Abstract

Highly contagious and emerging diseases cause significant losses in the pig producing industry worldwide. Rapid and exact acquisition of real-time data, like body temperature and animal movement from the production facilities would enable early disease detection and facilitate adequate response. In this study, carried out within the European Union research project RAPIDIA FIELD, we tested an online monitoring system on pigs experimentally infected with the East European subtype 3 Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) strain Lena. We linked data from different body temperature measurement methods and the real-time movement of the pigs. The results showed a negative correlation between body temperature and movement of the animals. The correlation was similar with both body temperature obtaining methods, rectal and thermal sensing microchip, suggesting some advantages of body temperature measurement with transponders compared with invasive and laborious rectal measuring. We also found a significant difference between motion values before and after the challenge with a virulent PRRSV strain. The decrease in motion values was noticeable before any clinical sign was recorded. Based on our results the online monitoring system could represent a practical tool in registering early warning signs of health status alterations, both in experimental and commercial production settings.

Keywords

Body temperature; Motion; Early detection; Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome; virus

Published in

Research in Veterinary Science
2017, Volume: 114, pages: 482-488
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Belak, Sandor

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Clinical Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2017.09.021

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93262