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Retrospective field study of the evolution of growth performances after piglet vaccination against PCV2
Pascal Fourchon2 Aude Miorcec3 Vincent Auvigne1 Catherine Belloc3
1. Ekipaj, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain; 2. Coopagri Bretagne, Landerneau, France; 3. National College of Veterinary Medicine, Nantes, France

Introduction Table 1: Evolution of performances after vaccination (number of herds

In the mid nineties, when PMWS appeared in France, mortality in each category)
in affected herds was frequently above 10 % during the post-
weaning period. Fifteen years later, the disease caused by PCV2
looks very different. Post-weaning losses have decreased to
normal range in most herds. Few pigs exhibit clinical or post-
mortem signs linked to PCV2 infection but poor growth rates
resulting in high within-batch weight variability are frequent.
Consequently many vets advise farmers to vaccinate piglets
when growth heterogeneity is high even without clear evidence
of PCV2 associated disease. In that context, we wanted to evalu-
ate the impact of piglet vaccination against PCV2 on pig growth
in a group of herds.

Materials and Methods

The study took place between March and August 2009 in 69
farrow-to-finish herds. For each herd we compared data from (i)
three batches before and (ii) three batches after the implemen-
tation of vaccination. Piglets were vaccinated either with Cir-
coflex ® (1 ml), or Circovac ®, (0.5 ml).The criteria analysed were:
Average Daily Gain from birth to slaughter (ADG), mortality rate
from 30 kg to slaughter (MR), lean thickness (M2), percentage
of pigs with carcass weight below 80 kg (CW<80). For several
reasons (quality of recording, batch mixing, other management
change during the study) only 23 herds were included in the
analysis and some criteria were not available for all herds. Mann-
Withney test was used to compare the three batches before to
the three batches after vaccination.
Results
In nearly half of the herds an increase, or a trend, of growth rate
after vaccination was observed. This proportion was the same
for both vaccination programs. In these herds, the average
increase was 29 g/day and a positive impact on lean thickness
was observed. The proportion of underweight pigs was also
improved in six out of 15 herds. Nevertheless we didn’t observe
a decrease of mortality rate during the fattening period.
Discussion
An improvement of technical performances after vaccina-
tion was observed only in approximately half of herds. This is
probably related with the fact that most often PCV2 associated
diseases had not been clearly diagnosed. Our study did not
demonstrate an effect of vaccination on mortality rate. This can
be linked to some difficulties to collect reliable data on mortal-
ity. Additionally, in France, mortality rate associated with PCV2
are currently less important than ten years ago.
Our study has some limitations. It did not compare contempor-
aneous batches. Consequently results are dependent on other
changes in the farm during the study period such as manage-
ment changes or sanitary events. Nevertheless data obtained
here are complementary to those collected in field trials as-
sessing simultaneously several treatments in the same herds.
Other limit of our study is the number of herds that were finally
included since 46 herds had to be removed because of lack of
reliable data.
To conclude, our results suggest that circovirus vaccines can be
of economical interest by improving technical performances.
However a more accurate diagnosis of PCV2 infection leading to
a more relevant vaccine indication could result in a higher suc-
cess rate of vaccination.

Proceedings of the 21st IPVS Congress, Vancouver, Canada – July 18-21, 2010 413