Funded by the Swine Health Information Center, a study establishing oral fluid sampling guidelines for group-housed sows was recently finalized. Led by Dr. Jeff Zimmerman at Iowa State University, the project goals were to characterize group-housed sow behaviors associated with oral fluid sampling and establish best practices for sample collection as a function of gestation stage, parity and pen size. The results determined that oral fluids sampling can be easily conducted in group-housed sows with two important recommendations to maximize participation: 1) providing two ropes per pen and 2) allowing a sample time of 60 – 90 minutes.
Find the industry summary for Swine Health Information Center project #24-008 here.
In recent years, there has been a shift in some breeding herds to housing sows in groups, prompting the need for validating practical and cost-effective disease surveillance protocols in this population. The goal of this study was to develop sampling guidelines to optimize the collection of oral fluids for group-housed sows.
The project was conducted on a commercial breed-to-wean sow farm (6,500 head) across 12 pens with each pen holding 56 mid-gestation females sorted by parity. Oral fluids (using two ropes per pen) were collected for four consecutive days across the 12 pens: three pens of gilts, three pens of parity one sows, and six pens of multiparous sows. Sow behavior towards the ropes was characterized by individually marking a sub-set of animals and a 90-minute video observation was recorded. A food coloring dye was used to ensure detection of the environmental target in the oral fluids samples.