Factors contributing to postweaning diarrhoea in a large intensive piggery

Some aspects of postweaning diarrhoea (PWD) in a piggery during the first week after early weaning were investigated. A haemolytic enterotoxigenic strain of E. coli (O149:K88:H10) was regularly recovered from piglets with PWD while rotavirus was demonstrated on a number of occasions. Prior to weaning piglets were either free of, or shed very few, haemolytic E. coli in their faeces. However, all piglets were excreting haemolytic E. coli between 5 and 7 days after weaning. The role of rotavirus in PWD was unclear. There appeared to be a direct relationship between serum antibodies to rotavirus in the slow at farrowing and those of the piglets soon after birth. The decline of maternal neutralising antibody to rotavirus coincided with the immediate postweaning period (3 to 5 weeks after birth). This was followed by an increase in antibody levels, 5 to 8 weeks after birth. There was no significant difference in the growth rate between affected and unaffected piglets over a period of 120 days. Medication of water during the first week after weaning had no significant effect on the incidence of PWD in the herd. A change in both the weaner diet and the weaning procedure reduced piglet mortality associated with PWD by more than half.