Aloha and thank for tuning in to the Livestock Wala'au! It's season 2 and we have lot's to share! In this episode we will be talking with swine specialist, Dr. Thomas Petznick from ArkCare in Nebraska. Join us to learn more about upcoming workshops with Dr. Petznick and some tips on swine health management! Mahalo for listening & hope you will participate in providing feedback about our podcast!
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Aloha and thank for tuning in to the Livestock Wala'au! It's season 2 and we have lot's to share! In this episode we will be talking with swine specialist, Dr. Thomas Petznick from ArkCare in Nebraska. Join us to learn more about upcoming workshops with Dr. Petznick and some tips on swine health management! Mahalo for listening & hope you will participate in providing feedback about our podcast!
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Check out our other social media platforms!
Episode Resources:
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Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical ag and human resources and the livestock extension group.
Melelani Oshiro:Aloha and welcome everyone to the livestock Wala'au. A podcast aims to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your host Mele Oshiro and Shannon sand. And today we're going to be talking about spine management with Dr. Thomas Pitts. Nick. Thank you, doctor for joining us today.
Shannon Sand:Yes.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Anytime. Yeah, I really enjoy the opportunity and looking forward to visiting soon.
Shannon Sand:Yeah, we're very excited to have you here. So Dr. Pets, Nick is a veterinarian specializing in swine and he owns his own specific swine specific practice art care in Nebraska. And I'm gonna count on you here, Dr. Pennsic. To correct me if I say anything wrong. He works with a wide variety of pork producers and has worked in the past with the CTAHR extension swine specialists. Dr. Halina is the Leschi. Although we all just call her Dr. Z here to help combat swine surveys and workshops in Samoa. So thank you, Dr. pesonic, for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to specialize in Spine Care?
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yeah, sure, I would love to. I grew up in rural Nebraska, and still live in Nebraska now. But I developed my love for agriculture, by being here. And being in it, we always had a few cows, a few pigs, my dad had a full time job, but at the same time, you always had that AG background and so that stuck with me. And as I grew up, I enjoyed the animals more so than, than the plants. You know, it was just more of my pet my passion and, and then I just always enjoyed when the veterinarian came and, and loved his problem solving skills and, and his ability to help us write and help our animals. So very quickly, that became what I really wanted to do. As I got into my first or second year of college, I kind of said, Yeah, I want to be a veterinarian. So I've always mostly focused on livestock. I just had a brief mixed animal practice background. After I graduated from Kansas State University. That's where I got my veterinary degree, and did a brief stint and mixed animal practice. And actually, my first my first love was dairy. And so I really wanted to be a dairy practitioner. And the the mixed practice I went to was mostly dairy. But as I was building my acumen, that way, they asked me, because the guy who was replacing was the was the swine specialist within their practice. And he left, they asked if I would pick that up. And then what I really found out that is what I wanted was the population medicine, I really enjoyed working with those large populations, and helping set up herd health programs and so forth. And so, so that really then quickly shifted as I and my whole my whole world change. So, so now I spend the vast majority my time every day focused on pigs.
Melelani Oshiro:Cool. That's very interesting. Yeah. Wow. So I mean, I think, you know, coming from Nebraska, and looking at production practices across all these different locations, I mean, even in the States, it must differ right? A lot in the different areas that you are, but there must be some general guidelines that swine producers can sort of follow. And you said you work a lot with building herd health programs, I'm sure those general guidelines probably crossover no matter what area you're in. So you can you share a little bit about some of those guidelines that folks can use, regardless of where their locations are.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yes, for sure. Yeah, I've been blessed with a very wide variety of the, of the producers that I that I work with, and, and Hawaii just added to that. Right. And, and so, you know, he's just different. And there's, there's even probably more variety in Hawaii, of of people that are it might be as simple as back door or outside their back door, and then some that do the full fledged. I mean, you would think it was a commercial sell farm in the app on the mainland. And and so it's been it's been really rewarding that way but but there you're right, there's there's true basics that we have to cover all the time. And those are the same, even in some of our all natural, you know, trying to get away from robotic use. And all that is, is it really all starts with something that's not even, you know, deep into the biology that it takes training like what I've had to do is is air, water and feed. And it's amazing though how often we do a poor job in one of one or more of those areas. And that, you know, sets everything into a cascade of needing, you know, advanced help. And so I really try to make sure that we don't just go in and, you know, talk bugs and drugs, right? It's about how are we doing with quality comfort. So an example even within Hawai, that I've seen, and a lot of people don't think about it is they think, well, it's warm down here. So we don't, you know, everything's fine. We don't need to worry about how warm our pigs are. Well, that's probably true for sales. But I've seen when we we may be pigs, and put them into where they start to go on feeders that it might be 55. At night, or, you know, if there's a cool breeze coming through and, and you'll actually chill them, and they'll, they'll get sick from the stress.
Shannon Sand:So depending on where you live here advocate quite cool at night, depending on the time of year, so I can imagine.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yeah, yeah, so. So I think that's really where I like to start. And we'll talk a lot about that, during this the workshops, is how are we doing with with what God gave us or our Creator gave us and, and that's the air that that the pigs get to breathe, their comfort is included in that. And then also, you know, the cleanliness of water, plenty of ample water, and then the quality of the food, whatever food stuff that we pick. So that's really where I started. And that's that that is definitely a mainstay, no matter, I don't care if you're a 35,000 cell operation, or if you've got three pigs, you know, that's, that's, that's true. Now, when it comes to the health, you know, going beyond that, you know, really, we also then start talking about just simple things like, where we've taken a lot of pigs offer dirt in some in some scenarios, even within Hawaii, is is getting iron in the baby piglets is really, really important at a time, because they don't get that they you normally get that from the dirt. So when we take them off the dirt, we have to give that to them in the form of a shot. And then really, the the other one that I've noticed that that gets missed at times is just the general broad dissents of parasite control. And that would include internal parasites of the worms, and then also external parasites like lie, lice, mange ticks, that kind of thing. And so very, very simple, and actually economic ways to take care of that. So that's where we really start with those are things even before we get into the vast viruses and bacteria that can become a problem. If we don't have those bases covered? It's really hard to step into the next step.
Melelani Oshiro:Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, he's talking about air all over, you know, we kind of think that, you know, we're in Hawaii, it's so warm, but really, it's not, you know, and I think some of the animals that are raised here, they get acclimated right to our temperatures, as well. So when it does drop down, and I mean, in some areas on the islands, will will get lower in the fifth floor, you know, high 40s at some parts of the years. So, that's an important thing to consider for your younger animals. Yep, exactly. Yeah. And so you talked a little bit. So you worked a little bit of time, I think down in the Pacific Islands, in Samoa, and in some of these other tropical production systems here in Hawaii. So can you want to talk a little bit about some general health concerns, I guess, that you see, not just in our systems that you may have seen here, but across across the systems in general for our health producers, and like what they should be looking at and be concerned with in their health for their swine?
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yeah, when it comes to the, to the viral aspects. I mean, it's definitely touched to why as well as PERS, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, and it's just been a real devastating one right now, I would have to say, in my area of Nebraska, we usually have a pretty good control of that. You know, even two years ago, I was at a point where all my clients were negative dippers, everything was thriving. And right now it's the worst I've ever seen in all the years and I graduated 1995 And that was kind of when purrs really first started to become an issue that we had identified and we knew what virus was causing it. And we're really at at an all time low as far as of control right now. So it's been it's been very, very hard. We're actually in a pig shortage up here because of that. So so that's really the one and I know in speaking with people and a few experiences that I've had even in Hawaii, that we feel it down there right and so so purchase control is a really big one. Some real simple things with porcine circovirus to now the nice thing with that one is that's easy. You know if we have a good vaccination protocol, that's an easy one to deal with in that regard. But then the other one that I see common actually to both places is kind of the early, early weaned pig diarrhea diseases you know P porcine epidemic diarrhea virus is real devastating one that can just knock out two to three weeks worth of baby piglets. So and the nice thing is, there's really nice if we can get the education out there and the tools to people, there's there's really good ways to get rid of that. But then even just a simple E coli, Salmonella, those types of things I've found, you know, fairly commonly. And then there's a few that are more more used to be more common up here. But then as we've gone to internal confinement, we don't fight as much as like Leptospira lepto. In pigs, I've we've actually found some positive titers before and Hawaii, you know, we have run off and then a little bit we have to watch with the water. And then swine dysentery, you know, so I currently don't have any swine dysentery herds, except for those that I deal with in Hawaii. So, so yeah, it's it's there's a lot of commonality with the big diseases that we fight. But at the same time, there's some things that are more unique to the different areas, too.
Shannon Sand:Yeah, yeah, I can imagine some of the water stuff would be unique to Hawaii, because depending on the herds and where you're working with, you know, they might be on catchment, they might be on just different water sources than what you typically have access to on the mainland. So I wouldn't imagine that would be, you know,
Dr. Thomas Petznick:yeah, yeah. And one of the main things I like to do is, is, I think some people fear that when I come there, I'm gonna say, oh, you can't do it this way. You can't, you can't raise pigs, because that's not how we do it on the mainland, that's not, you know, we adapted we were flexible to how people what their facility is capable of doing, what they're capable of doing. That's really the key is, is there's not a one size fits all. It's finding the solution that best fit. So you go back to those basic principles. And you say, here, we would all agree that this is what we need to have happen. Now, how do we make that happen within your individual system?
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah, yeah, exactly. You want to touch a little bit more on purpose. So I know here in the state where Kawaii is the only island right now that is purpose free. So there's a quarantine, or I should say not quarantine. But there is a restriction on movement right? of animals. Can you touch a little bit about purrs and like it's just its impact to the herd and maybe like how it what's the transmission and whatnot, and a little provide a little background on on the virus itself?
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yeah, so the virus, again, as its name says is it affects animals reproductively, in the form of abortions, or infertility. It especially affects the late gestation, so sounds that are maybe just a month or so or a few weeks from farrowing. The purrs makes its way into the uterus and infects the piglets a lot simpler in the later stages. And then even those big ones that are born and contracted later, they're just a lot more susceptible, it puts a real drag on the immune system, it actually attacks immune cells within the pig. And so all those little secondary infections that we don't normally fight, become a problem. And so therefore, we ended up using a lot more antibiotics in that regard. So the nice part of it is, is it can be eradicated or eliminated from a farm with an exposure program, and what we call a herd closure and that, but but that's usually the hardest commitment to get people to do is to not bring pigs in for a while, right? Yeah, and then once we get negative with the challenges, how do I stay without exposure to that? That's
Shannon Sand:what I was wondering, I was like, how does that work? Because I was like, that's one of those things, those diseases sometimes are just so easy to transmit, if like, I go and visit your herd, like in Nebraska, but then go to a gas station, I might pick up something someone else has been somewhere else and then go so you know, so I mean,
Dr. Thomas Petznick:yeah, yeah. So, we have to let you know, the good news is is what we look at it as similar to what some other you know, like regular businesses outside of agriculture do is is Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points or some people call it hassle to actually get a certification that way and what it is is a target where are the hazards at and what Critical Control Point do I put in place so so I can tell you if I if I went and rolled in, in a buck, you know, poured a bucket of purrs virus all over me if I do the right steps, and and from the time I'm exposed to the to the way that I get into to visit a herd that doesn't have purrs, I have 100% can eliminate the risk, but we have to be disciplined in that and as we just have that kind of loose social kind of quality, especially within the islands. I see that you know, and we're very, very social. I mean, not that we aren't up here as well. But but you Got a different
Shannon Sand:kind of social. So both places and Melis lived a few different places as well, I think like, I can definitely say it's a different kind of social.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:It goes really deep, and it kind of comes into, you know, is Ohana and all that that you guys talk about, and then you live that. And you feel it when you as you spend more time down there and, and so it's very hard not to be just very intimate with our relationships and so forth. And but we have to draw guidelines and say, Listen, this is great. But please do this and do this and do this. And so we know it can be carried on inanimate objects. We know that certainly the greatest risk, and that's what I worked with, actually I worked with the state of Hawaii on is what regulations do we need when we bring seamen, you know, that we export in from the outside, or when we bring live animals is that's the number one way to transmit it. So so the My biggest concern, and honestly, if we can just control, it's not uncommon in the islands, where which we would never do that up here is well can I borrow or rent your bore? You know, well, I'm now taking that animal and may not even be purged or whatever is I'm taking a live animal that has certain bugs, and maybe they don't look sick, but then they bring them into my herd and in my hurt from the outside. And it's like all of a sudden, you could all all hell can break loose. And it's that simple. You know, not thinking that through? Yeah, so so so the good news is, is there if if people are willing to really think you know, and be disciplined with it, we can set up individual programs to eliminate it. We do have a little bit of concern, though. Rodents, flies, even a little bit of just short, aerosol transmission can happen, you know, in the wind and those types of things that can spread it as well. So we just try to limit we control what we can. And that seems to help a lot right there. Yeah.
Shannon Sand:So is artificial insemination a potential option to like help limit some of that, because I know one of our retired agents, Mike DuPont did a lot of work on teaching local producers here like how to aI have their own like pigs in production and stuff. So I was like, I think part of I know he did a lot of work on biosecurity related to some of that, I think so
Dr. Thomas Petznick:yeah, the beautiful part of that is you so so if you have infected semen, you will infect cell farms. That's that's a proven fact. And but then the the nice part of, of having a source of semen that you can bring in as most of those more studs, and I would only, I would only recommend those that do the testing, do very aggressive testing to make sure that their semen is safe. And so from that regard, that is why would that is a good biosecurity aspect to put in. But it's only as good as the protocol. So what I really work with my producers on is, hey, when you're going to make that change, if you're if you're thinking about introducing an animal from another farm, if you're thinking about making a change in the semen source, anything like that, we do what we call a vet to vet. And it honestly doesn't have to be between two veterinarians, it just has to be between two people that really understand the health of their hurts and say, is that going to work? Or is that not going to work? What what degree of confidence do we have that we're not going to create an issue and we make that change?
Shannon Sand:Yeah, right. Yeah, I think it would be more likely to be like person to person, because we have a limited number of that's available here. So
Dr. Thomas Petznick:for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead. And I'm sorry, as you'll see as we do the workshops, is we're going to be very focused. So we're starting on kawaii knowing that that's the cleanest and then we'll work our way backwards through what we call biosecurity pyramid
Shannon Sand:for safety. Kind of, yeah.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:So we'll have disposable boots, we'll be using things like boot washes. I mean, you'll see all that, that we feel comfortable, we can get a lot of workshops done in a short period of time, but not put anybody at risk.
Shannon Sand:Right. That's exciting. Since you are coming here. Can you share some about what the workshops and lectures your will be about? So kind of tease it out for people?
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yeah, so I really hope I mean, if you have a chance, and even if you can't stay all day, if we can just start to build some relationships. And even if you learn one thing that you take home that makes you better and keeps your pigs healthier, you know, that's really what it's about. We don't like to see the pigs suffer, right? They're, they're, they're they're maybe not the degree of pet that a dog or a cat or another animal might be but sometimes
Shannon Sand:they are though. People but they are they're there.
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Yes. Yeah. So but anyway, so hopefully everybody I really encourage you please get out even if it's just for a short while, it's going to be I think it'll be very enjoyable. They always have been when I came down and done some others, but But anyway, it'll touch a lot on just exactly what we're talking about. And the nice part of it, though, is we'll be able to take on site assessment, and be able to say, Okay, here's where this particular principle applies, right? Whether it's a biosecurity thing as we're, as we're like, how do we how do we keep this farm safe, as we understand them, a lot of it is is taking and then is taking what we know. And then how we apply it. To each individual case, every every farm is a different petri dish is how we might do it in petri dish being you know, how we, we can culture things in onto a plate. And that's its own its own world, right? Well, every farm is really just a big petri dish. And we have to treat each one a little bit differently than the next. So we'll be hitting on common things with feedwater, air will be hitting biosecurity will actually go through, we'll spend some time on disease as well. And again, we're flexible. And we'll kind of go with what the audience is looking for, and what the individual farms that host us are looking for. We've spent some time in the past, we'll hopefully do some sampling. And you know, because that's one of the key roles here is, is hopefully we get some veterinarians out there. So if you have any interest out there, and your veterinarian, make sure you come we're always looking, I can't be in Hawaii all the time. And unfortunately, and we also have some of the time gap, but we need people boots on the ground that and anything I can do to help them make them feel comfortable going into that setting. And then we start developing relationships, and I can always be a resource from the outside as well. So So I think really all of that what you can expect to see. There's no question that's stupid, and, and there's nothing that we won't entertain to help people learn.
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah, yeah. And to just just let folks know that the workshop is, essentially it's a educational workshop for veterinarians, veterinarian technicians, and our other extension agents that deal with livestock out there. And we'll also going to have a public lecture that goes along with every workshop and the lecture is going to be open to any swine producer that wants to join us, please let us know, you know, the information will go out and will be shared on our podcast page, as well as the livestock extension group page. And you'll probably get in and other areas if you're on any of the listservs for any of the veterinarian programs here in the States. So yeah, we're very excited to have this workshop, it'll be one of the first in person workshops that we're able to hold for livestock as since the pandemic so you know, we're excited to be able to get out there and be able to see people face to face while sort of I guess we still have to be masked, but you know, sort of face to face but um, yeah, so thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Dr. Pets Nick, is there anything else you'd like to add for our listeners about your tips for them in their swine production management?
Dr. Thomas Petznick:Well, I would just say that one of the key things is understand what your goals are and then surround yourself with really smart people are and not even just the intelligence side but but smart from, from that they're passionate about what they're doing. And there are so many resources the probably the biggest most impressive part of of when I come to Hawaii is the support that you guys provide through extension for one through CTAHR Even the state is as always been super involved and always really welcome I think you have a really unique situation there is we have those same resources up here but but they it seems like it's been so amplified with what I see down there and so make sure that you're relying on those people to keep you and your pigs happy and productive. And like I said please please do come out we'll have a great time I'm so looking forward to coming back breathing the air you know giving well what price the curfew hugs in even though with COVID But from that standpoint and eating great food so I'm looking forward to sharing stories and and having a great time.
Melelani Oshiro:Thank you so much again for joining us and we hope our listeners and found some of this information very informative to them and encouraged to sign up for the workshop when you see the registration links come out. And also if you haven't done so already, please feel our feedback fest The link will be in our show notes for for everyone and give us your thoughts about this podcast and all the rest of the topics that we have covered.
Shannon Sand:Make sure to join our Facebook page the livestock extension group if you haven't already, and be sure to visit the U h CTAHR. Extension web sight and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes below.
Melelani Oshiro:That's right. And for additional information about this topic, see the show notes of the podcast and the description box, again of the YouTube page. Thanks for listening to the livestock Bala owl. And before we go show some love for your favorite podcasts. That's us, by the way by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts. Then stay tuned for next month's episode awfully full. Thanks.
Shannon Sand:Thanks again to our sponsors the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, the livestock extension group and CTAHR, Oklahoma