BackgroundA randomised field trial was conducted on an Austrian farrow-to-finish farm for one year to compare the efficacy of two commercial Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae vaccines. 585 piglets either received the one-shot formulation in group 1 (Hyogen®, 23.9 days of age) or a two-shot vaccine (Stellamune® Mycoplasma, 4.3 and 24.0 days of age) in group 2. Assessment of vaccine efficacy was evaluated by regression analyses through cough monitoring from nursery to slaughter, average daily weight gain from inclusion to slaughter, antibiotic treatment rate (ATR), mortality rate, and lung lesion scoring at slaughter.ResultsIn general, coughing was more frequent during late nursery and finishing. No significant differences were found in the coughing index (0.02 vs 0.03) and mean average daily weight gain (560 vs 550 g) between the two groups. ATR was higher in group 2 (3.8 vs 9.6%). At the slaughterhouse check, significant differences in the prevalence of bronchopneumonia (62.9 vs 71.2%) could be found. Extension of lung lesions was also significantly lower in group 1 in terms of enzootic pneumonia (EP) values (p = 0.000, z = − 4.269). There were no significant differences in the rate of scarred lungs (20.0 vs 24.0%) or those affected by dorsocaudal pleurisy (36.8 vs 34.3%).ConclusionsThis trial demonstrated that Hyogen® was superior to Stellamune® Mycoplasma in reducing (I) the prevalence of bronchopneumonic lungs and those affected by cranioventral pleurisy, (II) the extension and severity of EP-like lung lesions, and (III) the rate of antibiotically treated animals against respiratory disease.

Porcine pleuropneumonia is of serious concern regarding lung health in pig production. Besides optimizing hygiene and pig management, specific vaccination against the causative agent, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, is an important tool in the fight against this disease. As porcine pleuropneumonia may present with different clinical courses of disease, it is not always easy to objectively assess herd lung health state or to monitor improvements following specific therapeutic or prophylactic measures. Here, the effects of specific vaccination on lung health in a chronically diseased farrow-to-finish farm in Lower Austria experiencing an acute episode were monitored by means of an app-based electronic tool, enabling the scorers to document lung pathologies real-time at slaughter. At the time, when vaccination measures took effect, percentages of lungs affected by dorsocaudal pleurisy had decreased from 43 to 5 and the APP-index from 1.2 to 0.1, respectively. But not only pleurisies were diminished, also incidences and severities of bronchopneumonic alterations had dramatically decreased and exhibited interesting trends when set in connection to clinical signs. Overall, vaccination measures against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae proved to be very effective in restoring herd lung health.

Enzootic pneumonia (EP) of pigs is caused by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M.hp.), which is, together with the porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), among the most prominent inducers of the porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC). Therefore, vaccination of piglets against M.hp. and PCV2 is crucial in the fight against pulmonary infections. In this field study, we tested the clinical efficacy of two novel vaccines, one delivered IM (Hyogen® + Circovac®) and the other ID (MHyo-Sphere®PCV ID), on a fattening farm in Lower Austria with a history of still ongoing EP. Average daily weight gain, coughing/sneezing index, losses due to morbidity/mortality, and lung scoring data at slaughter by means of CLP (Ceva Lung Program) were recorded for three consecutive fattening cohorts to achieve a powerful number of animals, one half each vaccinated with the IM vaccine and the other half with the ID vaccine (n = 659 in total). No statistically significant differences could be observed between the two vaccination groups for the parameters investigated, but the total median EP score, which categorizes pulmonary lesions due to infection by M.hp. with a theoretical range of 0–28, was lowered from initially 1.9 to 1.0, indicating that both vaccines proved very suitable measures in the fight against EP.