2023-05-10 12:09:30
Pig farming has (fortunately) been making money again in recent months. With piglet prices fluctuating wildly, pig farmers have no choice but to think about optimal protection for their piglets, including against pendulum disease. You can read in the article below how pig farmers can best approach this and how much it can yield for them.
Pendulum disease, also known as edema disease, is a condition that at first sight can mainly affect piglets in the battery period. In addition, this disease can also cause a lot of economic damage in the pre-fattening and fattening period. Pendulum disease is caused by the poisons or toxins produced by the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli). There are different types of E. coli, each with its own characteristics and mechanisms for causing disease. The different types are distinguished from each other on the basis of the attachment factors and toxins. The E. coli bacteria responsible for pendulum swing are called verotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) and carry F18 attachment factors.
How does pendulum disease occur?
E. coli bacteria are absorbed by piglets from the environment through the mouth. VTEC attaches to the intestinal wall, especially the small intestine. The receptors, which are necessary for this attachment in the intestinal wall, are only present in sufficient quantities when the piglets are about three weeks old. This explains why the clinical signs of pendulum disease usually do not appear until after weaning – an average of five to 14 days after being placed in the battery.
If the conditions in the gut are favorable for these bacteria, they multiply after attachment and toxin production starts. The toxins are absorbed through the intestinal wall and then travel through the bloodstream to other organs, including the brain. They cause damage to the blood vessels, causing them to leak and fluid retention (oedema) to develop. Therefore, this disease is also called edema disease.
Externally, we see this in the swelling of the eyelids and muzzle. Since this fluid accumulation can also occur in the brain, typical nerve symptoms are seen in the piglets: the waddling drunken gait – hence the name: pendulum disease. At autopsy, edema can also be found in the stomach wall, gallbladder and suspensory ligament of the intestines. The failure rate can reach more than 90%.
In addition to infections with clear clinical signs and failure, subclinical VTEC infections also occur.
So what does pendulum disease cost?
What are the main losses in an outbreak of pendulum disease? In the clinical form, we have to deal with direct losses, such as loss due to mortality, lost feed costs and increased medication costs. In the subclinical form, these losses are less clear. Lower growth, higher feed conversion or reduced uniformity of a lot of pigs are less obvious, but can also lead to significant losses. There are also indirect losses such as higher susceptibility to other diseases (such as streptococci and Glässer) and higher antibiotic use as a result.
An increased mortality in the piglet battery is definitely something we can do without like a toothache in this economic boom. Table 1 shows the economic losses of key figures affected by a VTEC infection. A calculation with current piglet prices tells us that reducing 1% mortality in the battery gives us an economic benefit of €0.7 per piglet, the reduction of 1% mortality in the fattening pig house gives us an extra €0.8 per pig ! Enough reasons to invest in pendulum disease today!
| Economic losses key figures per pig april 2023 | |
| + 1% mortality in the piglet battery | € 0,7 |
| + 1% mortality in the fattening pig phase | € 0,8 |
| + 0.1 feed conversion | € 1,9 |
| – 100 grams of growth | € 1,3 |
How to prevent pendulum sickness?
For the treatment of pendulum disease, it is important to know that the clinical symptoms of pendulum disease are caused by the toxins formed and not by the E. coli bacteria themselves. Therefore, antibiotic treatment will not be effective in reducing symptoms in an affected piglet. In addition, sudden death may be the only clinical manifestation, making it too late for any treatment or supportive therapy, for example with electrolytes. Prevention therefore plays a very important role when it comes to tackling pendulum disease.
The first point of attention is intestinal health: the bacteria has its ‘starting point for disease’ in the intestine and the verotoxin-producing E. coli bacteria cannot easily attach to a healthy intestine. Striving for a feed with an optimal balance between digestibility and protein content, with as few substances as possible that damage the intestinal wall, is the message! In addition to a balanced feed, the feed management around the set-up in the battery (and fattening pig house) must also be perfect, whereby (too) abrupt feed transitions must be avoided.
A second focus is on the level of stress in the barn. We want piglets to arrive after weaning in a dry, warm stable without drafts, with sufficient drinking places and access to feed. Limiting litter mixing can also reduce stress after weaning and has an added benefit to spreading germs.
A third pillar is hygiene. Because the VTEC bacteria are absorbed from the environment, it is essential to clean and disinfect properly between the groups.
The easiest way to ensure that piglets are protected against pendulum disease is to vaccinate them. The piglets are protected in this way if one of the points of attention mentioned above does not proceed optimally or if something changes under the radar.
Finally
We can conclude that now is indeed the perfect time to invest in pendulum disease. The more expensive the piglet prices, the more the mortality rate weighs on our economic result, and pendulum sickness, next to streptococci, is one of the main causes of battery mortality.
Take a close look at weaning management and in the battery and discuss with your veterinarian what vaccination against pendulous disease can do for you.
HIPRA supports veterinarians in the field by offering a test on saliva ropes, the VeroCheck. The presence of the verotoxin is examined via PCR and you get a result (- / + / ++ / +++). This examination can be performed in the age groups in which the clinical symptoms occur, but it can also be useful if there is a suspicion of subclinical pendulum swing. Discuss this with your company veterinarian!
A closed farm in a five-week system had an average of 8.76% mortality in the piglet battery, a large part of which was caused by pendulum disease. Antibiotic use was also very high. After the start of vaccination, three groups were followed up. Mortality had been reduced on average to no less than 0.66% (see figure 1) and antibiotic use had fallen sharply. Calculated at current prices and including the cost of the vaccine, the reduction in mortality alone (-8%) would have brought the pig farmer an extra 6.56 euros per piglet today.
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