Title: PigProgress - Major problems in piglet health and management
Headings: Major problems in piglet health and management
Background Jun 17, 2014
Major problems in piglet health and management
1 Overlay
2 Chilling
3 Failure of colostrum intake
4 Diarrhoea
5 Birth defects
Photo

Content: It is important to limit the spread of the ETEC around the farrowing rooms. Handling of affected piglets should be done after normal ones, with separate boots and clothes. Vaccines against ETEC are widely used in pregnant gilts and sows to raise protective immunity and antibody levels, which are transferred to piglets via the colostrum. Some authorities also recommend the procedure of feeding faecal materials to the gilts in late gestation (feedback). This faecal material may be diarrhoea from affected piglets collected on toilet paper. In older piglets, the main cause of scours is coccidiosis. Coccidia are microscopic parasites that pass eggs (known as oocysts) in the piglet faeces onto the floor of the farrowing pens. The oocysts develop into infective stages, so piglets in the contaminated pen will take in these oocysts shortly after birth. The coccidia then develop and cause damage to the lining of the intestine, often when piglets are around two weeks-old. The faeces of the affected piglets are soft, pasty and grey to yellow, resembling toothpaste.