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Swine Production Medicine Service |
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Wisconsin raises about 1.5 million hogs per year. To ensure that Wisconsin’s veterinary students become familiar with swine health care, the VMTH works with swine producers and their local veterinarians. Because swine are raised in a herd environment where it is impractical and costly to bring individual animals to a hospital, most work involves farm visits to area swine herds. During farm visits, students learn about management issues, record keeping, diagnostics, and safety issues. They may also assist with routine services such as piglet processing, castrations, or postmortem examinations. |
The pig’s environment plays a major role in its health. Most infectious diseases are endemic in swine herds and only become a problem when pigs are stressed by environmental factors (such as poor ventilation)
Pathogens that cause health problems are usually endemic in the pig’s environment. Most pigs may harbor these organisms but show no signs of illness. When environmental factors cause stress, however, then the pathogens become a problem. Also, several swine diseases are transmissible to other animals and humans, and diagnostic work-ups are essential to epidemiology in a broader sense.
Post mortems are an excellent way to follow up on diagnostic work, and are becoming increasingly important. By examining animals at slaughter, the veterinarian can gain a better understanding of herd problems and advise the producer on how best to prevent problems.
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Respiratory
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Peter Bahnson, DVM, PhD
Go to Appointment Information.
