Understanding swine drinking patterns is very important when administering vaccines via the drinking water. Enterisol® Ileitis is a Lawsonia intracellularis vaccine delivered via drinking water to protect against ileitis. The objectives of this study was to determine how long it took for 100% of nursery pigs to visit the drinker when observations began at 7, 8, 9 or 10 am over three consecutive days • Behavioral data was collected from 700 – 1800 nursery pigs by visually recording with a camera placed above the drinkers and ID’s on the pigs backs. 66 hours of data was collected with a stopwatch measuring the duration of drinking bouts and recorded every time a pigs’ head was over / in the bowl. The results conclude that within 6 hours on all three days 100% of the pigs had drank from the bowl and it is critical for producers to administer Enterisol® Ileitis for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours. In a follow up study the objectives were to validate the pilot study findings with a larger study and to evaluate the distribution and duration of drinking bouts. It was concluded that the results are consistent with the previous pilot study; insufficient vaccination time could result in incomplete population immunization and it is recommended to administer the drinking water vaccines for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours.









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