Dr. Matheus Costa -
University of Saskatchewan
An Adjunct Professor with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine says anything that can be done to reduce stress will reduce the likelihood of pigs getting sick from Strep suis.
Strep suis or Streptococcus suis is a gram-positive bacteria that's common throughout the pork sector world wide.
Dr. Matheus Costa, an Adjunct Professor with the University of Saskatchewan's Western College of Veterinary Medicine and an Assistant Professor with the University of Minnesota, says Streptococcus suis is transmitted from the dam to the piglet at birth and is usually found in the throat, respiratory tract and gut but you can have Strep suis without having disease.
Dr. Matheus Costa-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
Virtually every pig has Streptococcus suis.
That doesn't mean they get sick.
Usually they get colonized at birth.
Sows and gilts have Streptococcus suis in their vaginal secretions and, by the time pigs are weaned, because they have been in contact with the sow, they are colonized so this means that Streptococcus suis is very infectious because it easily colonizes a naive pig so a pig that doesn't have Streptococcus suis will easily acquire it but it doesn't necessarily mean it will develop disease.
Streptococcus suis will trigger disease mostly when there is stress so, if you can anything to reduce stress in your pigs, maybe during weaning or during transportation and weaning combined.
Anything you can do to reduce stress will likely reduce the odds of the virulent strain Streptococcus suis invading the pig body and actually leading to disease.
If you can be nice to your pigs, keep them happy, they'll likely respond to that by being healthy.
Dr. Costa points out Streptococcus suis can also infect humans and lead to meningitis but he notes to have that you have to have an open cut or ingest raw pork products.
- Bruce Cochrane
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