Mortality attributed to respiratory problems among finisher pigs in the United States

In the 1995 National Swine Study of the United States National animal Healt h Monitoring System, producers identified respiratory problems as the leadi ng cause of death in pigs during the grower/finisher phase of production. O ver a six-month period, 61.7+/-4.1% (mean+/-SEM) of operations reported at least one death attributed to respiratory problems among finisher pigs (bas ed on 388 operations representing operations with greater than or equal to 300 finisher pigs in 16 states). Mean mortality attributed to respiratory p roblems was 0.9+/-0.1% of finisher pigs per operation. Stepwise logistic re gression (using SAS) was used to identify factors associated with operation s attributing at least one death to respiratory problems, and to identify f actors associated with reporting greater than or equal to 2% mortality attr ibuted to respiratory problems. Final models were run with SUDAAN to accoun t for the sampling strategy. Attributing at least one death to respiratory problems was associated with having greater than or equal to 3000 pigs ente r the grower/finisher unit over a six-month period; diagnosis of Haemophilu s (or Actinobacillus) in the past 12 months; and keeping pigs in the grower /finisher unit >120 days (as compared to <100 days). Not having a farrowing facility, mean weaning age <28 days, and <50% of finisher pigs on solid co ncrete only were associated with reporting >2% mortality attributed to resp iratory problems. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.