Updated April 18, 2024

Protecting livestock and providing the best form of care is a goal every young exhibitor should strive to accomplish. After all, showing is about more than placing in the ring. Feeding properly and maintaining overall animal health is a big part of raising show projects, and part of the big picture is being able to give vaccines appropriately.

For swine breeders there are very common and specific vaccines they should administer to ensure herd health and productive litters.

Todd Price, owner and veterinarian at North Central Veterinary Service, Upper Sandusky, Ohio, says vaccination protocols should be of utmost importance for both breeders and exhibitors. Working with a swine veterinarian to determine the best course of use and timing is extremely important. He says establishing this relationship is more than having an approved vaccination program, but rather using the vet as a sounding board to keep up with new research on diseases and vaccines to establish the best overall protocol.

“People may pick up a magazine and read about a vaccination protocol and copy that program, but that’s not always the best thing to do,” Price says. “They really need to work with a vet to understand immunology and when to properly time their respective vaccination program. At the end of the day these pigs are still are used to provide food on the table.”

Here are a few steps to a solid vaccination program for today’s swine producers.

Start with breeding sows, giving them pre-breeding shots of a Parvo/Lepto vaccine. Price says to give gilts two shots pre-breeding, but give sows only one shot.

Depending on the breeder’s farm, a PRRS and influenza vaccine is next. If there has been exposure to PRRS or the farm is positive for it, then it would be necessary to vaccinate for these two viruses. Price says since most show pig producers are selling pigs off the farm and have visitors coming through their pens, he highly recommends this group gives the vaccine as well.

He also suggests giving sows a dose of Circovirus vaccine pre-farrowing.

Pre-farrowing sows and gilts need two doses of an E.coli/ clostridium combination product with the two doses given two weeks apart and the final dose administered at two weeks pre-farrow. Again, depending on farm specific disease history, recent purchases and local disease pressure, Price says there may be a need to vaccinate for PEDV and Rotavirus.

When pigs are born, vaccine protocol begins at day one to attack bacteria like strep suis and H parasuis. Newborn pigs are given a broad spectrum antibiotic injection like Excede. A dose of iron should be administered as well. Iodine coverage on the pigs’ naval is also helpful on day one. A breeder can rely on Excede to take care of the antibiotic treatment for naval cords most of the time.

During the first week, it’s time to ear notch, tail dock and castrate anything that is not a boar prospect. At the same time breeders should give another dose of Excede to each piglet they work on.

Next a respiratory combo vaccine product like Toxivac® AD+E should be given that helps prevent Atrophic rhinitis, pneumonia, and erysipelas.

When weaning time arrives or around day 24, Price says to give another dose of a broad spectrum antibiotic and a booster of Toxivac AD+E or similar product as well as a one-time dose of Circoflex and Mycoflex.. These two are an example of one of the few federally-approved vaccines that can be mixed and administered in the same syringe and still be effective and safe to use. Price says any other vaccine combination must be researched and approved by a veterinarian to avoid unforeseen and undesired side effects like injection site swelling, anaphylactic reactions and even death.

If a farm has a history of PRRS then he also says the breeder should give weaned pigs another shot of this vaccine. And if the pigs are being sold to exhibitors who plan to show at jackpots, where disease can be abundant, he says a PRRS vaccine will give at least a baseline of protection.

Post-weaning vaccine may include any animals that need a PRRS vaccine booster or a Swine Influenza (SIV) vaccine. Timing of these vaccines and boosters is critical and depends on sow vaccination status, disease pressure, timing of colostral immunity decay, etc. This decision should be made by the herd owner and the farm vet.

If the show pig will be exposed to dirt floors, unwashed concrete floors or mud lots, then Price recommends an erysipelas vaccine to help prevent this disease. The spores produced by these bacteria can live for up to15 years in the soil and therefore may be present even if pigs have not been on the farm recently.

Be sure to cover pigs for mange or lice and give them an Ivomec shot. Some herds, he says, are mange-and lice-free, and a simple wormer can be put in their feed. His top choice is Safegaurd and is designed to kill roundworms and whipworms, which can be common on the farm and detrimental to all hogs. No matter what a breeder uses, he says to pick a wormer and stick with it for an entire season as switching within a season can exacerbate resistance within the worm population.

Above all do not mix products, for you or your veterinarians convenience, that have not been approved to be mixed

Price says it’s best to establish a solid base program for vaccinations and consult with a vet to tailor and add details specific to your herd.

“Use all the tools available to get the program done,” he says. “Lean on your vet and ask what they would suggest to do. Their background is in the science and it’s their job to research and stay in the know. Their information comes from what is happening on many farms and can be beneficial to design your own custom vaccination program.”