Care and management of piglets.
Removal of needle teeth.
Piglets are born with four pairs of sharp teeth, with two pairs on each jaw. They are of no practical value to the piglets and they may irritate the sow’s udder during nursing or cause injury to other piglets. Clipping of these teeth shortly after birth will prevent the injury of the udder caused by the needle teeth.
Anaemia in piglets.
Anaemia is a common nutritional disease in piglets. This condition can be prevented and cured by supplying iron either orally or by injection. Oral administraion consists of spraying or swabbing the sow’s udder with a saturated solution of ferrous sulphate (0.5 kg of ferrous sulphate in 10 litres of hot water). This solution must be applied daily from birth until the piglets start eating creep feed. Intra muscular infection of iron –dextran compounds is the more effective method of preventing anaemia.
Raising orphan piglets.
The death of a sow after farrowing, mastitis, lactation failure of litters larger than the sow is able to raise, result in orphan pigs. If another sow has farrowed within a short time previously, the orphan piglets may be transferred to her. This transfer must be made within a few days after farrowing because those section of sow’s udder are not used soon cease producing milk. To ensure acceptance of new pigs the sow should be separated from her own litter for short time and then the new piglets are brought to her and a disinfectant or other material sprinkled on all the piglets to mask the odours.
Orphan piglets can also be raised with milk replacer. Milk replacer consists of one egg yolk thoroughly mixed with one litre of cow milk. This mixture supplies a well balanced diet except for iron. To compensate for the lack of iron one eighth teaspoonfull of ferrous sulphate may be added to one litre of milk. An injection with iron compound may also be used.
Castration.
The male piglets not selected for breeding may be castrated when they are three to four weeks old.
Separation of piglets from mother (Weaning).
Normal weaning age of piglets is at 8 weeks age. The sow should be separated from the piglets for a few hours each day to prevent stress of weaning and feed is reduced gradually. The piglets should be dewormed after 2 weeks of weaning. The piglets should be gradually shifted from 18 percent protein creep feed to 16 percent grower ration over a period of two weeks. Group of 20 piglets of more or less the same age should be housed in each pen.
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Housing management of pigs.
Adequate housing and equipment for raising pigs are necessary to provide shelter against inclement weather, prevent diseases, control parasites and save labour.
The normal requirement of floor area, water and air space in pens for various classes of pigs is given below
Table 1
Creep space.
The flooring should have a rough finish and should be be of a regular masonary type made up of water proof cement mortar. Proper drains should be provided so that the effluents are disposed off. Generally under village conditions the housing can be made up of pens measuring 3 m X 2.4 m or 3 m X 3 m with an open yard of nearly the same dimension or in some cases slightly longer. Walls should be 1.2-1.5 m high from the floor. For the purposes of farrowing some of the pens could be converted into farrowing pens by providing guard rails made up of G.I pipes of 5 cm diameter, along the walls, 20-25 cm from the ground and the wall. In addtion to guard rails, creep space can be provided for the piglets along the wall by making a partition or in one of the corners with separate entrances for the piglets. This space usually of 0.75 m X 2.4 m area. In many of the farms the yard is provided with regular flooring
Photos 1
Prolonged exposure of exotic breeds of pigs to bright sunshine may cause pigs to become overheated even during moderate weather. Shade helps in preventing deaths and increasing production effeciency during hot weather. While it is desirable to plant trees in the neighbourhood of pens for reducing the intensity of heat. But it is not desirable to plant trees for giving regular shade because they permit rapid build up of parasite levels.
Farrowing Pen.
Photos 2
Wallows
Pigs have very few sweat glands. In areas having warm weather mature breeding animals and fattening animals need a wallow during summer months. Instead of permitting unsanitary wallows a masonry wallow with proper drainage would be desirable. The size of the wallow will depend upon the number and size of the animals.
Prevention and control of pig diseases.
All pigs should be vaccinated against swine fever at the age of 2-4 weeks. Breeding pigs should be tested for brucellosis and leptospirosis. As a routine measure all young pigs at the time of weaning should be inoculated against swine fever.
Animals purchased for the farm should be purchased from disease free herds. Newly purchased animals should be isolated from the other animals in the farm for a period of three to four weeks. No visitor allowed visiting the farm. Those stys or pig houses cleared of the animals are kept empty for three to four weeks for destruction of microorganisms causing the disease.
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Points to be considered while formulating feeding ration.
Most economical ingredients should be selected
Grains- maize, sorghum, oat, other millets, wheat and rice should form the basic ingredients
Protein supplements - oil cakes and fishmeal and meat meal
No vitamin supplements is necessary if the pigs are allowed to pasture or are fed fresh green legumes. Vitamin B 12 supplement would be necessary if little or no animal protein is fed
Antibiotic supplements at the rate of 11 mg of antibiotic per kilogram of ration
Mineral supplements should be provided
The following table gives specifically the various requirements in the formation of creep, grower and finisher rations for pigs.
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The most convenient way to feed animals on a farm is to prepare the complete ration recommended for different classes and give the pigs the amount they will eat without waste two or three times daily. The following is the approximate amount of dry feed the pigs will consume.
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All grains in mixed feeds should be ground. Generally feeding in the form of wet mash is not superior than (Slop feeding) dry feeding. Slop feeding requires more time and excessive labour. If a ration is fairly high in fibre, pelleting the feed may increase the rate and efficiency of gain in weight. Pelleting may also decrease the amount of feed that is wasted.
It is important not to overfeed sows which have been bred. Over fat sows are apt to produce weak pigs and crush more piglets at farrwoing. Sows should gain about 35 kg and gilts about 55 kg from breeding to farrowing.
PIG FEEDING DATABASE.
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Prevention and control of pig diseases.
All pigs should be vaccinated against swine fever at the age of 2-4 weeks. Breeding pigs should be tested for brucellosis and leptospirosis. As a routine measure all young pigs at the time of weaning should be inoculated against swine fever.
Animals purchased for the farm should be purchased from disease free herds. Newly purchased animals should be isolated from the other animals in the farm for a period of three to four weeks. No visitor allowed visiting the farm. Those stys or pig houses cleared of the animals are kept empty for three to four weeks for destruction of microorganisms causing the disease.
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