Treatment Penicillin injections should be given to visibly sick sows or gilts. The entire group should be medicated with tetracycline in the drinking water for five days after no newly sick sows or gilts are observed. Control All gilts and sows should be given erysipelas bacterins. Replacement gilts should receive two doses of erysipelas bacterin at five weeks and two weeks pre-breeding, plus a single booster injection of erysipelas bacterin three or four weeks prior to every farrowing. Parasites Severe infestation with Sarcoptic mange mites causes anemia in sows.
Anemia causes a lowered conception rate.
Eradication of Sarcoptic mange mites, or at least a good control program, has been shown to greatly improve reproductive performances in swine breeding herds. Summary The most common infectious causes of reproductive problems in swine are parvovirus, enterovirus, leptospirosis and pseudorabies. Other less common infectious causes of reproductive problems are brucellosis, hog cholera, swine influenza, encephalomyocarditis, streptococcus suis , erysipelas and parasites. This publication briefly describes the cause, clinical signs, control, prevention and treatment of the previously mentioned diseases. Pork producers should give the highest possible priority to controlling reproductive problems.