Avaliação do uso da vacinação para a prevenção da doença do edema em suínos

Abstract

Enterotoxemic colibacillosis (edema disease) occurs very frequently in pig farms in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Several alternatives of control have been used, such as management and environmental changes and improvement in feed formulation. Other control measures include use of feed additives, such as antibiotics or probiotics, and improvement in disinfection and general hygienic measures, but they frequently present inconsistent results. Alternatively, inactivated vaccines containing pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli or sub-unit vaccines have been used for control and prevention of the infection. The present work evaluated the use of an autogenous bacterin in the prevention of edema disease, in a pig farm with high postweaning mortality associated with enterotoxemic E. coli infection. The vaccine was prepared with an E. coli strain isolated in pure culture from material collected in the outbreak. The vaccination program consisted of two sow injections (80 and 100 days of gestation), and two injections in the piglets (between 15/17 and 35/38 days of age). It was observed a significant decrease in mortality rate in nursery and growing age piglets, but there was no improvement in daily weight gain.