A study in 64 swine herds was carried out in order to estimate the pneumonia index (PI) and the atrophic rhinitis index (ARI) through the quantification of coughing and sneezing in growing-finishing pigs. In each herd, 60 pigs were evaluated from lodging in the growing-finishing phase up to slaughter. The amount of coughing and sneezing episodes was counted in four opportunities (30, 50 and 80 days after lodging, and three days before slaughter). In each opportunity three counts of two minutes each were made and the percentage of coughing and sneezing was calculated by the average of the three counts in relation to the batch size. At slaughter, for all pig-batches the frequency and severity of lung consolidation and atrophic rinithis were determined and scored. All data were submitted to the Pearson correlation and to the simple regression analyses of the PIe in relationship to the percentage of coughing and ARIe in relationship to the percentage of sneezing. The resulting equation were: PI estimated = 0.35 + (0.11 × % of coughing) with R² = 0.45, and ARI estimated = 0.36 + (0.065 × % of sneezing) with R² = 0.36. It is concluded that the quantification of coughing and sneezing can be used to estimate ARI and PI indexes in growing-finishing pigs.
Swine; pneumonia; atrophic rhinitis; cough; sneezing
