In swine disease management, ample knowledge on swine antibiotics is a great advantage. Read on to learn about specific medications that can help with managing swine diseases.
There are veterinarians to help you keep your livestock healthy, but it’s also ideal that you learn for yourself what you give or administer to your pigs. Here’s a look at some swine antibiotics that can decrease the likelihood of diseases amongst your livestock.
Injectable Swine Antibiotics
When only a handful of your pigs are sick, injectables are a viable option. This is because of the process and frequency of how injectables are given. These medications sometimes need to be given as frequently as twice a day. In addition, giving shots may be a hassle if your whole pig pen needs antibiotics.
Types of injectable swine antibiotics include:
- Cephalosporins – include medicine such as Cephalexin (Ceporex) and Ceftiofur (Excenel), and are best used for respiratory diseases.
- Penicillin G. benzathine – a type of Penicillin that should not be given orally because it should not pass the stomach. It is used against staphylococci, streptococci, erysipelothrix and clostridia, and some activity against actinobacillus spp, pasteurella haemophilus and leptospira.
Water-based Swine Antibiotics
When most, if not all, of your pigs need antibiotics, you may opt to use the water-based alternative. Compared to injectables, water-based drugs decrease the cost of labor as you may simply add the medication in your livestock’s water. Not to mention, they also decrease the stress of your animals.
Type of water-based animal antibiotics include:
- Amoxicillin – a penicillin-type antibiotic. Used for respiratory infections in treating sows or piglets.
- Chlortetracycline (CTC) – a type of tetracycline. You might have used or heard of this medication for pigs as aureomycin.
- Gentamicin – an aminoglycoside that contains sugars. In trade, you may find it as Pangram. As it controls bacteria in the digestive tract, it can also treat piglets of diarrhea.
- Lincomycin – this medication is a bacteriostatic, and is active against swine dysentery which can cause mucohemorrhagic diarrhea in pigs.
- Neomycin – another type of aminoglycoside. Can be found in the market as Neobiotic.
- Oxytetracycline (OTC) – another type of tetracycline, and is more commonly known as terramycin.
- Sulphamezathine – can help against chlamydia, toxoplasma and coccidia spp.
- Tetracycline – as mentioned, the types of this antibiotic are OTC and CTC. If at low levels, it is a type of bacteriostatic. But at high levels, this antibiotic can be used for respiratory diseases and secondary bacterial infections.
- Tiamulin – active against Brachyspira hyodysenteriae. Known in the market as Pleuromutilin.
- Tilmicosin – another type of bacteriostatic. Also known as Pulmotil or Macrolide.
- Tylosin – like tiamulin and tilmicosin, it is a bacteriostatic. May also be called Tylan or Macrolide.
Feed-based Swine Antibiotics
As much as water-based antibiotics are convenient, some antibiotics cannot be given in water. For these situations, the alternative is feed-based antibiotics. These types of antibiotics work similarly with water-based antibiotics in such a way that they decrease animal stress and labor costs, compared to injectables.
Here are some feed-based antibiotics for pigs:
- Dimetridazole – in-feed, but may also be water-based. Used specifically in colitis and swine dysentery. May be known as Emtryl.
- Nitrofurans – include furazolidone and furaltadone. These are mainly active against gram-negative organisms, like salmonella and E., coli found in the intestinal tract.
Swine antibiotics are important to prevent, treat, and control disease in your livestock. Remember that in hog raising, sickness can spread quickly if you do not use the proper animal antibiotics immediately. For proper swine disease management, always consult your veterinarian. Get more information on how to manage swine diseases at www.unahco.com
Sources:
https://www.thepigsite.com/disease-and-welfare/managing-disease/types-of-antibacterial-medicine
https://www.myfearlesskitchen.com/medications-for-pigs/
https://pipevet.com/products/swine/antibiotics-medications
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/use-of-antibiotics-administered-in-water-to-pigs-in-the-post-vfd-era
https://www.wattagnet.com/articles/16141-what-is-the-best-method-to-administer-amoxicillin-to-pigs
