Research coordinated through Swine Innovation Porc is assisting in the development of antibiotic free approaches to addressing post-weaning diarrhea.Research conducted by the University of Guelph which looked at post-weaning diarrhea associated with E. coli was discussed last week as part of a webinar hosted by Swine Innovation Porc.
Dr. Vahab Farzan, a Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor with the University of Guelph, estimates preventing and treating post-weaning diarrhea costs Canadian pork producers 100 million dollars annually and it is a significant reason for antimicrobial usage in young pigs increasing concerns over antimicrobial resistance.
Quote-Dr. Vahab Farzan-University of Guelph:
The aim of this project is to address three main questions.What are the types of E. coli that cause post-weaning diarrhea on Canadian farms?Why do we need to answer this question? Because answering this question, having the knowledge would help to develop more efficient vaccines.Question number two is, how frequent is the genetic susceptibility of pigs to ETEC F4 and F18 on Canadian farms?
Answering this question will help to improve the genetics program in order to have more resistant pigs against E. coli. And the question number three is, what is the role of the gut microbiome or bacterial population in gut in developing post-weaning diarrhea? This question and having knowledge about the microbiome will help to develop probiotics…we can find the good bacteria, they can put it in the diet as a probiotic which will promote the health in the gut of the pigs and they will be more resistant to E. coli infection.So, all of these questions, as you see, they are common in one thing.They don't rely on antimicrobial usage.So, any of these methods is going to minimize the use of antimicrobials in swine, which is very important.
To access the webinar search YouTube for "disease risk and antimicrobial use in swine webinar."
Source : Farmscape.ca