Are Diets for Disease Challenged Pigs Suitable for PMWS/PDNS affected pigs?
Past research has led us to use different diet specifications for healthy and disease challenged pigs. But with the appearance of PMWS/PDNS, suddenly these diets were no longer working. Further research concludes so far that this is because PMWS/PDNS does not increase immune activity, but supresses the immune system in affected pigs. With more common diseases encountered on the pig unit, the more disease the higher the immune activity and the lower the lysine requirement. This is not the case with PMWS/PDNS, leaving the question of whether the diet should be changed or not. In addition, PMWS is different in so far as not all pigs are affected, even if they share the same pen. So what should farmers feed when some pigs are failing but the majority are growing very well? In dietary terms, there is little piont in feeding a diet designed for high immune activity when the immune system is severely suppressed, as this just slows the unaffected pigs, increasing losses through depressed growt
