0034 Opportunities and challenges for herd health and reproduction with robotic milking

AbstractDeliberate infection of humans with smallpox, also known as variolation, was a common practice in Asia and dates back to the fifteenth century. The world’s first human vaccination was administered in 1796 by Edward Jenner, a British physician. One of the first pig vaccines, which targeted the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, was introduced in 1883 in France by Louis Pasteur. Since then vaccination has become an essential part of pig production, and viral vaccines in particular are essential tools for pig producers and veterinarians to manage pig herd health. Traditionally, viral vaccines for pigs are either based on attenuated-live virus strains or inactivated viral antigens. With the advent of genomic sequencing and molecular engineering, novel vaccine strategies and tools, including subunit and nucleic acid vaccines, became available and are being increasingly used in pigs. This review aims to summarize recent trends and technologies available for the production and use of vaccines targeting pig viruses.

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Antibiotic use in goats: role of experience and education of Missouri veterinarians

Veterinary Record ◽

10.1136/vr.105455 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 186 (11) ◽

pp. 349-349

Author(s):

Lauren Landfried ◽

Patrick Pithua ◽

Roger D Lewis ◽

Steven Rigdon ◽

Jonathan Jacoby ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Continuing Education ◽

Health Management ◽

Intestinal Parasites ◽

Antibiotic Use ◽

Herd Health ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Attitudes And Practices ◽

Prescription Practices

BackgroundIn a previous study, we found that rates of antibiotic residues in goat carcasses in Missouri were three times the published national average, warranting further research in this area.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of goat veterinarians to determine attitudes and practices regarding antibiotics, recruiting 725 veterinarians listed on the American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners (AASRP) website and 64 Missouri Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) veterinarians.ResultsWe collected 189 responses (26.1%) from AASRP members (170 valid) and 8 (12.5%) from MVMA veterinarians totalling 178 responses. While the vast majority of all veterinarians indicated that they prescribed antibiotics less than half of the time, Missouri veterinarians indicated that they spent more time treating goats for overt disease like intestinal parasites and less time on proactive practices such as reproductive herd health management comparatively. While veterinarians agreed that antibiotic resistance was a growing concern, veterinarians outside of Missouri seemed more confident that their own prescription practices was not a contributor. Although nationally most veterinarians felt that attending continuing education classes was beneficial, 73.4% in other states attended classes on antibiotic use compared to only four of the nine Missouri veterinarians.ConclusionMissouri veterinarians had less veterinary experience than veterinarians in other states, and this, in conjunction with low continuing education requirements in Missouri relative to most other states, may hinder development of more proactive and effective client–veterinary relationships.

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Assessing the Use of Biometric Ear Tags as Body Temperature Monitoring Devices in Swine

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.1093/jas/skab096.084 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 99 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. 45-46

Author(s):

Ellie A Amerson ◽

Harrison Moss ◽

Suresh Kumar ◽

Terry D Brandebourg

Keyword(s):

Body Temperature ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Raspberry Pi ◽

Herd Health ◽

Swine Industry ◽

Sickness Behaviors ◽

Large Production ◽

Monitoring Devices

Abstract It is difficult to detect the subtle changes associated with sickness behaviors in individual pigs early enough to prevent disease outbreaks in group housing settings within large production facilities. This failure results in significant losses to the swine industry. Strategies that allow early detection of parameters such as febrile responses could therefore significantly improve herd health and producer profitability. Our objective was to determine if the use of a biometric ear tag capable of measuring temperature could be used to accurately monitor body temperature in swine. To accomplish this, 42-d-old pigs (n = 21) were fitted with biometric ear tags for 35 d. These devices continuously measured auricular skin temperature and allowed data collection via a paired raspberry pi aggregator. During this period, repeated epidermal temperatures were also taken daily on the rump, shoulder, and ear using a clinical grade infrared thermometer. Correlation analysis using the PROC CORR procedure of SAS was then conducted to determine the ability of the biometric device to estimate body temperature relative to estimates from the clinical device. Infrared temperature readings for the ear significantly correlated with those taken at the shoulder (P < 0.0001) and rump (P < 0.0001). Importantly, temperature readings measured by the biometric ear tags also significantly correlated with infrared readings at the ear (P < 0.0001), shoulder (P < 0.0001) and rump (P < 0.0001) with Pearson Correlation coefficients of 0.51, 0.21, and 0.23, respectively. Collectively, these data support the hypothesis that the biometric ear tag device tested during this trial can be used to continuously monitor body temperature in young swine. These results indicate that further efforts to develop these devices as novel herd health monitoring devices is indeed warranted with the next step involving the assessment of their ability to detect physiological changes in body temperature.

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