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Non-antibiotic medication against swine dysentery


Bit by bit, the toolbox for controlling swine dysentery has become emptier in recent years. There is a global trend to limit the use of antibiotics as much as possible, and zinc oxide will also no longer be allowed at prophylactic levels in 2022. It is time for a new addition to the toolbox.


BY VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR, PIG PROGRESS ‘P 5.0


4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0


2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0


0 1 Placebo Zinc chelate*


igs of all ages are affected, although the peak incidence is in weaned pigs of six to 12 weeks of age,’ writes Professor David Taylor in the comprehensive Health Tool at www.pigpro-


gress.net, when discussing swine dysentery. He adds, “Vac- cines are not available widely. Swine dysentery can be eradi- cated by medication or depopulation and restocking and kept out by isolation and use of clean breeding stock.” For those swine farmers who do not fancy depopulation and restocking, the recent global trends in veterinary medicine have not been encouraging, as the use of antibiotics is being discouraged in many countries all over the world. The article on page 20, for instance, deals with the background of re- duced antibiotics usage in the United States in recent years. Does that mean that all strategies are depleted?


Figure 1 - Faecal quality scoring at pen level. Arrows indicate the additional treatment of placebo-treated pigs.


Swine dysentery – the basics First things first – swine dysentery, what is it again? It is a severe bacterial diarrhoea condi- tion caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae which is transferred orally, for example, by ingesting faeces or drinking infected water. The health problem usually only develops after weaning and the subsequent mixing of litters. To quote Prof Taylor once more: “Diarrhoea develops and persists throughout the course of the disease. Blood, mucus and, later, pieces of necrotic material appear in the faeces which are yellowish in colour at first and later become brown- ish-red, liquid in consistency and foul-smelling. There is a rap- id loss of bodily condition and pigs are thin with sunken eyes, hollow flanks and prominent ribs and backbones. Affected pigs show a variable reduction in appetite but all continue to drink.”


Treatment period 2


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Source: Veterinary Record, 2019. * Intra Dysovinol, Intracare.


16 ▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 2, 2021 4 5 6 7 8 Study day Illustration (Shutterstock): B. hyodysenteriae is a spiral-shaped bacterium. 9 10 11 12 13 14


Zinc as intervention strategy Apart from using antibiotics, there is one other inter- vention strategy known to control swine dysentery: zinc oxide. For a long time, zinc oxide has been added to feed at prophylactic levels of 2,500 ppm. Yet for environmental reasons, the addition of zinc oxide at these levels is being banned in the Europe- an Union for control of diarrhoea as from 2022. That doesn’t mean, however, that the component “zinc” is completely out of the picture. It might still be useful when supplied in a totally different form, at lower dosages, as the Netherlands-based health and hygiene com- pany Intracare discovered. The company has substantial ex- perience with the production of chelated zinc products, for instance, to deal with infectious claw problems. In dairy cows a copper and zinc chelate has proven effective against digital dermatitis in dairy cattle, a bacterial problem caused by Tre- ponema, classified as part of the phylum (biological level) Spirochaetes. Not surprisingly, the question arose as to whether this approach would also work for other bacteria in this phylum. B. hyodysenteriae was one of them. As a consequence, the company introduced medication (Intra Dysovinol) based on a zinc chelate in a boat-shaped mole- cule, with a relatively low zinc concentration of 81mg/ml. The


Faecal quality score


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