Epidemiological studies of pig diseases: 2. Post-weaning diarrhoea and performance in Western Australian pigs.

OBJECTIVE: To determine in Australian pig herds the accuracy of French protocols for risk factor assessment of post-weaning diarrhoea and illthrift. PROCEDURE: French protocols for the collection of data on health indicators and risk factors for post-weaning diarrhoea were conducted on 54 batches of weaner pigs from 28 Western Australian pig herds during three years. RESULTS: Large variations in post-weaning performance were found. About one-third of the batches were growing at < 200 g/day during the 3 weeks after weaning, and 54% had growth rates of < 250 g/day. Weaning age and weight of at least 30 days and 7.9 kg, respectively, optimised weaner performance. Other risk factors associated with little post-weaning diarrhoea and good weaner performance were high creep feed intakes, relatively little diarrhoea as suckers, and, contrary to expectations, large temperature fluctuations. CONCLUSION: Overall, the 'predictability' of post-weaning problems as assessed by measurement of risk status, was good. However, the model was less accurate at predicting the performance of a single batch of pigs.