Just like in humans and other livestock animals, vaccinations are necessary in making sure that your farm animals are free from health-damaging diseases and infections. Need a guide into swine vaccination? We can help.
Why Swine Vaccinations are Vital
Remember that various diseases can come from anywhere and may easily spread from one animal to another. While swine vaccines can be costly, there’s no denying that it is necessary to prevent ill health conditions that could weaken your pigs, get in the way of their performance or productivity, and ultimately affect profit.
The Types of Swine Vaccination
Swine vaccination may sound easy, but it can be complicated especially if you’re one who’s just starting your own piggery or hog raising business. To help you, let’s start with key terminologies. If you do research on swine vaccines, you’re likely to come across two types of vaccines: live, inactivated or killed, and autogenous vaccines. Learn more about their differences here:
Live Vaccine
Live vaccines refer to variants that carry live bacteria. These are living organisms that multiply within the pig, providing stronger, longer-lasting immunity. Live vaccines can be attenuated which means that its virulence has been reduced, ensuring that it won’t cause weakness or subject your livestock animal to sickness. If a live vaccine is not attenuated, you will need the expert assistance and strict supervision of a veterinarian.
When working with live vaccines, you will have to be careful in terms of storage and administering. Live vaccines can be sensitive to factors such as heat, and live bacteria within it may die, rendering the vaccine ineffective.
Inactivated or Killed Vaccine
Compared to live vaccines, inactivated vaccines carry dead bacteria. Vaccines under this type may not cause weakness and sickness in your livestock animal, but they’re known to have milder immune-boosting effects against diseases. Online features note that this mild immunity boost can be enhanced by adding substances such as aluminum hydroxide or certain types of oil. But to be safe, be sure to consult or check with your veterinarian first, before playing chemistry on vaccines.
Autogenous Vaccines
Autogenous vaccines are bacterial vaccines, derived from the specific bacteria gathered from a diseased pig. These are useful when serious outbreaks occur and standard commercial vaccines are not available.
What are Swine Vaccine Programs
In a nutshell, programs are vaccination plans for your livestock animals. It should tell you when to administer what vaccine and what it’s for. Check out this list of pig diseases for which vaccines have been made available.
Virus Diseases
- Aujeszky’s diseases
- Foot-and-mouth disease
- Porcine parvovirus
- PRRS
- Swine fever
- Swine influenza
- TGE
Bacterial Diseases
- Any bacterial disease by autogenous vaccines
- Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia
- Atrophic rhinitis
- Clostridial diseases
- E. coli diarrhea
- Enzootic pneumonia
- Erysipelas
- Glasser’s disease
- Leptospirosis
- Pasteurellosis
- Streptococcal meningitis
While you can do research and work on your own program, the best practice would be to always consult your veterinarian.
Handling & Managing Vaccines
Proper handling and being mindful of your vaccines’ details are key to ensuring their effectiveness while ensuring that contaminations are avoided. Keep these reminders in mind.
For Storing
- Check the expiry date
- Store in a cool place such as a fridge or an ice box
- Monitor the temperature daily with a max/min thermometer. Freezing destroys vaccines
- Don’t overstock your storage
- Avoid storing food in the fridge
- Make sure vaccines are properly labeled
- Do not mix vaccines or medicines
For Handling
- Always check the label for info and instructions
- Ideally use a fresh needle for each pig (at the most, change your syringe at least every 5 pigs)
- Dispose needles in a sharps box.
- Clean out syringes immediately after use.
- Clean bottle tops before and after use.
Read more features on pig and poultry care, and farm tips from UNAHCO.
Sources:
https://www.thepigsite.com/disease-and-welfare/managing-disease/vaccination
https://www.thepigsite.com/disease-and-welfare/managing-disease/vaccines
