Lawsonia intracellularis vaccination as an alternative to dietary antimicrobial medication in finishing swine

Lawsonia intracellularis (L.i.) is the causative agent of porcine proliferative enteropathy (PE). Enterisol® Ileitis (Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. St Joseph, Missouri, USA) is an avirulent live oral L.i. vaccine. Prior to availability of this vaccine, feeding of dietary antimicrobials was the primary means of controlling PE in the finishing period which typically represents the highest dietary antimicrobial usage period. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of finishing pigs fed dietary antimicrobials to those vaccinated and fed no finishing antimicrobials. Two treatment groups were replicated 11 times with bam as the experimental unit. Vaccinates received a single dose of Enterisol Ileitis via their drinking water approximately two weeks prior to entering the fmisher