CIRCO-VIRUS (PDMS / PMWS)

William Park Tonks has been working on a syndrome called “bleeders”. It is a condition whereby horses bleed during a race due to blood vessels in the nose and lungs rupturing. After rupturing the horse may take up to 4-6 months to recover. Most stables have 20-60% “bleeders” in their yard. The blood morphology has suggested a lower immune function and an anti-oxidant shortfall.

A review of the human use of certain products to overcome shortfalls in the immune and anti-oxidant status highlighted a number of nutraceuticals (whole material as well as extracted components) that were worthy of further investigation. The human daily requirement for these products was recalculated on a horse basis using a metabolic body weight conversion.

The product tested contained various antioxidants for the gut and lungs, working on the data that we have gleaned from some other piglet work; Pigs Breakfast (a product with which Park Tonks has won a very prestigious UK Government SMART award). In addition there are various nutraceuticals that will facilitate the immune system, increasing IgM and IgA levels. The latter method of stimulation is still not fully known.

The horses under investigation were fed a top dressed product for 21 days prior to an examination to race in four different yards. The results to date have been staggering. In one yard the level of bleeders has dropped from 47% to 9%. In another yard 50% of the bleeders were put on to the product and to date only one of these horses has bled whilst almost all of the other 50% placebo have bled.

Both urine and blood tests have not shown there to be anything present which may contravene the ‘Rules of Racing’.

There is increasing suggestion that children have a more efficient retention of trace elements and antioxidants than adults. This would also appear to be the case with the young piglet from both working with Pigs Breakfast and research data.

Park Tonks research has indicated that you need to feed the piglet from weaning to 30 kg in order to “front end build-up” both the anti-oxidant and immune function. It is also important to review the diet formulation fed to the piglet since our research has shown that the effect on post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) is a combination of diet formulation and ViraMatrix inclusion level.

The product contains a combination of:

• Bioflavonoids
• Anthrocyanins
• Essential oils
  

as the three main group names

In fact some of the main ingredients in the horse product are in this piglet product.

The raw materials have been chosen to provide a range of activities in the gut and lungs. If you look at the feed intake at weaning and through to 30 kg., the inclusion levels (kg per tonne) have been calculated as follows:

• Creep 3 kg (fed from weaning for 3-5 days)
• Link 2.5 kg (fed from 8-9 kg to 15 kg live weight)
• Grower 2 kg (fed from 15 kg to 30 kg live weight)

In the UK many on farm studies have been carried out to date and the size of the farms has ranged from 350 to 4500 sow units. The level of mortality has been running on these units at 20% to 70%. To date nearly every trial has been successful.

The typical weaning age and weight is around 25 days and 5-7 kg respectively. Piglets are healthy at weaning, then over a period of the next 8 weeks they start to slow down, become debilitated and mortality reaches a peak around 5-8 weeks after weaning. ViraMatrix has been included from weaning through to 25/30 kg. The farmers have noted a better condition on the problem farms. They have also seen a significant reduction in mortality; many have seen the level drop to below 10% from very high numbers.

Park Tonks are making no medicinal claims for ViraMatrix since this would require the registration of the product. ViraMatrix has only been added as a natural anti-oxidant mixture.

There are other units with severe pneumonia and I have to say that the product does not appear to be working as well. This is not a surprise since pneumonia has a significant effect on both the immune system and overall metabolism. Thus it is recommended to be careful where this new product is evaluated on farm

Here in the UK our success with ViraMatrix is a topic of debate within the whole pig farming community and the veterinary profession.

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