Investigations into the effects of vaccination and diet composition on post-weaning diarrhea and growth performance in pigs.

OBJECTIVES

Pigs often experience slow growth and enteric disease problems during the early post-weaning period. The objectives were to evaluate effects of a live oral vaccine on post-weaning diarrhea under on-farm conditions and to assess impacts of diet composition on growth and enteric health in the early nursery phase of production.

PROCEDURES AND RESULTS

In a series of trials, even when enterotoxigenic (ETEC) was present, post-weaning diarrhea was usually associated with other causes and not ETEC. Therefore, an vaccination program had no benefit in either reducing clinical signs of diarrhea or in improving growth rate of pigs in the nursery. Conversely, under the same conditions, feeding programs affected both clinical signs of diarrhea and growth rate. Pigs fed a 4-phase program that transitioned from a diet containing a relatively high proportion of animal-based protein to a feed consisting of plant-based protein performed better than pigs receiving lower-complexity diets. However, there was evidence of compensatory growth in pigs fed low-complexity diets, albeit not consistently in all trials.

CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

It was concluded that early nursery diet can help to reduce post-weaning diarrhea and improve growth performance.