PIG CASTRATION: EXPERT OPINION.

Surgical castration is a painful husbandry procedure performed on piglets within the first week of life to improve meat quality. In the United States alone, approximately 94 million piglets will be castrated on an annual basis.

 Castration of piglets in Nigeria is common procedure on pig farms and the purpose is to remove boar taint from the pork, reduce fighting's within the pens and also hasten growth of the piglets..

 This procedure is carried out at an early stage but analgesic is provided. There is a school of thought advocating castration or no castration, this group wants your take on why you castrate and under what conditions do you castrate.

 Piglet castration is an ambiguous practice – on one side nobody likes it, yet stopping the practice or offering pain relief appears difficult to achieve in many countries. Health and welfare expert Dr Monique Pairis-Garcia and her colleagues at North Carolina State University would like to understand why – and are looking for your experiences and motives.

 Give your reasons, share your views let the international community understand your practice here.

The causes of tail necrosis in pigs.

What is tail necrosis. Tail necrosis is a common affliction in pigs that occurs unpredictably and jeopardizes performance. Tail necrosis can happen in very young piglets during the first days of life up to finishing pigs, often leading to culling and condemnation of carcasses at the abattoir. The primary damage may result from abrasion, fight wounds or tail docking. #tail The causes of tail necrosis can be attributed to many environmental, nutritional and infectious agents that often coincide. A number of environmental factors can lead to tail necrosis including air humidity, small injuries from slatted or abrasive flooring, or a failure to rinse off strong (alkaline) disinfectants after use. Pen mates may step on or bite the tail – a behavior more commonly observed with a lack of foraging activity or manipulating materials. High stocking density and competition for space also plays a role, potentially in response to discomfort caused by ambient temperature (too hot/cold), a lack of draught free areas, or in an effort to secure feeding space.#tail Cross-fostering, tail clipping and other environmental stressors may incite frustration from which vices such as tail biting develop. In terms of nutrition, an imbalanced diet, certain deficiencies, for example biotin or tryptophan, or a craving for salt, protein or some specific amino acids can influence tail necrosis. Excess energy and intestinal discomfort may also be contributing factors. #pigs In some cases, naturally occurring toxins may be the cause, including endotoxins, mycotoxins (aflatoxin, trichothecenes, ergot alkaloids) and biogenic amines. Bugs can also be the culprit. #pigs Skin parasites (mites), streptococcosis (beta-haemolytic), staphylococcosis or erysipelas can be at fault. Bacteria penetrate into the skin causing inflammation and then block the blood supply, leading to necrosis. Prevention can be carried out by thoroughly revising management and feeding practices in order to avoid the identified environmental, nutritional and disease factors, and by maintaining good hygiene when tail clipping. The only treatments that are available involve isolating the affected pigs and then providing local disinfection and parenteral antibiotics.

Manure is Money in the People’s Republic of China .

Livestock farms in Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China, are converting pig waste into clean energy. This is helping to manage an environmental threat, contribute to the national energy grid, and boost the incomes of farmers. Read more

AGRIBUSINESS: NUTRITIONAL DIARRHEA IN PIGLETS.

AGRIBUSINESS: NUTRITIONAL DIARRHEA IN PIGLETS. Pathogenic diarrhea are quite common and are often confused with non-pathogenic secretory diarrhea. The non-pathogenic diarrhea are caused by wrong feed formulation and feed presentation.This can easily be avoided by correct feed formulation. AGRIBUSINESS: NUTRITIONAL DIARRHEA IN PIGLETS. Pathogenic diarrhea is the most common cause of depressed performance in recently weaned piglets. The nutritional diarrhea often lead to secondary complications through pathogenic agents such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella. These are identified by proper diagnostics, require veterinary intervention to cure symptoms and eliminate the source of offending microorganisms. Nutritional diarrhea usually follow pathogenic complications, thus a combination of nutritional and medical interventions is required. Nutritional diarrhea originate from three main areas in the feeding program: 1) palatability of feed; feed that fail to initiate vigorous intake immediately post-weaning will cause hunger, this will be followed by over-eating when pigs finally associate dry feed with nourishment. The short-term starvation created is capable of reducing the digestive and immune functions of the gastrointestinal system. When the pigs over-eat after a period of malnutrition, the digestion is incomplete, resulting in excess amounts of energy and protein available for proliferation of opportunistic pathogenic microorganism such as Escherichia coli or Salmonella. 2) feed quality; feed of low quality produced using second class ingredients.This will not only discourage the development of an early appetite, but their intrinsic low digestibility result in more undigested material becoming available for bacterial proliferation in the lower gastrointestinal tract. This is why a high quality diet is essential for a successful weaning. 3)feed stuff component such as soybean meal contain anti-nutritional factors that may cause gastrointestinal inflammation. This if combined with low-feed intake and excess undigested feed will result in nutritional diarrhea.

Yoghurt for stronger suckling piglets and sows.

Feeding yoghurt to suckling piglets, starting the day after birth improves the piglets’ feed intake in the first weeks of life. This results in higher weaning weights and higher growth rates after weaning. Also, the sows lose less weight during lactation and gain more weight during the following gestation. Large litters put a strain on the lactating sow, leading to impaired growth rate of her offspring. Sustaining a high level of milk production requires a lot of energy. With large litters, sows are unable to nurse their litters sufficiently to reach piglets’ genetic growth potential. Large litters often contain small piglets and it is a challenge to provide these small piglets with enough nutrients to increase survival rates, and reach adequate weaning weights and growth rates after weaning. A key factor to obtain healthy sows and piglets is a high feed intake of piglets in the suckling period. In order to meet the requirements of young piglets, Dutch animal nutrition company Sloten developed a new sustainable feeding concept, called Nuklospray Yoghurt. The yoghurt is fed in liquid form to suckling piglets, starting the day after birth. To prove that the concept improves the piglets’ feed intake in the first week of life and increases higher weaning weights and a higher growth rate after weaning, a study was performed in LZ Haus Düsse in Germany. The trial was conducted with 92 litters, divided into two groups: from day two after birth 49 litters received the yoghurt and 43 litters were offered another milk replacer. On the first day, 250 ml of the yoghurt (400 g powder per litre) was provided, and 500 ml of the control milk replacer (125 g powder per litre). The yoghurt was given during three weeks, while the control milk replacer was fed for two weeks. The offered amount of milk replacer during the suckling period increased up to 2.5 litres per litter per day. Piglets were subsequently offered a pre-starter (Milkiwean Granito Premium) in the yoghurt litters and a commercial pre starter in the control groups. The higher weaning weights and the lower mortality rate in the yoghurt litters were obtained by the higher intake of milk replacer and pre-starter. It shows that the yoghurt initiates early feed intThe improvements in piglet and sow performance with the yoghurt addition include: a higher feed intake of suckling piglets, less piglet mortality, higher weaning weights of litters, and better fertility and condition of sows. Read details of experiment here;http://www.pigprogress.net/Special-Focus/Piglet-Feeding/Yoghurt-for-stronger-suckling-piglets-and-sows/

Resistance to 'Last-Resort' Antibiotic Found in China

CHINA - Scientists in China have found increased levels of resistance to an antimicrobial drug used when other drugs have failed, according to a report in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. The scientists were conducting routine surveillance for antibiotic resistance in E. coli when they found the resistant specimen in a pig. They also found on further investigation that the type of resistance carried can be easily transferred to other bacteria. The resistance gene was found in 15 per cent of E. coli collected from raw meat samples, 21 per cent of samples from animals and 1 per cent of samples from inpatients with infection.The scientists said that urgent global action was needed to fight antimicrobial resistance.Read more ; http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/36184/resistance-to-lastresort-antibiotic-found-in-china/

PIG ABATTOIR.

The abattoir should be situated in well drained area with a good gradient to allow easy run off of waste. The abattoir should be easily accessible with good roads, electricity and close proximity to market.A generator is a necessity in the abattoir,with good supply of portable water. The abattoir should be fitted with overhead rails which have water hose and sprinklers to wash carcass at every slaughtering stage.The walls are tilled to allow easy cleaning and disinfection, the floor is made of cement or concrete so that its easy to wash and disinfect. Raising pigs for profit can be more profitable if a mini abattoir or slaughter house is incorporated in the production chain. A very simple procedure with the use of pulleys/ levers can be used to slaughter pigs in an hygienic way with minimal exposure to contamination. The skin of the pig is not removed as this is eaten along with the meat, with the skin intact much of the meat is not exposed. The hair on the skin is removed by scalding in hot tanks which is at a temp of 60-62°c. The simple sketch shows how the slaughtering is carried out, at the end of the slaughtering process, the carcass are passed on to the processing room, where the cut parts are packed into clean bags for sale.