Give all the piglets the same opportunity:
Secure colostrum-intake for all
Combine different interventions
Iron supplementation from day 3 or later
Preventative pain treatment = not only for male piglets
Apply pain-relieving/ anti-inflammatory medication with a broad spectrum of activity for docked tails or arthritis
Sucking pigs have an irrepressible desire to live. However, painful events may have a negative impact on the further development of pigs by:
Lowering milk-intake
Restricting self-preservation instinct (reflex to flee)
Early and excessive iron supplementation can negatively influence health
Piglets are born with minimal iron-reserves (40 mg). This low iron concentration is a natural defence mechanism directed at combatting bacterial infections during and after birth.
Sow milk provides piglets with about 1 mg Iron/day. With a daily need of about 7 mg there is only sufficient iron for about 4 to 5 days.
Systematics in sucking pig management:
Checklist for a good start
1. Number of functional teats checked and recorded
2. A number of pigs, to leave two fewer piglets than the number of functional teats, are fostered out of a litter
Reduced farrowing times with uterotonic, Vetrabutin
Different super script means statistically significant differences (Source: D. Mota Rojas et al., 2005)
Phagocytes at work:
• A phagocyte attacks a bacterium and destroys it
• Important information required for the animal to express the appropriate immunological response is collected by the phagocyte
• The correct active immune response is induced
Phagocyte = a macrophage attacks bacteria
US - In the latest 'At the Meeting' (ATM) audio program on swine health from the Morrison Group, leading swine veterinarians take on the historic and novel work regarding porcine circovirus (PCV2), including prevention, new diagnostic methods and vertical transmission’s impact on pig production and sow herds.
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