weaner performance. Other risk factors associated with little post‐weaning diarrhoea and good weaner performance were high creep feed intakes, relatively little diarrhoea as suckers, and, contrary to expectations, large temperature fluctuations. Conclusion Overall, the ‘predictability’ of post‐weaning problems as assessed by measurement of risk status, was good. However, the model was less accurate at predicting the performance of a single batch of pigs.