Vaccination with Bordetella bronchiseptica vaccine on a farm with atrophic rhinitis: an evaluation of a field experiment

Abstract

On a farm where Atrophic rhinitis (AR) occurred the animals were vaccinated with a Bordetella bronchiseptica vaccine. The immune state of the sows was checked and also the effect of this vaccination on the antibody titre of the piglets. Groups of pregnant sows were vaccinated once or twice before the partus, another group of sows only had their piglets vaccinated and a third group were used as control. The serum titres of the sows were low, not higher than 1:100 before vaccination. A double vaccination of the pregnant sows induced the piglets to produce antibodies in a sufficiently high titre during the first 7 weeks of life. Vaccination only against Bordetella bronchiseptica did not protect the piglets against AR. Piglets of the vaccinated sows showed two types of titre progress. It is not recommended to vaccinate the piglets only. The rapid plate agglutination was found extremely useful for the early diagnosis of Bordetella bronchiseptica infection.