Changes in Acute Phase Proteins in pigs linked to external stresses
Recently, Acute Phase Proteins (APPs) have been identified as a potential health index for swine. A multinational consortium undertook to investigate the extent to which farmers could apply APPs to achieve their goal of a healthier pig herd. Livestock transport is a key health issue and increasingly scrutinised due to consumer interest in the humane treatment of animals. Road noise, crowding, thirst and hunger seriously stress the animals during transport and can amplify rates of disease transfer. Researchers from PigCHAMP Pro Europa S.A. monitored levels of both positive (pig-MAP, haptoglobin, CRA and SAA) and negative (ApoA-I) APPs from a large sample of pigs prior to and after being transported over 700 kilometers. Statistically significant changes in positive and negative APPs confirmed the hypothesis that transport puts the animals' health at risk and proved that APPs are an appropriate choice of indicator. Unhealthy levels of stress can also be brought on by other factors. The pig specialists at PigCHAMP Pro observed the changes in APP levels following alteration of the pigs' feeding schedule. Two feeding regimes were tested, one where the animals were fed as much as they wanted all the time (ad libitum) and one where they were fed in an irregular fashion. For the male pigs, the irregular regime resulted in substantial weight loss while females were strangely unaffected. APP concentrations in the blood serum of both sexes reflected the same trend as the weight loss, revealing once again that APP levels can be used to diagnose the well-being of swine. PigCHAMP also brought attention to the potential of APPs for the evaluation of various methods of both transport and feeding regime, identifying which particular method least compromised the animals' health. This research has direct application for pig farmers across Europe looking to better monitor the health of their pig herds. Farmers, consultants, researchers and other interested parties can find more information about the work at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/appinpigs/
