A Green Gel May Save You Time Vaccinating Pigs, Cline Says

Labor challenges are not new to the pork industry, but Boehringer Ingelheim introduced a possible solution at the World Pork Expo that is new to the pork industry: oral gel administration for its Lawsonia and Salmonella vaccines, Enterisol Ileitis and Enterisol Salmonella T/C.

“We’ve known that Lawsonia intracellularis is known to be in more than 90% of surveyed pig farms in the U.S. today that have or have had ileitis on the farm,” says Greg Cline, senior key account veterinarian for swine at Boehringer Ingelheim. “It’s incredibly common and it’s common to vaccinate for it.”

The label on Enterisol Ileitis and Enterisol Salmonella T/C is both an oral administration.

“Traditionally that’s been administered in one of two ways. The task of picking every pig up and squirting it with vaccine is tough. It just adds one more thing on the to-do list. The other administration method is through the medicator – that’s a pretty simple and easy task. But we’ve come to realize that in a time where labor is really tight, and may not be fully staffed, is there a way that we can administer these vaccines in an effective, but easier and more efficient way?”

A new, green oral gel may be the answer, Cline says. The gel should be administered to 3-week old pigs in the farrowing crate.

“The gel is sprayed onto comfort mats in farrowing crates using a backpack sprayer. The inquisitive nature of the pig is to check it out. They move around and are constantly picking it up,” Cline says.

Challenge models show this delivery method is effective, he adds.

“We've had farms that have been administering the Salmonella and the ileitis vaccines in this manner for over a year and we've had no problems. So empirically, we have observed that it's effective as well,” Cline says.

He believes the ease and the speed make it a good option. In on-farm research trials, he says they were able to vaccinate 48 crates of pigs in 3 minutes using the oral gel.

“Farm personnel loved it because it was easy and effective. It sped their day up,” Cline says. “As you know on the sow farm, or any farm for that matter, anything we can do to administer things in a fast, efficient, effective way makes a difference. We feel more comfortable that the tasks will get done well with this new approach.”

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