Cost Benefit of Vaccines and Medication - Nickels and Dimes?

Presented by Dr. Greg Wideman at the 2009 London Swine Conference.

Recently, low market prices have resulted in Ontario producers applying increasing focus to input costs. Although not one of the major cost centres in swine production (health-related costs per pig for a typical farrow-to-finish farm in Ontario have been estimated at 4.5% of the total cost of production), there are opportunities to review and reduce costs. Much of the variation in health cost among farms is due to differences in productivity, health status, and business goals, but, in addition, costs may also vary because a critical review of health spending has not been undertaken.

Some questions to ask your veterinarian:

Is there a lower-cost alternative product?

There is a wide range in the cost of commercial swine vaccines. Efficacy comparisons of vaccines, when available, are not usually based on randomized clinical trials and comparisons are equivocal regarding the real economic differences between vaccines. However, on some farms, for some diseases, changing to a lower-cost vaccine is an option, especially if the disease challenge is low. With regard to treatment options, selecting a lower cost injectable antibiotic as the primary treatment can significantly reduce cost, especially in disease-challenged finishing herds. Of course, these decisions should always be made carefully, in consultation with the herd veterinarian.

Where is the best value for my animal health spending?

Improvements in pig health and performance have been significant with the widespread use of porcine circovirus vaccines. The cost benefit ratio for PCV2 vaccine use is positive, even for farms with minimal evidence of clinical disease. There does not appear to be a standard approach to PCV2 vaccine protocols; there are significant differences between commercial products which make vaccine selection a critical point at which a producer needs to involve his/her veterinarian.

With regard to feed antibiotics, feed budgets should be reviewed on a routine basis to minimize cost without impacting productivity. A simple spreadsheet can assist in guiding feed medication decisions as feed prices change.

What should I be spending on veterinary inputs?

Veterinary costs should be routinely reviewed in order to ensure that:

1.  The volume of purchases correlates to pig inventory (i.e., doses of iron purchased versus number of pigs born).
2. Ineffective, costly products are removed from the farm's animal health plan.
3. Opportunities to add value through new health products are explored.
4. Health care cost per pig is in line with other similar production units (i.e. benchmarking).

This review can be conveniently incorporated into the CQA validation process, when producers and veterinarian are already reviewing animal health products from the food safety perspective.

There are opportunities to reduce veterinary costs in most swine operations; however changes need to be evaluated carefully since any change that reduces productivity will cause costs to increase.

Related Links

• London Swine Conference

June 2009 Pork News & Views - Table of Contents