Dr. Matheus Costa an Assistant Professor with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine said efforts to determine the cause and develop strategies to prevent ear tip necrosis are more about animal welfare than economics.
In response to increased reports in western Canada of ear tip necrosis, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine is investigating the cause of the condition in hopes of preventing it.
While ear tip necrosis does seem to have an infectious cause, it appears a combination of additional factors plays a role in determining the severity of the condition. Ear tip necrosis is a progressive loss of the ear cartilage.
“Surprisingly, it’s more about animal welfare and a customer perception issue than truly a production disease. It does not limit animal performance or growth, as shown in a recently published study from a group in Europe.”
That study shows that pigs that develop ear necrosis did not gain weight less efficiently than normal pigs. So it does not seem to affect animal performance but I agree it definitely must hurt.
When a pig loses a portion of its ear, it cannot be ordinary or friendly to have.
It does affect animal welfare and public perception is another criterion always to keep in mind.
“We want to make sure that everybody understands that we put a lot of effort into keeping our animals healthy and finding a way to mitigate or reduce ear tip necrosis is an important step.”
Dr. Costa said it appears this is not a viral infection but rather is at least partially a bacterial disease, and researchers are examining various bacterial agents in hopes of identifying a cause and ultimately developing prevention or control measures.
Ear tip necrosis typically affects pigs after weaning, where the tip of the ear turns necrotic leading to partial or complete loss of the ear.
In the College’s research, the first step was determining whether it has an infectious cause.
“We were able to partially induce ear tip necrosis in pigs by developing a model where we could observe lesions in the pigs’ ears. It was partly because we did not see the full-blown ear tip necrosis where the ear cartilage disappears.”
At the tip of the ear where the researchers inoculated the pigs, they started losing tissue, but it did not progress to severe disease observed in the barn. With that said, they established that this disease does seem to have an infectious perspective, so an infectious cause. However, it may not be the only factor or the only cause.
It may be a combination of factors where an infectious agent contributes to 50 percent of the lesions. Then there’s another factor that would contribute to the severity of the lesions. It’s unclear.
“We can induce scores one and two, so the initial lesions where there’s partial necrosis of the ear tip in the lab.”
Dr. Costa said they found no evidence of viruses in the lesions suggesting this is not a viral disease but partially a bacterial disease.
Researchers examine various bacterial agents to identify a cause and ultimately develop prevention or control measures.
Fixing this issue will benefit the swine industry in general where producers can control the disease hopefully and reduce the incidents. It is a disease that mutilates pigs and loses a portion of their body, and absolutely no one likes to look at those mutilated ears.
“From producers to the final customers, veterinarians, that’s not something we want to see in our animals. So right through to the packers, everyone could benefit from reducing the incidents of ear tip necrosis in commercial operations.” •
— By Harry Siemens
Photos supplied
