Prevention key to starting healthy, ending strong this year

Preventing disease is the single most important thing that can be done to create long-term, low-variance, higher than industry average profitability.

August 16, 2016

4 Min Read
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Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.

You hear it. It starts off as a whisper in the back of your mind. By the time your pigs are loaded into the truck it drowns out everything else. It is your voice asking ‘Could I have done more? Did I leave weight at the farm? Is this the best I could do?’ These are the last questions you want to hear as your pigs leave the farm for the final time.

Disease prevention can make or break a pig’s performance, because healthier pigs reach heavier weights. In fact, research has found that pigs receiving vaccines and raised with other disease prevention protocols weigh more than their less healthy counterparts.

According to ag economist Dennis DiPietre, preventing disease has been shown to yield higher profits than treating outbreaks after they occur. Which means if you’re not preventing, you’re not profiting as much as you could.

Variation in the growth rates of animals, DiPietre believes, can cause significant negative consequences to profitability. Today, swine diseases are still plaguing the industry, and are costing the industry billions of dollars. For example, hidden profit robbers like ileitis cost swine producers more than $100 million each year.1 And, respiratory diseases like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) cost the industry more than $664 million each year.2 Protecting pigs from these economically-draining diseases can be a daunting task, especially if you have to do it alone.

With the launch of a new health platform: Start Healthy, End Strong, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) has pledged to help farmers succeed in preventing swine diseases by providing the right tools for a healthy start. And, when you take precautions to keep your swine herd healthy from the start there is nowhere for it to go except a strong finish.

“It is part of our belief system that by helping our customers and partnering with them, by utilizing all of our services – not only our products, but our people, our resources and our programs – we will successfully achieve our end goal of healthy, uniform pigs,” says Dr. Kate Christmas, director of swine professional services for BIVI.

Start Healthy, End Strong is more than a platform for BIVI. It is a commitment to swine producers to help them grow a healthier pig through disease prevention, biosecurity, sanitation, proper nutrition and a clean environment.

“It’s that commitment to pigs, the commitment to the veterinarians, commitment to producers, and we think that if we can partner with them in getting pigs off to that healthy start, then everybody wins in the end,” Dr. Christmas adds.

Through Start Healthy, End Strong, BIVI is committed to bring the swine industry innovative services and resources like:  

  • A broad, customizable portfolio of respiratory and enteric vaccines, offering one of the most complete vaccine packages in the industry.

  • Access to cutting-edge diagnostic testing through an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, and a highly-skilled field research team as a part of the BIVI Health Management Center.

  • Disease BioPortal, a partnership with the University of California, Davis, to provide the Area Regional Control (ARC) program with a platform to help track infectious respiratory swine diseases. The Disease BioPortal is web-based and allows for real-time tracking of disease information, from local levels to a global scale.

  • ARC programs help track and manage PRRS and other infectious swine diseases, and help collaborate and disseminate that information among producers and veterinarians.

  • SOURCE, an online, comprehensive library of research-proven swine health solutions for diseases like PED and PRRS.

“Preventing disease is the single most important thing a producer can do to create long-term, low-variance, higher than industry average profitability.” DiPietre shares. BIVI is committed to partnering with our customers to achieve the end goal – delivering healthy, uniform pigs.

Click here to watch the Start Healthy, End Strong video. For more information on the swine products offered by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., visit www.bi-vetmedica/com/species/swine.html.

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References:

1 McOrist S. Defining the full costs of endemic porcine proliferative enteropathy. Vet J 2005;170(1):8–9.

2 Holtkamp DJ, Kliebenstein JB, Neumann EJ, et al., “Assessment of the economic impact of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus on United States pork producers.” J Swine Health Prod. 2013;21(2):72-84.

©2016 Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.

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