Laure: After the developing gilt herd was vaccinated for PCV2, a manure feedback protocol was initiated, what is the purpose of this protocol?

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1 Questions for Dr. Jeremy Pittman Case questions: After the developing gilt herd was vaccinated for PCV2, a manure feedback protocol was initiated, what is the purpose of this protocol? 1. In the abstract it states that "histopathological evaluation demonstrated nonsuppurative myocardial mononuclear inflammation with extensive multifocal mycardial mineralization". In layman s terms what does this mean? What would this look like? External symptoms? 2. The gilts that were found to be positive for PCV 2 associated enteritis pneumonia, and systemic infections quarantined? 3. While the piglets are still in utero, is there a way to test for antigen present? Does the gilt show clinical symptoms prior to and increase in the number of abortions or mummies? 4. It states in the text that "gilt abortions occurred at 79 to 109 days of gestation". This is a large range. Are certain reasons or factors for the timing of the abortions? 5. Why does the PCV2 virus affect the heart tissue above all other tissues? 6. What is the occurrence of PCV2 on farms that are not vaccinated versus those that are vaccinated? Is it economically worth it? What is the effectiveness of the vaccine? 7. Does PCV2 affect them reproductively for life? Or is it a virus that they can fight off? Is it worth culling every positive PCV2 positive animal? Brandyn and Sondra: Can PCV2 be transmitted by boar semen? Can vaccination overcome maternal immunity, and will immunity last until pigs are marketed? Michael: At the time this article was written (2007), there was a lot that was unknown about PCV 2 especially with regards to its affect on reproduction as well as a lack of treatments to cure the problem as opposed to prevention by management protocols. Over the last 3 years, have there been any developments either in understanding of how the virus works or how it creates problems with reproduction? Also, have any treatment methods been developed to help the gilts once the problem has already been diagnosed? Rachel W: 1) What determines what stage the fetuses are aborted? 2) In the article, it said that the gilts were vaccinated. Why did they still get infected? 3) Why do the fetuses develop so much, if the virus is already in the gilt? Why wouldn't the disease just prevent a fetus from developing at all?

2 Rachel P: Why do you belive that gilts from an external source were not affected while the homegrown gilts were? 1) Near the end of the "Treatment and outcome" section, it was mentioned that a manure feedback protocol was initiated. What purpose does the manure feedback protocol serve and how? Is this common practice? Swine Vet questions: Maddy: What is the most rewarding part of your job as a swine vet, that is not a part of the experience of being a small animal/large animal vet? Reuben: What is the most stressful part of being a swine vet? When a disease similar to PCV2 attacks a swine farm, what are the first steps a veterinarian will take to identify and to control the disease? Meg: Are there benefits to being a swine vet opposed to other types of veterinarians? If so, what are they? Sondra and Brandyn: What made you want to become a swine veterinarian? What was your most rewarding experience? What was your most discouraging experience? Rachel P: How long does it typically take to overcome a PCV2 problem within a herd? How big are the expected economic losses? What can you do to minimize these losses? 1) What made you decide to become a swine vet and has this always been your profession of choice? 2) What is your favourite part about being a swine vet?

3 Questions for Dr. Janet Alsop Rachel P pigs from high health herds often do not have immunity to pathogens such as HEV, as a swine veterinarian do you think the benefit of raising a high health herd outweighs the cost if a bacteria or virus is introduced? In a case like this, which results in significant economic losses how do you deal with an unhappy producer? Natasha Question 1: What is pyrexia? Question 2: Given that the clinical course for the disease is 2 to 3 weeks while the sows build up an immunity, are there any treatments given to the neonates during this time to reduce symptoms or prolong the onset of disease? Question 3: What is a nucleus herd? Question 4: What was the financial loss of this outbreak? Question 5: If there was no significant difference is sow HEV HI titres before and after the outbreak, how can one say that the VWD was caused by HEV if there was no difference in titre levels? Michael: At the very end of the article it says that "the economic loss to the farm was significant" and although the "preweaning mortality did not exceed 12%," a mass euthanasia was still required for this case. The discussion also states that there have been other cases with mortality at almost 100% of affected litters. I'm wondering what you, as a swine veterinarian, could do for a producer who has experienced a mass euthanasia and significant economic loss on their farm. In the article, some of clinical signs mentioned for the VWD were anorexia, vomiting, fever, coughing, were there any abnormalities relating to their excrements (faecal and urine)?

4 Questions for Cate s journal club Article questions: What is the current swine industry like in Kenya? Can families support themselves on the production of one or two pigs a year? Rachel P: 1) In the length of time that this study took place, did you see any benefits to the farmers? 2) I noticed that these pigs are much smaller than typical North American pigs, in general how to the Kenyan pigs compare to North American pigs? 1) Stating from the article, "Of the 151 pigs that were lost to follow up, 115 (76%) had been sold and 20 (13%) had died, while the remaining six (3%) had been stolen", 13% seems like a high number of death, did the 20 pigs die from similar causes? 2) It was mentioned in the article, that no pig farmers refused the initial farm visit. Was it easy to convince farmers to participate? Here are some questions I had after reading Dr. Dewey's research article: 1) How did you gain the trust of the elders of the villages where the study took place? 2) How were you able to effectively communicate with the local people? 3) How did you come up with the idea for this study and why did you choose to perform this study in Kenya? Meg: What was the average number of pigs on each farm? With respect to the contract farming where farmers gave pigs to their family and friends to look after, did they generally give away all their pigs, or just some of them? Veterinarian questions: Have you, since Kenya, done any other work on swine in countries outside North America? What were those experiences like?

5 Rachel Poppe: What interested you and made you decide to undertake this reaserch? 1) What interested you in doing international work? And why Kenya? 2) Comparing your Canadian veterinary swine work and your Kenya veterinary work, is there one you prefer? Would you recommend doing veterinary international work to others veterinarians?