Observer agreement on pen level prevalence of clinical signs in finishing pigs.

Four observers performed a standard clinical examination of finisher pigs in two commercial finisher herds. In herd 1,600 finisher pigs in 44 pens were examined. The observers assessed clinical signs of lameness, umbilical hernia and tail bite according to a standardized procedure. The prevalence of the clinical signs was estimated at the pen level. The procedure was repeated after 3 months in another herd, where 730 finisher pigs in 69 pens were examined. The agreement between observer pairs was assessed using prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) and proportionate-agreement estimates (Ppo) and Pneg). Observer bias was present despite training and standardization of the participating observers. The highest pen level agreement for the observer pairs was found for pens that had one or more pigs with tail bite (PABAK = 0.82-1.00) and umbilical hernia (PABAK = 0.77-1.00). The agreement was fair-to-moderate for identification of pens holding one or more lame pigs (PABAK = 0.27-0.7). In general, the average agreement of observer pairs on absence of clinical signs (Pneg) was higher than for presence (Ppos). The observer bias varied between observer pairs and with the clinical signs.

Application of acute phase protein measurements in veterinary clinical chemistry.

The body's early defence in response to trauma, inflammation or infection, the acute phase response, is a complex set of systemic reactions seen shortly after exposure to a triggering event. One of the many components is an acute phase protein response in which increased hepatic synthesis leads to increased serum concentration of positive acute phase proteins. The serum concentration of these acute phase proteins returns to base levels when the triggering factor is no longer present. This paper provides a review of the acute phase proteins haptoglobin, C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A and their possible use as non-specific indicators of health in large animal veterinary medicine such as in the health status surveillance of pigs at the herd level, for the detection of mastitis in dairy cattle and for the prognosis of respiratory diseases in horses.

Serum-haptoglobin concentration in Danish slaughter pigs of different health status.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 617 finishing pigs aged 10-25 weeks in 11 commercial herds of different health statuses as defined by the Danish monitoring program for specific-pathogen-free (SPF) herds. A standard clinical examination was performed and a blood sample was obtained from each pig for determination of haptoglobin concentration in serum. Pigs aged 10-14, 15-19 and 20-25 weeks in conventional herds had higher haptoglobin concentrations than high-health SPF (SPF-x) pigs of the same age. There was no significant difference between SPF-x pigs of different ages. Conventional pigs aged 15-19 and 20-25 weeks had higher haptoglobin concentrations than conventional pigs aged 10-14 weeks. Herd influenced the haptoglobin concentration. Lame pigs and pigs with tail or ear bite had elevated haptoglobin concentrations. No significant effect of respiratory symptoms or umbilical hernia was found.