The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has released the second report on the Swine 2006 study from the National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS).

The report is part of the fourth national study of the U.S. swine industry and provides a base of information for education and research programs.

The report provides statistics on 17 states that represent 94% of U.S. swine operations with 100 or more pigs.


Some highlights:


-- More than 20% of sites with breeding females reported sickness or death in sows due to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) (27.3%), swine influenza virus (22.3%) or roundworms (26.8%) during the last 12 months.


-- Leading disease problems in preweaned pigs by percentage of sites were colibacillosis, 47.4%; navel infections, 43.1%; and Streptococcus suis, 38.5%.


-- Nearly half of sites with nursery-age pigs (49.9%) reported pigs sick with Strep suis in the last year. The percentage of nursery sites reporting sick pigs due to PRRS ranged from 18.6% of small sites to 61.6% of large sites.


-- Vaccinating pigs for Mycoplasmal pneumonia was less common during the grow-finish phase than the nursery phase.


-- The most common antibiotics given by injection to nursery-age pigs were ceftiofur and procaine penicillin G, given on 43.0 and 43.9% of sites, respectively.


-- The two most common reasons that sites with grow-finish pigs used water medications were to treat respiratory disease (42.4%) and to treat enteric disease (15.8% of sites).

Part II: Reference of Swine Health and Health Management Practices in the United States 2006 is posted on the NAHMS Web site.