Pork producers know that feed is the number one costs of raising pigs. That means keeping anything from chipping away at feed efficiency. While Lawsonia is well known to cause disease, research shows it also quietly reduces growth and feed conversion, even when clinical signs aren’t obvious. Dr. Greg Cline, a senior key account veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim, said producers should be paying attention to Lawsonia, even if they don’t see obvious or severe clinical signs.
“It’s not just a health issue, it’s a profitability issue. We tend to think of these things that my pigs are either sick or they’re not, and that’s not always the case with Lawsonia. The damage that occurs within the intestine, oftentimes, is going to be there, robbing performance, robbing money, before we ever see the clinical signs. It is almost nearly ubiquitous, which means that maybe as much as 96 percent of all the farms in the United States have experienced Lawsonia, or are currently experiencing Lawsonia. It’s super common.”
He talked about how Lawsonia hurts pig performance and describes what’s happening inside the gut.
“It’s not hard to imagine that anything that goes in and actually affects the cells that line the small intestine is going to see a decrease in average daily gain and an increase in feed conversion, the two things that we don’t want in pig production, and we’re talking that reduction to average daily gain by maybe as much as 41 percent. Feed, which is our most expensive variable within raising a pig, we may see reduction in feed efficiency of 25 percent. The way that this is going to occur is that Lawsonia is going to attack those cells that line the small intestine, and it’s going to reduce digestibility of nitrogen, as well as energy. In simplest terms, you’re not getting the value of the feed that you’re putting into these pigs when those infections occur.”
Producers hear a lot about the microbiome when it comes to enteric diseases. Cline talked about the role it plays when pigs are challenged with Lawsonia.
“Simply, the microbiome is a community of bacteria and other microorganisms that work together with the pig to digest feed and supports the immunity of the pig at the gut level. The biggest thing when the microbiome is disrupted or it’s changed or it’s altered, like through a Lawsonia infection, like through an ileitis clinical disease, it throws off that healthy balance. It affects performance and overall gut health. Now, at a cellular level, the microbiome plays a role in producing proteins, and plays a role in also producing some enzymes. When they’re normal, things go along pretty well. But as you can imagine, an infection of Lawsonia itself can alter feed efficiency. Now we’re also talking about the proliferation of Lawsonia also affecting microbiomes. It may be a little bit of a double barrel concern.”
He said prevention is key to protecting pig performance and vaccination is a successful tool for controlling Lawsonia.
“By the time that you observe pigs that aren’t feeling well, by the time you observe pigs that may not be performing well or variable in growth, or have diarrhea, you’ve already lost performance. You’ve already lost the growth of that pig, and you’ve already wasted the feed. So, vaccination prevention is the key. And you know, vaccination with a product like ENTERISOL® ILEITIS, a modified, live, orally-administered vaccine, it’s been shown to protect and preserve the intestine and its function. We need to grab on every advantage that we possibly can. And so, I think vaccination with ENTERISOL® ILEITIS is key to protecting the form and function of the intestine in the pig.”