Summary
Pneumonia in swine has been studied mainly at slaughter or necropsy. However, when performing slaughter or postmortem examinations, assessment of the true prevalence or lifetime extent of pneumonia is at best speculative. Radiography was used to evaluate lungs from pigs 21 to 150 days old. Follow-up slaughter examination was performed on pigs 180 days old. Individual percentage of pneumonia observed over the life of each pig and at slaughter were added to yield lifetime pneumonia scores. A significant (P = 0.0001) negative effect of lifetime pneumonia on growth rate was found. By comparison, slaughter examination proved to be a poor indicator of lifetime pneumonia; lesions were found to progress and regress dynamically throughout the life of pigs.
