Eggs – make that Hyper-Egg (s) came into their own when the PED virus forced plasma off the market in 2014. “Orders for our Hyper-Egg Antibody products increased dramatically in the weeks after CFIA officials found the PED virus in porcine blood plasma,” said John Hare, J. H. Hare and Associates Ltd producer of Hyper-Egg Products. “For cautionary reasons, many Canadian feeders quickly removed porcine blood plasma from their pig starter diets and interestingly, the frequency of new PEDv cases in Canada since then has decreased.”

Hare says blood plasma is a high protein animal by-product forced into piglet starter rations at about three times the cost of comparable protein sources and usually results in higher initial feed intake and better ADG for newly weaned pigs, especially in lower health status barns.

“The reason for these gains are an initial taste preference baby pigs seem to have for blood and more importantly, the digestive health benefits coming from the protective globulin protein fraction in plasma,” he said. “Unfortunately, the benefits of this immunity can also come with the hazards of disease transmission.”

Hare says Hyper-Egg Antibodies are also a good source of immunoglobulin and specifically those protecting against E. coli bacteria common in young pigs. Hyper-Egg K88 is the first and only egg antibody product in the world registered with a government regulatory agency guaranteeing a minimum level of Antibody protection. Hyper-Egg products are also backed by U. S. patent #7713527 titled “Specific avian egg antibodies for disease prevention and improvement of growth performance”. And because they come from eggs, there is no fear of cross contamination or disease transmission to pigs.

“In performance trials, Hyper-Egg Antibodies when used as directed, show equal or better results to plasma after four weeks in the nursery,” said Hare. “Mortality caused by E. coli is reduced substantially by Hyper-Egg over blood plasma. The cost for using Hyper-Egg Antibodies with an alternative high quality protein is $0.86 per pig. The cost of using blood plasma is $0.90 per pig. “We have a product that’s been around probably for 15 years until the PED virus came, sort of was a hard sell in the fact people didn’t understand really where it fit into the baby pig market,” said Hare, owner and operator of Hyper-Egg.

“Suddenly, when people look at alternatives to blood plasma, for feeding baby pigs, they were thinking okay, we’re taking a plasma protein out, what are we going to substitute with?”

He says, at first, they substitute with all kinds of so-called equal products and they weren’t getting the performance they wanted.

“Part of the reason for that is when you take plasma out of your ration, the immunoglobulin factor that was actually stimulating those pigs to perform better, is no longer there,” said Hare. “Most people recognize the fact that plasma was more than just a nutritional protein. That is because it came from deceased pigs it also brought along the immune factor that those dead pigs had, which was immunity against things like E. coli, and those types of things.”

Hare says, when that product was no longer available, there are very few other proteins that can make an argument they can do that same immunoglobulin portion of the performance side and why a baby pig does as well as they do on that feed with plasma in it.

“In our case, that is what we do, telling people for a long time, that that’s our program,” he said. “In other words, we can do what plasma does, and better because we’re a specific antibody against E. coli, which is the main problem that baby pigs face in the environment when born, especially when weaned because now they have no protection that was potentially coming from mother’s milk.”

Hare says the first 10 to 14 days post weaning is when people see that drop in performance because first of all the pigs are stressed, grouped with a whole bunch of other pigs in a pen that they’ve never been with before, they aren’t eating properly, and subjected to the environment filled with E. coli.

“The antibody that we offer as an alternative to blood plasma, you feed it, you put it in your starter feeds, and it is a great way to get pigs back to the performance they’ve seen in the past,” he said. “We have many customers since that PED occurrence that tried various other proteins recommended as alternatives to plasma and from a nutritional point of view, yes they were probably comparable to the plasma, but from the immunoglobulin portion or the disease prevention portion, they weren’t.”

The company registered Hyper-Egg with the CFIA as a veterinary biologic with a claim to prevent diarrhea caused by E. coli. “Basically our promotion now is prevent disease, promote growth, and profit.” •

— By Harry Siemens