Stochastic Assessment of the Economic Impact of Streptococcus suis-Associated Disease in German, Dutch and Spanish Swine Farms

Abstract

The economic assessment of animal diseases is essential for decision-making, including the allocation of resources for disease control. However, that assessment is usually hampered by the lack of reliable data on disease incidence, or treatment and control measures, and that is particularly true for swine production diseases, such as infections caused by Streptococcus suis. Therefore, we deployed a questionnaire survey of clinical swine veterinarians to obtain the input data needed for a stochastic model to calculate the costs caused by S. suis, which was implemented in three of the main swine producing countries in Europe: Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. S. suis-associated disease is endemic in those countries in all production phases, though nursery was the phase most severely impacted. In affected nursery units, between 3.3 and 4.0% of pigs had S. suis-associated disease and the mortalities ranged from 0.5 to 0.9%. In Germany, the average cost of S. suis per pig (summed across all production phases) was 1.30 euros (90% CI: 0.53–2.28), in the Netherlands 0.96 euros (90% CI: 0.27–1.54), and in Spain 0.60 euros (90% CI: 0.29–0.96). In Germany, that cost was essentially influenced by the expenditure in early metaphylaxis in nursery and in autogenous vaccines in sows and nursery pigs; in the Netherlands, by expenditure on autogenous vaccines in sows and nursery pigs; and in Spain, by the expenditures in early metaphylaxis and to a lesser extent by the mortality in nursery pigs. Therefore, the differences in costs between countries can be explained to a great extent by the measures to control S. suis implemented in each country. In Spain and in Germany, use of antimicrobials, predominantly beta-lactams, is still crucial for the control of the disease.

Establishment and application of an indirect ELISA for the detection of antibodies to porcine Streptococcus suis based on a recombinant GMD protein

“…In 1998, there was an outbreak of S. suis in Jiangsu Province, China, in which 25 people were infected, 14 died and about 98,000 pigs were infected (Tang et al 2006) [33] . Studies of the prevalence of S. suis on pig farms in the three main European pig producing countries of Germany, the Netherlands and Spain showed 3.3 to 4.0% of pigs in infected farms had S. suis related disease with mortality rates of 0.5 to 0.9% [32] . In Spain, researchers found that 55.6% of patients worked in pig farms [31] .…”

Vaccine against Streptococcus suis Infection in Pig Based on Alternative Carrier Protein Conjugate

“…Streptococcus suis infections in pigs are economically and clinically important for the pig industry [ 21 ]. Vaccination against the pathogen could be the way to reduce the infection pressure, especially when there is a current effort to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock [ 2 ].…”

New Insights into Neutrophil Extracellular Trap (NETs) Formation from Porcine Neutrophils in Response to Bacterial Infections

“…The Gram-negative bacterium A.pp leads mainly to pneumonia [ 26 ] and the Gram-positive bacterium S. suis leads to meningitis, arthritis, and pneumonia [ 27 , 28 , 29 ] in pigs. Therefore, both of the pathogens can cause severe diseases in pigs, with the consequence of high economic losses [ 30 , 31 ]. Furthermore, both of the bacteria induce NETs in pigs [ 24 , 25 , 32 ], but the detailed mechanism is still unknown.…”