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April 24, 2025 13 mins

The razor-thin margins in today's pork industry demand a laser focus on herd health to maintain profitability. Dr. Nic Lauterbach, Technical Services Veterinarian with Pharmgate Animal Health, draws on his years of industry experience to deliver practical insights on keeping pigs healthy during challenging times.

What makes sick pigs so costly? As Dr. Lauterbach explains, illness diminishes the efficiency of every production input – feed conversion suffers, space utilization decreases, and labor requirements increase. This cascade effect can quickly erode already slim profit margins. The key is developing systems that both prevent disease entry and respond rapidly when health challenges emerge.

Producers should watch for specific warning signs that might indicate brewing health issues. Reduced water consumption often serves as the earliest indicator, followed by lethargy, decreased feed intake, and increased need for individual treatments. Dr. Lauterbach emphasizes the critical importance of establishing a strong health team before problems arise, creating clear communication channels that enable quick diagnostic testing and appropriate intervention strategies. This proactive approach can mean the difference between a manageable health event and a devastating outbreak.

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Episode Transcript

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Sarah Muirhead (00:07):
Margins have been slim in the pork industry,
making herd health an even moreimportant component when it
comes to maintainingprofitability.
How can the pork industry bestkeep pigs healthy and minimize
loss from morbidity andmortality?
Welcome to Feedstuffs in Focus,our podcast taking a look at
the big issues affecting thelivestock, poultry, grain and

(00:29):
animal feed industries.
I'm your host, Sarah Muirhead.
This episode is brought to youby Pharmgate Animal Health, a
growing business that putslivestock first.
Pharmgate provides a provenportfolio of technically
supported, high-quality productsthat are the foundation of
custom herd health protocols.
By offering multiple optionsfor active ingredients,

(00:51):
concentrations andadministration routes, Pharmgate
provides you with the choicesto fit your needs and get you
the results that you want.
Joining us today to talk aboutprotecting your herd with a
strong first line of defense isDr Nic Lauterbach, technical
Services Veterinarian withPharmgate Animal Health.

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (01:18):
So, Nic, to start tell us a little bit about
your role with Pharmgate.
Your background in the porkindustry?
Yeah, sure, so I'm Dr NicLauterbach.
I I'm a technical serviceveterinarian with Pharmgate
Animal Health.
I've been with Pharmgate It'llbe three years, uh, this fall,
um, and before that.
So before that, I was aveterinarian within a production
company in the Midwest for forfour and a half years before

(01:38):
that.
So I've been in the industryjust shy of seven years, um, and
so my role as technical serviceveterinarian with Pharmgate is
to leverage some of thatprevious experience, as well as
experiences that we learn aboutin every day, to bring
science-based solutions toproducers and veterinarians for

(02:01):
the for the relevant healthchallenges that they may be
facing.
So that's where our groupspecifically really thrives is
that our team at Pharmgatereally has a lot of in-barn
experiences.
So most of us, myself included,have grown up in the ag world,
so maybe not necessarilyspecific to swine, but my family

(02:22):
farms in central Iowa.
I know that a lot of our teamhas been around agriculture for
most of their careers, and sowhat we, what we hope to do with
our group, is, like I mentioned, bring science based solutions
to relevant challenges, becausereally what we're passionate
about is is being in the agcommunity, being in the swine
industry and helping producersand veterinarians kind of work

(02:46):
through whatever relevantchallenges they may be facing on
a day-to-day basis.

Sarah Muirhead (02:50):
So, with today's slim margins, it's probably
more important than ever to keeppigs healthy and to minimize
loss from morbidity andmortality.
How important is all of that,then, to maintaining
profitability.

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (03:06):
Yeah, it's critical right.
It's really hard when you healthdrives so much of what it is
we're trying to do.
When you think about the majorinputs that go into raising a
pig whether that be feed, space,labor all of those become less
efficient to a producer when apig is sick.

(03:26):
Keeping a pig healthy justmaximizes everything that we're
trying to do and so that reallyemphasizes you know we need to
do everything we can to keepthese pigs healthy.
But also it emphasizes that ifwe do have a health challenge
which we know, you know raisingpigs we know we're going to have

(03:47):
some health challenges fromtime to time really makes it
critical that we're gettingthose challenges effectively
communicated and interventionstarted quickly to manage those
and to make those, to make theyou mentioned the slim margins,
to try to minimize those lossesas much as possible.

Sarah Muirhead (04:06):
So if you were to identify what pathogens, what
diseases, what do you see asthe biggest threats out there
right now to produce yourprofitability?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (04:15):
Yeah, there's some primary ones and
really to me the primarypathogens that we spend a lot of
time talking about at Pharmgatewith the producers that we meet
with kind of fall into twoseparate buckets.
There's the enteric pathogens,and these would be like your
porcine epidemic diarrhea virus,your E coli, your salmonella,
that they're going to causechallenges on the enteric side,

(04:37):
right.
So you think about you walkinto a barn and you notice some
loose pigs or a different fecalconsistency, and then you and
the other bucket would be kindof the respiratory pathogens, so
porcine reproductive andrespiratory syndrome virus or
pastorella, or actinobacilluspleuronymoniae or APP.

(04:57):
Those are kind of therespiratory pathogens that you
know.
The two main, two primarybuckets that we're talking about
in terms of pathogen, kind ofenteric and respiratory, are the
ones we spend a lot of timetalking about.

Sarah Muirhead (05:13):
So of course it's important to catch these
things early.
If you do have a problem in abarn, how should producers watch
out for you know for these kindof diseases?
What kind of early warningsigns should they be aware of?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (05:27):
Sure, yeah.
So I think obviously you knowwe talked about enteric and
respiratory diseases and each ofthose are going to have
specific clinical signs.
So the enteric we've talkedabout.
You're looking for a differentfecal consistency than you're
used to seeing.
Right, the pigs are loose orthey may be scouring On the
respiratory side.
It's what we usually thinkabout.

(05:49):
Right, I walk in and the pigsare coughing or they're what we
call thumping, which is they'rehaving to work.
It just looks like they'rehaving to work really hard to
breathe because of some of thatdamage.
That's some of that damagethat's going on or has occurred
within their lungs.
More broadly, when I was inpractice, the things that I
always told our caretakers areto look for and really alert us

(06:13):
if anything was going on Justnot specific to any specific
disease, but just in generaltells us, hey, there may be
something going on with thesepigs.
One of the things I always lookfor was water consumption.
Right, is our water consumptionreducing, going down?
That can indicate that there'sa reduction in activity.
And reduced water intakeobviously can lead to pigs

(06:34):
getting dehydrated and we knowthere's a host of issues that
would come along with that.
If those pigs are lethargic.
You walk into a barn and you'reused to them getting up and
greeting you at the pen orrunning around the pen and all
of a sudden they're not doingthat.
That would also be a cause forconcern If you're seeing your
feed consumption drop, seeingyour feed consumption drop, if

(07:00):
you are walking the pens everyday and you find yourself
pulling out more pigs thanyou're used to and giving them
injectable or spot treatmentswhat we would refer to as spot
treatments.
I would also say that those arekind of the four key ones on
the front side to look for andsay, hey, I may have an issue
here.
And then finally, kind of aleading or a lagging indicator
that you have an issue is if youeventually do start to see

(07:20):
mortality right, if you're, ifyou expect your mortality to be
a certain percentage of yourpopulation and all of a sudden
that's gone up.
That indicates that should besetting off alarm bells that say
, hey, we need to do something,we need to intervene.

Sarah Muirhead (07:34):
There's something going on here that's
causing this that we need to getto the bottom of.
When a producer observes someof these symptoms in a barn,
what's kind of the next step toprevent a full disease outbreak?
Are we looking at biosecurity,looking at treatment?
What's your advice there?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (07:54):
Yeah, I think, even before we talk about
biosecurity and we talk abouttreatment, I think the the first
thing I would always advise is,before we have any sort of
health challenges, let's makesure we have a good health team
in place, right?
Let's make sure we have somepeople that understand our
system, that understand what weroutinely are challenged with

(08:17):
whether that be productionsupervisors, whether that be
production supervisors, whetherthat be veterinarians, whomever
that may be let's make sure wehave a good health team in place
so that if, as we have issues,we have clear lines of
communication of who I need toreach out to to get input about.
Hey, what are the next steps?
You know that could look liketaking diagnostics, trying to
determine what pathogens it iswe have there and what's causing

(08:39):
those primary issues, becauseso many of the next steps are
going to be defined by what isactually going on in the barn.
You mentioned biosecurity.
Biosecurity is a great one toalso think about because,
ultimately, we want to try tokeep all these diseases out,
right, and that's whatbiosecurity is designed to do is
to keep our pigs healthy and tokeep them out.
But then, on the flip side ofthat, we have a disease enter

(09:02):
our barn and I think the thoughtprocess then becomes
biocontainment.
How do I keep this disease tothis one site If I am going and
doing chores at two other sites,or if I've got that site in a
geographic area where there maybe a lot of other pigs?
In a geographic area wherethere may be a lot of other pigs
, what do I need to do to keepthat disease isolated to that
one site and not risk the othersites that I may be taking care

(09:24):
of, or maybe in the directvicinity?
And then finally, yeah, youmentioned treatment.
Right, we talked about thehealth of the pig driving so
much of the profitability andthe production of a system, of
the profitability and theproduction of a system.
Antibiotics are a wonderfultool to help respond to that
bacterial challenge that may bepresent, and so identifying what

(09:45):
route of administration, whattreatment option and what
antibiotic we need to use andgetting it implemented quickly
is really critical.
And that's where products likewe have available at Pharmgate
Animal Health, such as PennChlor-64, pennox 343, can really
be.
Depending on the pathogen loadthat you're identifying, they

(10:08):
can become a really nice toolfor a producer or veterinarian.

Sarah Muirhead (10:13):
You mentioned treatment options, so, as a
veterinarian, what do yougenerally tend to recommend to
producers?
What should they think about?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (10:21):
Yeah, I think that it's so easy to want
to look for a silver bullet or astandard protocol, but so many
of this is going to be case bycase, and that's where I would
refer back to kind of what wewere just talking about is
having a good health team inyour corner where we can make
the right decision and we canget the right molecule selected,
where, if we do need atreatment, making sure that we

(10:42):
get the right treatmentadministered the correct way and
administered in a timelyfashion becomes really critical.

Sarah Muirhead (10:50):
So then, what common pathogens are these
treatments labeled for?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (10:54):
When you think about so specific to the
enteric side.
You know, I think about the Ecoli we mentioned, pastorella
both of those pathogens would beon the label indications for
PennClor64 and PennOx343.
And then each of those productswould also have subtle
differences in what pathogensthey're labeled for as well.
But really it can give you anice coverage of a lot of

(11:17):
different pathogens that you maybe dealing with and if you need
more information or if you'dlike to learn more about those
products, the Pharmgate websiteis a great resource.
products the Pharmgate websiteis a great resource, Otherwise
your Pharmgate team member thatyou work with can also provide
you any information that youneed on those products.

Sarah Muirhead (11:36):
So when producers are looking for what's
the best treatment option fortheir operation, what's your
advice?

Dr. Nic Lauterbach (11:44):
Yeah, I think so much of that is.
Again, it's going to kind ofdepend on the case-by-case basis
and what we're seeing, but Ithink that a couple of factors
go into that and it goes back.
It sounds like a broken recordat this point, but I think
that's where your health team,your veterinarian, can really
help you sort through that,Because, first and foremost, it
has to be the right medicationfor the pathogen that we're

(12:06):
trying to treat.
Diagnostics go a long way inhelping us determine that how
effectively and how quickly weneed to respond to that.
Medication can also play a rolein terms of how am I going to
administer this antibiotic.
At Pharmgate we've talked aboutPenclor 64 and Penox 343 being
available through the water.
We also have in-feedantibiotics and we offer

(12:28):
injectable antibiotics as well,so we have a really robust
portfolio to help manage through.
You know, if you're havinghealth challenges if you're, if
you are dealing with thesebacterial pathogens we routinely
deal with in the in the swineindustry, I believe that our
company can be a resource foryou and we can help work through
those to really help you, yourveterinarian, whomever that may

(12:50):
be identify what treatmentoption is the best for that
specific scenario.

Sarah Muirhead (12:56):
Our thanks to Dr Nic Lauterbach for joining us
here today.
This episode has been broughtto you by Pharmgate Animal
Health, a growing business thatputs livestock first.
By Pharmgate Animal Health, agrowing business that puts
livestock first.
Pharmgate offers a provenportfolio of technically
supported, high-quality productsthat are the foundation of
custom herd health protocols.
By offering multiple optionsfor active ingredients,

(13:19):
concentrations andadministration routes, Pharmgate
provides you with choices tofit your needs and get you the
results that you want.
I'm Sarah Muirhead and you'vebeen listening to Feedstuffs In
Focus.
If you would like to hear moreconversations about some of the
big issues affecting thelivestock, poultry grain and
animal feed industries,subscribe to this podcast on

(13:40):
your favorite podcast channel.
Until next time, have a greatday and thanks for listening.
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