Alquernat Immuplus: an essential product to prevent swine influenza

Traditional prevention based on biosecurity and vaccination programs may not be completely effective

Swine influenza is a disease that causes periodic outbreaks in pigs in different areas of the world that negatively impacts animal health and productive performance and can compromise farm viability.

What is swine influenza?

Swine influenza, also known as swine flu, is a respiratory disease that affects pigs of all ages and productive stages. It is caused by swine influenza viruses, which have different subtypes thanks to their high capacity to modify their structure.  H1N1 subtype is the one that can affect pigs and humans.

Influenza virus is disseminated through direct contact between animals or through contaminated objects and surfaces. In some areas, pig farms suffer from recurrent outbreaks and the sector is used to dealing with this disease. Outbreaks tend to occur in cold months, although they can appear during the whole year.

What are the prevention and control methods?

Biosecurity and vaccination programs are the most useful tools to prevent swine influenza.

Biosecurity measures, such as minimizing grouping animals from different origins, the use of pen-specific material and clothing or cleaning and disinfection of all materials are basic measures to avoid the entrance of the disease in a farm and prevent its dissemination.

In endemic farms, apart from a strict biosecurity program, periodic vaccination is also recommended. Vaccines make pigs develop specific antibodies against swine influenza viruses.

This virus can easily modify its structure to decrease the efficacy of the organism defenses. Therefore, it is essential to choose the proper virus subtype and include it in the vaccines, as well as to optimize the synthesis of antibodies with natural molecules such as immunostimulant pronutrients.

Alquernat Immuplus efficiently supports vaccination against swine influenza

Alquernat Immuplus is a natural product based on plant extracts with a high content of pronutrients, active molecules capable of optimizing the immune system and increase the protection obtained with vaccination.

An improvement in vaccine response was observed in several field trials with this product. Multiple pig farms are already using it to efficiently prevent swine influenza. The chart below shows results obtained in a trial where Alquernat Immuplus increased the efficacy of swine influenza vaccine, and increased the percentage of protected animals, from 47% to 67%. This is because the administration of this product in the feed or the drinking water the days prior and post vaccination help to increase antibody titers, which are correlated with the level of protection obtained with vaccinations.

This chart shows the percent of positive pigs 7 days post-vaccination. Positive pigs are the ones that produced enough antibodies to remain protected against swine influenza. Thanks to Alquernat Immuplus, 20% more pigs are protected against the disease. 

Alquernat Immuplus can also prevent vaccine failure caused by the administration of vaccines to immunosuppressed animals that cannot generate enough antibodies to protect themselves, so that the product has a positive effect on farm profitability.

Swine influenza: Are humans in danger?

Despite most subtypes do not affect humans, pigs affected by H1N1 influenza virus could be able infect humans that are highly exposed to these animals.

Due to the detection of a new H1N1 subtype in China, it is recommended to increase biosecurity and other prevention measures in pig farms and to minimize the movement of animals between facilities.

Times that require extraordinary measures call for tools that improve vaccine efficacy, such as Alquernat Immuplus, which can be added whether in the feed or in the drinking water to increase antibody synthesis and achieve a better protection against the virus.