Now there’s more you can do to prevent the flu

Mar 06, 2018

Ingelvac Provenza^TM is a new vaccine offering protection against influenza in swine

By Kate Ayers
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Ingelvac Provenza^TM is a new treatment option on the market allowing American producers to vaccinate pigs as young as one day old against the damaging influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S).

This new product is the first live attenuated influenza vaccine (a vaccine created by reducing the virulence of a pathogen but still keeping it viable) for growing pigs. The vaccine provides protection before pigs are most vulnerable, according to a Boehringer Ingelheim release yesterday.

“It is administered to piglets as young as a day old, which stimulates immunity before weaning when pigs can be exposed to influenza virus as they are moved and comingled,” Dr. Christa Goodell, DVM and technical manager for the Boehringer Ingelheim U.S. Swine Business, said to Farms.com in an email statement today.

“These elements help to protect against multiple strains of influenza (and) reduce viral shedding, which reduces transmission and the impact of IAV-S across the entire swine population.”

The vaccine can be administered intranasally, providing direct protection at the common site of IAV-S infection, the release said.

The vaccine “has demonstrated cross-protection against relevant circulating IAV-S strains … and has been evaluated for administration in the face of maternal antibodies,” Goodell said.

“All these (factors) can help decrease the burden of the disease in a swine operation.”

IAV-S can have a significant impact on swine operations by reducing productivity and profitability.

“Studies have shown that uncomplicated IAV-S infections can lead to an estimated loss of more than US$3 per pig. When IAV-S is present with concurrent infections, the loss can be greater than US$10 per pig,” Del Birkhofer, head of the U.S. Swine Business and Newport Laboratories, said in the release.

Boehringer Ingelheim developed and sells the product.

More information on Ingelvac Provenza^TM can be found here.

Updated March 7, 2018

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”