Effect of intramuscular vaccination against Lawsonia intracellularis on production parameters, diarrhea occurrence, antimicrobial treatment, bacterial shedding, and lean meat percentage in two Danish naturally infected finisher pig herds

Lawsonia intracellularis (LI) is an economically important enteric pathogen in pigs with a worldwide endemic prevalence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of an intramuscularly administrated LI vaccine (Porcilis®Lawsonia Vet.) in Danish finisher pigs (30-115 kg) measured on key production figures, antimicrobial (AB) treatments, occurrence of diarrhea and LI shedding. The study was a group-randomized block-trial with parallel groups in two herds, Herd 1 and Herd 2, experiencing a natural subclinical-clinical LI infection in early finisher period. Vaccination occurred at weaning, but the study focused on the first eight weeks in the finisher period. Further, slaughterhouse data were included. In total, 52 and 50 finisher pens comprising 2184 and 2254 finisher pigs were included in each of two herds, respectively. LI vaccination significantly reduced feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.05 and 0.09 FU/kg (p = 0.007 and p < 0.001) alongside a significantly increased average daily weight gain (ADWG) by 31 and 43 gr/day (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001) in each of the herds, respectively. In the vaccinated group, less variation was found in ADWG compared to the control group (p < 0.001 in both herds) as an expression of a more uniform growth, which was further confirmed by less variation in lean meat percent in the vaccinated group in one herd (p = 0.007). No significant difference between groups were found in mortality and pigs excluded due to welfare reasons. AB flock treatment against diarrhea was significantly reduced in Herd 1 with all pens treated in the control group compared to 30.8 % in the vaccinated group (p < 0.001). In Herd 2, the difference was non-significant with 68.0 % in the control group compared to 50.0 % in the vaccination group (p = 0.252). Low levels of individual treatments against diarrhea were seen in both herds (≤ 5.0 %) but still significantly reduced in vaccinated pigs compared to control pigs (p < 0.050 in both herds). Mean diarrheic blot counts were significantly reduced in vaccinated pens compared to control pens (p < 0.001 in both herds). In vaccinated pigs, shedding of LI was reduced in both prevalence (p < 0.001 in both herds), excretion level in positive samples (p < 0.001 in both herds) and, in one herd, also in duration (p = 0.003) when compared to control pigs. In conclusion, pigs vaccinated with Porcilis®Lawsonia Vet against LI in both of two high-health and high-productive finisher herds had, compared to non-vaccinated pigs, significantly improved key production figures, and reduced AB treatment, occurrence of diarrhea, LI shedding, and growth variation.