“Sow farms that were virus positive when we started the programme are doing a lot better now...also, we have less airway disease in the growers and finisher pigs regarding problems that are secondary to PRRS” Hear from Danish swine veterinarian Dr. Kristian Havn how 40 farms in an area of western Denmark have been taking part in an area PRRS control programme over the past two years. Dr. Havn devised the programme after attending a training course where details were presented of area-level eradi...
Jun 28, 2021•29 min•Season 2Ep. 7
“When you go over 14 live births and the sow has 12-14 functional teats, you need split-suckling protocols” Sow herds should consider split-suckling (also called shift- suckling) if litters contain more than 14 liveborn pigs in order to improve survival rates, according to Drs. Rutger Jansen, technical service manager for swine at Boehringer Ingelheim in The Netherlands and a specialist on colostrum management. Lower mortality and more marketable pigs will pay for the 5-10 minutes of extra work ...
Jun 14, 2021•30 min•Season 2Ep. 6
“The basic input for the pig that is needed is an intake of 250 grams of colostrum, then the survival chances are more or less equal for all the pigs” Bigger litters from modern prolific sows increase the challenge of making sure that every newborn pig consumes enough colostrum, we hear from Drs. Rutger Jansen. He's field technical service manager in The Netherlands for the Boehringer Ingelheim swine health portfolio and takes a special interest in colostrum management in sow herds. The first in...
May 31, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 5
“Our recent work demonstrated the presence of the PCV-3 genome within mild-to moderate histological lesions of aborted fetuses. This supports that PCV-3 should be considered as a potential causative pathogen for reproductive failure" Professor Segalés shares his recent experience investigating the relevance of PCV3, posing the question: What is the clinical and economic impact of this emerging virus in sows and growing piglets? During this conversation we will hear the latests information that ...
May 17, 2021•30 min•Season 2Ep. 4
“So far, all vaccines in the market have shown great efficacy in reducing clinical signs associated to diseases caused by PCV-2, independently of the genotype present in the farm. Moreover, experimental data demonstrated the cross-protection of PCV-2a vaccines against the most widespread genotypes (PCV-2a, PCV-2b, and PCV-2d). Therefore, despite the significant number of genotypes described/proposed (PCV-2a to PCV-2i), it seems one single PCV-2 serotype would exist". Joaquim Segalés is full prof...
May 03, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 3
“African swine fever and classical swine fever are two completely different diseases in their epidemiology and the behaviour of the virus” How does the African swine fever virus reach and infect domestic pigs? The most common routes are spelled out in this podcast featuring Dr. Klaus Depner, a virologist and ASF specialist who leads a working group on transboundary animal disease management at FLI, the German federal institute for animal health. The virus does not enter on infected droplets or a...
Apr 19, 2021•24 min•Season 2Ep. 2
“We learned that it's a human-made disease so it's a matter of what people are doing and how they behave” Virologist Dr. Klaus Depner in Germany tells us that preventing the entry of the African swine fever virus is fundamentally a matter of good farm biosecurity coupled with education of the general public so they are not transmitting the virus or carrying it in food or other materials. At the German federal institute for animal health FLI, Dr. Depner heads a working group on transboundary anim...
Apr 05, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 1
“What is the effect on antibiotics…no, no, I mean antibodies” Here at Meet The Expert, we mark the end of Season One on a lighter note by bringing you some out-take clips from the series. Hear our unintentional slips of the tongue and other moments when an interview with an expert did not go exactly to plan. Hear also the inside story of how the Covid coronavirus made us re-think our whole concept of how we would talk to swine health experts in different countries for a series of practical podca...
Dec 21, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 21
“The antibodies generated by some old vaccine strains have their neutralising capability reduced by the new PPV” Professor André Felipe Streck of the University of Caxias do Sul in Brazil gives his expert view of the key question: Are long-established PPV vaccines still effective when faced with new field strains of the virus? He also discusses whether years of vaccinating sow herds against reproductive failure due to the porcine parvovirus PPV have played any part in the mutation of the virus i...
Dec 07, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 20
“We have an evolutionary process with this virus…evolutionary hot-spots on the surface of the virus, located at points in contact with the host’s immune system” In southern Brazil, Professor André Felipe Streck of the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Caxias do Sul leads us through the changing story of the porcine parvovirus PPV. Long considered a stable virus that could be controlled by vaccines developed four decades ago, its evolution into diverse forms has become evident since...
Nov 24, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 19
“An important message for veterinarians and farmers is that the spread of ASF from farm to farm is possible with a very small dose of the virus” Professor Grzegorz Wozniakowski is Head of the Department of Swine Diseases at the National Veterinary Research Institute in Puławy, Poland, and also Director of Poland’s National Reference Laboratory on African swine fever. In addition to sharing his expertise on the diagnostic methods available for ASF, he describes a Polish study published in 2020 wh...
Nov 09, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 18
“Highly pathogenic African swine fever virus is present in all wild boar in Poland; there are no safe levels of wild boar density” Poland’s first incidence of ASF was in wild boar in 2014 and since then it has recorded over 7,000 wild-boar cases of the disease as well as nearly 270 outbreaks in domestic pigs, notes Professor Grzegorz Wozniakowski, Director of the country’s National Reference Laboratory on African swine fever. He sets out Polish experiences over the past six years in dealing with...
Oct 26, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 17
“It is feasible to do it in a year, but we are going to be busy!” In 2020, Boehringer Ingelheim has sponsored its latest annual European PRRS Research Awards which offer 25,000 Euros towards the funding of each of three research projects that are potentially of practical benefit in controlling PRRS. Hear the winners of the 2020 Awards describe the research they propose, given the time limit of completing the work in one year. A practitioner-led project in Denmark is to examine the impact of pigl...
Oct 12, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 16
“We know that vaccinating can decrease the amount of viruses in the air, so vaccination is a good mechanism to prevent airborne transmission” Swine veterinary consultant Dr. Carmen Alonso in Spain picks out lessons from her detailed studies of air samples inside and outside farms suffering an outbreak of PRRS, influenza A or porcine epidemic diarrhoea --- as well as poultry sites with highly pathogenic avian influenza. Particle size in the air influenced the distance of transmission and also the...
Sep 28, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 15
“A weak spot for PRRS control comes when you take boar semen or gilts from outside into a herd” Better surveillance for PRRS at boar stations in Denmark has followed a breakdown at a PRRS-negative boar station which led to sharply reduced sow productivity at herds in the area, reports Professor Lars Erik Larsen of the University of Copenhagen. Investigators discovered that the break involved a recombinant form of the virus, combining strains from two vaccines used at a sow herd about 5 kilometre...
Sep 14, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 14
“Even people not feeling sick may be spreading the virus, so measures such as dividing teams of workers both physically and temporally are important to prevent transmission on the farm” Food animal veterinarians can consider themselves as population medicine experts and therefore well qualified to advise swine farms on the extra precautions necessary both outside and inside the farm gate to prevent the entry of novel coronavirus SARS CoV2 and its spread among workers, we are told by independent ...
Aug 31, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 13
“Piglets as well as sows play a key role in transmitting the virus” Veterinary virologist Dr. Pia Ryt-Hansen from the University of Copenhagen suggests practical lessons for controlling Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex viruses, based on her research into swine Influenza A virus or IAV-S in a sow herd in Denmark. Hear how production strategies and even maternally derived antibodies can actually contribute to viral persistence in the herd, plus potential benefits from the application of diagnos...
Aug 17, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 12
“ People coming into the herd should at least have a vaccination against influenza” Influenza A virus (IAV-S) can occur constantly within a swine herd, all year round, warns Dr. Pia Ryt-Hansen in Denmark. This persistence provides an ideal environment for the virus to change. A particular risk would arise if visitors or farm staff introduced seasonal strains of human influenza virus.
Aug 03, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 11
“Immunevasion and recombination are not linked, but both are part of the same complex allowing some PRRS viruses to evade the normal controls on the farm” How can PRRS sometimes manage to penetrate apparently well protected farms? Viral mutation and the relatively slow completion of the pig’s immune response offer clues, according to this conversation with Dr. Enric Mateu, Professor of Animal Health at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain and researcher at the CRESA Catalan institute of an...
Jul 19, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
“There are indications that some of the oldest vaccine strains are not providing full protection against emerging new genotypes of parvovirus” Hear how Dr. Poul Henning Rathkjen (Boehringer Ingelheim Nordic) and Professor Hans Nauwynck (Head of Virology at the University of Ghent’s veterinary medicine faculty in Belgium) assess recent reports of the emergence of new, virulent strains of the porcine parvovirus PPV. Running time: 35 minutes
Jul 05, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 9
“In our challenge studies with a highly virulent European strain, the pigs had quite good protection from a vaccine that is new in Europe” In conversation with Dr. Andrea Ladinig (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria) and Dr. Greg Stevenson (Iowa State University, USA) about investigations of genetics and vaccination to combat more virulent strains of the PRRS virus. Running time: 23 minutes
Jun 21, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 8
“Peak titres can show 1,000 times more virus in blood serum with higher virulence strains” In conversation comparing American and European views of high-virulence PRRS strains, Dr. Greg Stevenson (Iowa State University, USA) and Dr. Andrea Ladinig (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria) describe marked differences in replication, in ability to cross the placenta before the third trimester of gestation and in severity of lung damage where these so-called hotter strains occur. Running ...
Jun 07, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 7
“The tricky part of herd immunisation is how you introduce your gilts” Our second podcast with Dr. Poul Henning Rathkjen of Boehringer Ingelheim Nordic covers the herd management procedures that support effective vaccination against PRRS. Running time: 19 minutes
May 24, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 6
“Like a cloud that is spreading, the diversity of the virus is becoming bigger and bigger” We hear from Dr. Poul Henning Rathkjen of Boehringer Ingelheim Nordic about the practical value of sequencing to identify a PRRS virus and indicate its origins. Running time: 28 minutes
May 10, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 5
“We would like to have more proposals from the field” Professor Enric Mateu (UAB/CRESA, Barcelona, Spain) chairs the five-person independent expert panel that judges applications for the annual European PRRS research awards sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. Here he outlines the three winning proposals in the latest round, each receiving a 25,000 Euros award --- and invites more veterinary practitioners to consider applying. Running time: 26 minutes
May 03, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 4
“It’s like an invading army in the lung, pigs can die from it within a day of infection” This third podcast interviewing Dr. Greg Stevenson (veterinary diagnostic pathologist at Iowa State University, USA) deals with the incredibly rapid, virulent respiratory disease in pigs caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae or APP. Running time: 17 minutes
Apr 26, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 3
“Compared to PRRS, Mycoplasma is very slowly transmitted while influenza is a highly transmissible agent” After our separate podcast with him about PRRS, veterinary diagnostic pathologist Dr. Greg Stevenson discusses coughing in pigs due to Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and the type-A swine influenza virus. Running time: 33 minutes
Apr 20, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 2
“ Coughs sound different because of subtle differences in the ways that organisms cause damage to the respiratory tract ” Pigs with PRRS have a distinctive cough due to the type of damage inflicted by the virus, we hear from Dr. Greg Stevenson (veterinary diagnostic pathologist at Iowa State University, USA). Combined with information on the number of pigs in a barn that develop coughing over time, this helps us to recognise PRRS and differentiate it from other respiratory pathogens. Running tim...
Apr 07, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Would you like to know... • Why pigs coughing with mycoplasma sound different from those with Influenza? • Why PRRS recombines and what you can do about it? or • How new PPV strains can affect reproductive performance in breeding herds without you realizing it? Welcome to our Meet the Expert podcast, a series on swine Health and Management brought to you by Boehringer-Ingelheim, where Global opinion leaders answer your most relevant practical questions. Every Monday you can find a new episode of...
Apr 05, 2020•1 min
