October 20, 2010

New study shows enhanced sow reproductive performance with PCV2 vaccine

New research has shown that improved reproductive performance means that there is a strong economic case for vaccinating sows against porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2).

The study demonstrated that treating sows with a PCV2 vaccine could result in one or more additional piglet per litter.

The study was designed to assess the impact of the PCV2 vaccine on the reproductive performance of a sow breeding unit weaning pigs on-site and selling them at 35 kilogrammes. Data from the 1,000 sow outdoor breeding unit, which included the number of pigs born alive and weaned per litter, were routinely recorded using herd management software.

The unit started vaccinating its sows with the PCV2 vaccine in May 2007 and the first vaccinated sows farrowed in July that year. Data were collected from the second half of 2004 onwards and divided into blocks of six months. This allowed the number of live pigs born per litter to be compared by six month period and across the pre- and post-vaccination periods as a whole.

The number of pigs born alive during the six months before vaccination (January to June 2007), was compared with the number of pigs for the six months following vaccination (July to December 2007).

Numbers improved by 0.8 piglets per litter, with the mean increasing from 10.27 to 11.07. Taking the pre-vaccination period overall and comparing it with the post-vaccination performance, there were an extra 1.425 live piglets per litter. Over the same period, an average of 1.066 additional piglets was weaned per litter.