Precautions for raising piglets

Piglets have no innate immunity at birth, but colostrum contains immunoglobulins, which can directly protect newborn piglets through the first three days of danger. Therefore, piglets should eat colostrum as soon as possible after birth. the

During the delivery process, the sows have full teats and are in a state of milking from beginning to end, and the sows take a side-lying position after delivery to allow the piglets to suck the teats. The newborn piglets are quiet for a while, then start looking for the teat, sniffing around the sow's belly for anything that protrudes to find the teat and start suckling. The time required for the first piglets to be able to feed the milk was the longest, and then gradually decreased, which was due to the behavior of the second and subsequent piglets that imitated the first piglet.

Both mother and child can actively induce breastfeeding behavior. Usually by rhythmic humming. Breastfeed once about 30-40 minutes after delivery. The interval between breastfeeding is slightly longer during the day than at night, and the frequency of breastfeeding is higher for those with fewer litters than those with many litters. As piglets age, the number of sucklings and the duration of each suckling gradually decrease.

The sucking process of piglets is divided into 4 stages: at the beginning, piglets gather at the udders, occupying a certain position, rubbing the udders with their noses; when sucking, the piglets’ ears are turned backwards, their tails are curled tightly, and their front legs are stretched forward. At this time, the sow hums It is called to reach the peak; finally, when the milking is over, the piglet rubs the udder again. As milk production gradually decreases, breastfeeding naturally decreases and eventually ceases altogether. The diseased sows should be treated in time to avoid affecting lactation due to pain.

To reduce damage to the sow's teats and to reduce damage to littermate piglets when fighting with piglets, piglets should have their teeth trimmed after birth. But be careful not to cut the teeth too short so as not to damage the gums and tongue, allowing pathogens to enter the piglet. Tools must be sterilized before pig teeth are cut to avoid bacterial cross-contamination. It is not advisable to cut teeth for poorly developed piglets, which is conducive to teat competition and survival.

Tail docking is routine work to avoid tail biting in weaning, growing and finishing pigs. Here are some how-tos for tail-docking work:

(1) Cut off the tail with a tail cutter shortly after birth, and the piglet recovers quickly. Because the wound is small, it will not bleed a lot.

(2) To avoid cutting too short, the end of the vulva and the middle of the boar's scrotum can be used as marking lines for the length of the tail.

(3) Disinfection should be carried out after cutting the tail with a tail cutter between the piglets and each litter.

(4) In order to prevent bacterial cross-infection, do not use the same tail cutter to cut teeth and tail.

(5) Thoroughly clean the tail breaker after processing.

(6) Do not dock the tail of weak piglets, so as not to aggravate the stress and cause death.

After the piglets are born, mucus and amniotic fluid in the mouth and respiratory tract should be removed as much as possible. If there is a lot of mucus, lift the hind limbs, make the head down, pat the chest wall, and then wipe the mucus in the mouth or nasal cavity with gauze. If suffocation has occurred, you can slowly blow air every few seconds through the rubber tube inserted into the trachea to make it breathe. After the piglets are dried, the umbilical cord is broken. Improper breaking of the umbilical cord will cause the newborn piglets to bleed more, which will affect the vitality and future growth of the piglets. For this reason, the blood should be squeezed up with fingers at a place 5-6 cm wide from the root of the navel, and the navel should be broken by pressing, then cut with scissors, and coated with iodine. After the umbilicus is broken, the piglets should be prevented from licking and sucking each other to prevent infection and inflammation.

The entire lactation process of sows lasts 3-5 minutes, but the actual lactation time of each lactation is only 20-30s. If the feeding position of piglets is not fixed, it will inevitably lead to bullying by the strong, so that the weak piglets miss the release because they cannot grab the nipples. starved to death or turned into a dead pig. Therefore, within 2 days after the piglets are born, the teats should be fixed artificially to ensure the normal growth and development of the whole litter.

Pigs are precocious animals, meaning that the piglets are relatively mature at birth. Piglets are born with eyes open, able to move, and able to nurse after birth. Behavioral studies have shown that piglets have a lot of trouble finding the udder and teats, including the cow's hind legs, farrowing box walls, and littermates. It takes nearly 30 minutes for a piglet to nurse from birth to its first successful suckling without care. Thereafter, piglets will fight with high frequency as they establish teat behavior order. The firstborn piglet chooses a teat, and later-born piglets often challenge their siblings for this teat. Teat fighting can affect piglet mortality, especially when fighting is intense and prolonged.

The strongest nipple fight is in the first 4~6 hours after birth. In the following 2~3 days, after the teats were fixed, the piglets also established the order of sleeping and feeding. Sows breastfeed about every 30-40 minutes after delivery, each time lasting 20-30 seconds. When the sow meows (makes rhythmic noises), if the piglets are not close to the udder, they will miss feeding. Weak and hunched piglets often miss feedings. Strong piglets aged 7 days or older can take the opportunity to drink milk from both teats.

It must be possible to recognize how many piglets each sow can raise (sow's parenting capacity). For example, a sow with 12 equally spaced teats can't feed 12 piglets without showing the row of teats below her, it gets worse when the railing of the farrowing pen blocks the row of teats closer to the top. The farrowing pen rails should be adjusted periodically after farrowing to ensure piglets have easy access to the sow's upper row of teats.

It is very important to observe all newborn piglets and look for irregular and weak piglets. Weaker piglets have fewer energy stores and therefore need more energy. Many farrowing and lactation management systems only focus on the best and strongest pigs, and the 15% of weaker piglets in each litter are not adequately cared for.

Some producers believe that the smaller teats at the back make it easier to feed smaller piglets and usually place the smallest pigs at the back. Since the first three pairs of teats produce more milk and the rear teats produce less milk, this practice is extremely unfavorable to slow-growing piglets, which can lead to uneven litter, light-weaned litter, and prolonged piglet production. Only the normal slaughter time.

The critical temperature of newborn piglets is 35°C. In the case of a low-temperature environment, the body heat will be lost rapidly, and sometimes the body temperature can drop by 4-6°C. In a warm house, the normal body temperature can be restored within 2~4 hours, and the outside air temperature has a strong negative correlation with the body temperature recovery. Therefore, try to keep the delivery room as warm as possible during delivery. In the delivery room, 250W infrared heat preservation lamps, nursery pens or incubators, bed warmers, heaters, and electric heating panels can be installed to achieve the effect of keeping warm and reducing the stress response caused by cold.

The temperature situation in the farrowing room is special, the optimum temperature (for feeding and behavior) of sows is 20°C, while that of newborn piglets is 34°C. To take care of newborn piglets, insulation equipment and supplementary feeding pens should be placed in the farrowing house. Anti-pressure and anti-stepping, reduce the death of weak piglets.

Newborn piglets are unresponsive and inflexible. If they are a little careless, they may be trampled or crushed to death by the sow.

Pigs have strong social characteristics and rely on sound communication characteristics.

Sows pay great attention to protecting their piglets. When walking and sleeping, they constantly push the piglets out of the lying position with their mouths to prevent the piglets from being pressed. If the piglet is pressed, stand up immediately when you hear the cry of the piglet, and repeat the anti-pressure action until the piglet is not pressed down. When sows with piglets are attacked by outsiders, especially when strangers or managers hold piglets, sows will open and close their upper and lower jaws to intimidate or even attack the invaders. Be careful.

Piglets are very social animals and can squeal when isolated, isolated piglets are prone to being overwhelmed, frozen, or injured by other pigs. With time, the maternal impulse of sows naturally weakens with the passage of postpartum time, and piglets also tend to become independent with age. The closer to the weaning period, the more relaxed the relationship between mother and piglet.

The total storage of iron in the body of piglets at birth is about 50 mg, and the daily growth needs about 7 mg. Before they start eating at the age of 3 weeks, they need a total of 200 mg, and the amount of iron in breast milk is very small (0.2 mg of iron per 100 g of milk ), piglets can only obtain about 1 mg of iron per day from breast milk, so breast milk is far from meeting the iron needs of piglets. Iron reserves in piglets are consumed as early as 3 to 4 days after birth. If they are not supplemented, iron deficiency anemia will occur. Therefore, iron-deficient piglets have weakened disease resistance and are susceptible to diseases. Iron supplementation should be given to piglets 2 days after birth. In special cases, the second injection can be given 7 days later.

Water is the most important nutrient that pigs need. Due to the rapid growth of piglets and strong metabolism, the fat content of sow milk is high, so piglets will feel thirsty after eating. If they do not replenish water in time, they will drink dirty water or urine, which will easily cause diarrhea. Therefore, from the age of 3 to 5 days after the piglets are born, a drinking trough should be set up in the supplementary feeding room to supply clean drinking water. The water should be changed frequently to keep it fresh, and a little sweetener should be added, but greasy water should not be used. According to experiments, feeding and drinking piglets aged 3 to 20 days with water containing 0.8% hydrochloric acid (drinking water after 20 days of age) can increase the weaning weight of 60 days by 13%. The effect of protease.

The peak period of lactation is 3 weeks after sows, and then the milk production decreases day by day. At this time, the piglets are growing vigorously and have a large demand for nutrients. In order to meet the growth and development needs of piglets, feed must be provided to make up for the insufficient supply of breast milk. At the same time, in order to adapt to early weaning, piglets must learn to eat before the sow's lactation peak and before weaning, which can temper the gums, promote gastrointestinal development, and prevent diarrhea. Generally, the feed can be fed at the age of 5 to 7 days, and the piglets are trained to start eating. The commonly used methods are: when the piglets start to move freely at the age of 5 to 7 days after birth, they will gradually learn to eat with the sows, and the suckling piglets should be fed less and more frequently to avoid wasteful increases. When supplementary feeding to suckling piglets, pay attention to feeding less and more frequently to avoid waste of supplementary materials. Generally, piglets are able to eat after 20 days of age, and their feed intake increases greatly after 30 days of age.