Brachyspira hyodysenteriae vaccines for the control of swine dysentery

Brachyspira hyodysenteriae is the aetiological agent of swine dysentery a mucohaemorrhagic disease of pigs. Control of swine dysentery in herds has been dependent on in-feed medication to prevent replication for bacteria within the intestines. However antimicrobial use is undesirable due to the development of resistance and because of residues in the meat.

Vaccination would appear to be a useful intervention strategy, however mass produced vaccines for swine dysentery have had little commercial success. The reasons for this are unclear. There are currently 9 recognised serotypes of B.hyodysenteriae and the problems with mass produced vaccines may be due to the difficulties in designing a vaccine able to induce cross-protection against a range of serotypes. In contrast controlled studies have demonstrated that when pigs have been vaccinated and challenged with homologous serotypes the vaccine has proved highly effective.

As our Emergency Vaccines are derived from bacterial strains isolated from pigs at the target site, they have the potential to induce a potent immune response against the relevant serotypes. We are able to produce herd specific mono- or poly-valent vaccines containing Salmonella, Brachyspira and other pig pathogens. The use of multi-valent vaccines reduces labour costs and also reduces animal handling and associated stress by decreasing the number of injections required to induce a comprehensive immune response.