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BackgroundThe present study investigated the effect of peforelin (Maprelin®), a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue, administration in gilts, primiparous and pluriparous sows in a high productive farm on sow reproductive performance and piglet quality at birth.MethodsIn a 400 sow herd, gilts, primiparous and pluriparous sows were randomly allocated to 2 groups: peforelin treated (peforelin = P-group) or no treatment (control = C-group). Animals were injected 48 h after the last altrenogest treatment (gilts) or 24 h post weaning (sows). Weaning-to-estrus interval (WEI), estrus rate (ER), farrowing efficiency index (FEI), farrowing rate (FR), number of total (TBP), live (LBP) and stillborn piglets (SBP), mummies (MM) and live piglet index (LPI) were assessed and compared between treatment groups. To assess piglet quality at birth, 6033 piglets from 426 litters were weighed individually within 24 h after birth (BW; birth weight).ResultsNo significant difference between treatment groups could be observed for WEI, TBP, LBP, SBP and MM. The ER was significantly (P = 0.0119) higher (93.2 %) in the P-group as compared to the C-group (87.2 %). Peforelin treatment did not affect farrowing rate. Both FEI and LPI were significantly (P = 0.0078) better in the P-group as compared to the C-group. Overall, no effect of peforelin treatment on piglet birth weight could be observed, although specific subcategories (1st parity and older (5+ parity) sows) did have a significant impact of treatment on birth weight. During late summer (August-September) all treated gilts and sows took advantage from peforelin treatment with a significant improvement of piglet birth weight.ConclusionPeforelin treatment had a significant impact on ER, FEI and LPI. Moreover, piglet birth weight improved for specific sow subcategories (1st parity and older sows) and for all gilts and sows during the late summer infertility period.

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A blinded, controlled, randomised field study was undertaken on two commercial dairy farms in Germany to compare the efficacy of the anticoccidials, diclazuril and toltrazuril in the prevention of bovine coccidiosis. A total of 86 calves aged between five and six weeks were randomly allocated to two treatment and one untreated control groups. Calves were monitored for 78 days post-treatment by clinical observation, bodyweight gain, faecal oocyst counts (FOCs) and coccidia species differentiation. Strategic treatments had no significant effect on bodyweight gains (P>0.05). Whilst the number of diarrhoea days was similar for all three groups from days 1 to 41, there was a significant difference in the number and percentage of diarrhoea days from day 42 with the diclazuril-treated group showing only one diarrhoea day compared with 9 days (P=0.0195) and 18 days (P=0.0027) for the control and toltrazuril-treated groups, respectively. FOCs in control calves fluctuated throughout the period of study indicating continued coccidia challenge. FOCs in the diclazuril-treated calves declined to low levels post-treatment, increasing to occasional counts >500 oocysts per gram of faeces (OPG) between days 27 and 42, but thereafter remained low. Calves treated with toltrazuril also showed low FOCs until day 40 but then showed several peaks of oocyst output >500 OPG coinciding with days of diarrhoea.