The effect of avilamycin in the control of stress-induced post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets

Avilamycin, an oligosaccharide antibiotic with growth-promoting properties in pigs, has proved to be effective in controlling stress-induced post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets, caused mainly by Escherichia coli. The present study includes two trials, in which 400 newly-weaned piglets were used (200/trial). The following five different treatments were tested; 0, 40 and 80 p.p.m. avilamycin, 50 p.p.m. olaquindox and 100 p.p.m. apramycin. In each trial there were four pens (each with five females and five males) per treatment. Avilamycin when given at 80 p.p.m. reduced average daily diarrhoea score (ADDS) and mortality, and improved liveweight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR), compared with the untreated controls, the 40 p.p.m. avilamycin and the 50 p.p.m. olaquindox (P less than 0.05) treatments. The overall performance of 40 p.p.m. avilamycin and 50 p.p.m. olaquindox was similar. The results indicate that avilamycin at the dose level of 80 p.p.m. in the starter feed can control post-weaning diarrhoea of piglets and prevent loss of productivity. Nevertheless, the antibiotic apramycin, whose spectrum of activity is mainly against the Gram-negative bacteria, given at the therapeutic level of 100 p.p.m., was more effective than any other experimental treatment (P less than 0.05), except for ADDS and FCR which were not significantly different from that of avilamycin 80 p.p.m.