Interferon Can Reduce Mortality in Pigs with Blue Ear Disease

Interferon is a class of proteins with antiviral, antitumor and immunomodulatory functions produced by cells induced by various inducers (viruses, bacteria, macromolecules, etc.). To investigate the therapeutic effect of interferon on porcine blue ear disease, we conducted a trial from August to October 2006 on the use of interferon combined with other drugs to treat porcine blue ear disease. The trial is reported as follows.

From August to October 2006, at the Animal Clinic of the Huai'an Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Station, 325 pigs confirmed by laboratory diagnosis as having blue ear disease were selected and randomly divided into two groups. Group A had 138 pigs, treated by intramuscular injection of Jinsha Cefu (florfenicol injection, 10 ml per vial, containing 500 mg florfenicol) and Qikang (Astragalus polysaccharide injection, 10 ml per vial, containing 100 mg Astragalus polysaccharide), both at a dosage of 0.2 ml/kg body weight, for 3 to 5 consecutive days; Group B had 187 pigs, and on the basis of the same drugs used in Group A, received intramuscular injection of porcine genetically engineered interferon (5 ml per vial, containing 5 million activity units) at 50000 activity units/kg body weight, for 2 to 3 consecutive days. After medication, the mortality and recovery of the pigs were recorded.

After treatment, among the 138 pigs in Group A, 22 died, with a mortality rate of 15.94%; among the 187 pigs in Group B, 9 died, with a mortality rate of 4.81%; the mortality rate of pigs in Group B was 11.13 percentage points lower than that in Group A, and the mental state of the recovered pigs was noticeably better than that in Group A.

The trial results show that using interferon in combination with other drugs can significantly reduce the mortality rate of pigs with blue ear disease.