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Factors associated with pleurisy in pigs: a case-control analysis of slaughter pig data for England and Wales

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Jäger, HC 
McKinley, TJ 
Wood, JLN 
Pearce, GP 
Williamson, S 

Abstract

UNLABELLED: A case-control investigation was undertaken to determine management and health related factors associated with pleurisy in slaughter pigs in England and Wales. METHODS: The British Pig Executive Pig Health Scheme database of abattoir pathology was used to identify 121 case (>10% prevalence of pleurisy on 3 or more assessment dates in the preceding 24 months) and 121 control units (≤5% prevalence of pleurisy on 3 or more assessment dates in the preceding 24 months). Farm data were collected by postal questionnaire. Data from respondents (70 cases and 51 controls) were analysed using simple logistic regression models with Bonferroni corrections. Limited multivariate analyses were also performed to check the robustness of the overall conclusions. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Management factors associated with increased odds of pleurisy included no all-in all-out pig flow (OR 9.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.3-29), rearing of pigs with an age difference of >1 month in the same airspace (OR 6.5 [2.8-17]) and repeated mixing (OR 2.2 [1.4-3.8]) or moving (OR 2.2 [1.5-3.4]) of pigs during the rearing phase. Those associated with decreased odds of pleurisy included filling wean-to-finish or grower-to-finish systems with piglets from ≤3 sources (OR 0.18 [0.07-0.41]) compared to farrow-to-finish systems, cleaning and disinfecting of grower (ORs 0.28 [0.13-0.61] and 0.29 [0.13-0.61]) and finisher (ORs 0.24 [0.11-0.51] and 0.2 [0.09-0.44]) accommodation between groups, and extended down time of grower and finisher accommodation (OR 0.84 [0.75-0.93] and 0.86 [0.77-0.94] respectively for each additional day of downtime). This study demonstrated the value of national-level abattoir pathology data collection systems for case control analyses and generated guidance for on-farm interventions to help reduce the prevalence of pleurisy in slaughter pigs.

Description

Keywords

Abattoirs, Animals, Case-Control Studies, Disease, England, European Union, Health, Pleurisy, Prevalence, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Swine, Swine Diseases, Wales, Weaning

Journal Title

PLoS One

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1932-6203
1932-6203

Volume Title

7

Publisher

PLoS
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/G019274/1)
The authors thank the British Pig Executive (BPEX - a part of the UK's Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board) for funding this project and providing the BPHS data base. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.