MEDICATION OF SOWS WITH TILMICOSIN (PULMOTIL) PRIOR TO FARROWING AND ITS ROLE IN THE ERADICATION OF ACTINOBACILLUS PLEUROPNEUMONIAE SEROVAR 12 FROM GROWING PIGS

摘要

Porcine pleuropneumonia is an upper respiratory tract disease of pigs caused by the bacterium Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. In Australia, pleuropneumonia has emerged as one of the most important diseases of the pig industry (I), and the cost of chronic pleuropneumonia has been estimated at Aust64 dollar/sow/year without considering medication costs (2). In an attempt to reduce the economic losses associated with the porcine pleuropneumonia, several management techniques have been used to eliminatethe disease from infected farms. These techniques are all variations on a central theme, and include depopulation/repopulation, segregated/medicated early weaning (SEW/MEW), multi-site production and all-in/all-out production (3). The drawbacks of theseapproaches are that they typically involve a sustained period of off-site production, cause significant interruption to the production cycle and require significant capital investment. Many producers lack the capital and/or financial reserves required to implement the existing eradication methods, and have leamt to accept the disease as part of the production environment.