Eight Key Technical Measures for the Prevention and Control of Common Pig Diseases in Summer and Safe Resumption of Production
In summer, temperatures are high, and the incidence of disease in pigs is also higher than in other seasons. This can easily bring losses to pig farming. Sowhat diseases are pigs prone to in summer? How should they be prevented and controlled? You had better save this set of eight key technical measures for the safe resumption of pig production in summer!
1. What diseases are pigs prone to in summer?
1. Exudative dermatitis
This disease is mostly caused by wound infections from fighting and biting, friction from rough floors and walls, and scratches from diseased pigs.
2. Eczema
Pigs living long-term in high-temperature, high-humidity environments, combined with the accumulation of toxins in the body, trigger this disease.
3. Porcine epidemic encephalitis B
Porcine epidemic encephalitis B, also known as Japanese encephalitis B, is a disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis B virus and mainly characterized by acute onset, high fever, abortion, stillbirth, and orchitis in boars.
4. Porcine eperythrozoonosis
It can be triggered by many factors. Stress is the main factor leading to the occurrence of this disease, and it mostly occurs in warm seasons, especially in high-temperature, high-humidity weather.
5. Sunburn
It often occurs in open rearing of penned pigs and is caused by prolonged exposure of pigs to sunlight, mostly in summer.
6. Porcine toxoplasmosis
It can occur in different breeds, ages, and sexes, but it is more common in meat pigs. The occurrence of this disease has no obvious seasonality, but it occurs more often in the hot, stuffy, and humid summer days of July, August, and September, and is mostly sporadic.
2. How should pig diseases be prevented and controlled in summer?
Different prevention and control methods are needed for different conditions, for example:
1. Exudative dermatitis
First soak the body of affected piglets in 0.1% potassium permanganate water for 1-2 minutes, clean the lesions on the head with medicinal cotton dipped in potassium permanganate water, then wipe dry, air dry, and apply gentian violet. For a few initial lesions, directly applying gentian violet has a very good effect; then use 50,000 units of penicillin for intramuscular injection, twice a day, for 3-5 consecutive days.
2. Eczema
After washing the affected area with 0.1% potassium permanganate solution, apply ichthammol ointment once a day for 3 consecutive days.
Intramuscular injection of cephalosporin + dexamethasone, VC, for 3 consecutive days. Dexamethasone should be used with caution in pregnant sows.
3. Porcine toxoplasmosis
Sulfadiazine-trimethoprim + diaveridine, 30-70 mg per kg of body weight, once every 24 hours, intramuscular injection for 3-5 days; use with caution in severely affected pigs. Or sulfadiazine (SD) at 70 mg per kg of body weight, plus trimethoprim (TMP) or diaveridine (DVD) at 14 mg per kg of body weight, orally twice a day for 3-5 consecutive days.
In addition, diseases such as porcine epidemic encephalitis B and mild swine fever are prevented and controlled through vaccine immunization.
Appendix: Eight Key Technical Measures for the Safe Resumption of Pig Production in Summer
1. Improve biosafety measures for African swine fever prevention and control
African swine fever prevention and control is key to resuming and expanding pig production and ensuring stable production and supply. Farms should strictly implement the Guidelines for Strengthened Measures for African Swine Fever Prevention and Control and the Emergency Implementation Plan for African Swine Fever Epidemics, proactively carry out African swine fever epidemic monitoring, detect epidemic risks early and handle them promptly, and effectively prevent the spread of the epidemic. Diseased pigs and infected pigs must be strictly prohibited from entering the transport, sales, and slaughter links, effectively blocking the transmission of African swine fever. Do a good job in testing introduced breeding stock to cut off the spread of African swine fever caused by introduction. Strengthen biosafety measures at all links such as farm personnel, transport vehicles, materials, and feed. Major pig-producing areas in the south should do a good job in monitoring and disinfecting the pig breeding environment. After rain, disinfect the surroundings of pig farms and roads in a timely manner, acidify and disinfect water sources that may be contaminated, and promptly carry out rodent, mosquito, and fly control and bird prevention work to eliminate the impact of environmental and water source contamination. Pig farms that have been affected by the epidemic should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and biosafety facilities and equipment should be upgraded in a targeted manner. After passing environmental testing, production can be resumed in a planned way. New pig farms should scientifically design biosafety prevention and control plans, strictly implement zoned layout and physical isolation management, and improve comprehensive prevention and control technical measures such as full-coverage qPCR sampling testing, African swine fever virus elimination, and zone- and level-based management, forming an effective prevention and control pattern of one policy for one farm.
2. Optimize prevention and control strategies for other pig diseases
Farms should do a good job in immunization against diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, swine fever, and pseudorabies. In light of actual production conditions, vaccine immunization prevention and control strategies can be adjusted and optimized, more scientific, reasonable, and safe immunization procedures can be formulated, unnecessary vaccine inoculations can be appropriately reduced, vaccination frequency can be lowered, and stress can be reduced. Based on the current reality of frequent long-distance transport of breeding pigs and piglets, try to avoid introducing breeding stock or purchasing pigs from multiple pig farms. Purchased breeding pigs (pigs) should undergo comprehensive testing to avoid the introduction of new PRRS virus strains caused by disorderly introduction and pig purchasing. Where conditions permit, farms should adopt comprehensive measures such as gilt acclimation, herd closure acclimation, and immune acclimation to gradually achieve stable control, purification, and elimination of PRRS.
For the “company + family farm” production system, emphasis should be placed on improving the upgrading and renovation of protective facilities for “family farms”, such as feed transfer, washing and disinfection rooms, material disinfection rooms, enclosed corridors, insect vector prevention and control nets, and solid walls. Where conditions permit, point-to-point assistance by science and technology commissioners can be used to improve the technical level of farms (households) and help them pass through the summer smoothly. For specialized fattening communities, emphasis should be placed on improving the full-in, full-out production process renovation, enclosed corridors, and so on. For integrated farms, emphasis should be placed on controlling the temperature and air quality of the environment inside pig houses, getting rid of the troubles caused to pig production by environment-related diseases. Where conditions permit, farms may consider installing air filtration, odor treatment, and other devices to reduce the risk of airborne diseases such as PRRS. For standardized fattening communities, the “five unifications” measures should be strictly implemented, and professional technicians should be assigned for on-site management to prevent stress losses caused by high summer temperatures.
3. Adjust the breeding model for breeding pigs
Affected by the epidemic and the retention of three-way cross sows for breeding, the overall reproductive efficiency of China's breeding sow herd has declined somewhat since last year. It is necessary to improve reproductive efficiency through timely selection of replacement gilts and good control of sow performance selection. Accelerate the breeding of two-way cross sows, and especially increase the supply of high-quality breeding pigs free of African swine fever, PRRS, pseudorabies, and other diseases. Encourage qualified enterprises to use excellent two-way cross sow populations and adopt Landrace or Large White rotational crossbreeding to produce parent-stock sows, alleviating the tight supply of breeding sources. For boar semen supply, because there are few socialized boar studs, encourage on-farm boar studs with good health levels to supply Landrace and Large White boar semen externally, alleviating the shortage of Landrace and Large White boar semen supply. For enterprises using local pig breeds to produce high-quality pork, the focus should be on accelerating the population recovery of local pig breed resources. Excellent sows that are partly two-way cross (containing 50% local pig bloodline) or three-way cross (containing 75% local pig bloodline) can be used as parent-stock sows, and crossbreeding and other methods can be adopted for commercial pig production, making full use of the excellent performance of local pig genetic resources and establishing breeding methods that meet different consumer needs.
4. Scientifically carry out selection and feeding management of three-way cross sows
In view of the relative shortage of two-way cross sow supply, if three-way cross replacement gilts really need to be retained in the short term, plans should be made as early as possible and selection should be careful. Three-way cross sows should begin to be selected and retained at 50-60 kg body weight, and selected again at 90-100 kg. Selection methods should refer to the selection requirements for two-way cross sows: 7 pairs of teats, relatively large and pendulous vulva, white coat color, large body, long body, and wide rear. More can be selected initially. Replacement gilts should begin boar exposure at 160-170 days of age, and the lighting duration and intensity in the pig house should be maintained. Mating time should be around 240 days, with body weight of 120-140 kg. Avoid inbreeding. Prefer Large White and Landrace boars for mating, and try not to mate with Duroc. Strengthen the nutrition and management of sows in the farrowing house, increase high-quality fiber in the feed to prevent constipation, increase high-quality protein such as extruded soybeans and fish meal, and add acidifiers and attractants to improve palatability. As summer arrives, focus on heat prevention and cooling to prevent sows from excessive weight loss due to insufficient feed intake, or even death from heatstroke. Comprehensive measures such as adding insulation layers, drip cooling, and wall insulation can be adopted. The farrowing house temperature should not exceed 25°C, and water pressure should be maintained at 2.0-2.4 L/min. Do a good job in the feeding management of three-way cross sows during the weaning period, increase feed intake during lactation, continue feeding lactation feed after weaning, and maintain appropriate exercise. Use boar exposure for estrus detection, promptly cull sows with low reproductive performance, and weaning age can be appropriately advanced to about 24 days to reduce sow depletion.
5. Precise feed formulation and nutritional regulation for breeding pigs
Implement high-temperature pelletizing of feed, increase pelletizing temperature, extend conditioning time, ensure conditioning temperature ≥85°C, conditioning time of more than 3 minutes, and strictly control feed biosafety. In response to high summer temperatures and low sow feed intake, on the one hand, various cooling measures can be used to lower the temperature in the farrowing house, and fats and an appropriate amount of lysine can be added to lactating sow diets to increase dietary digestible energy and lysine levels and improve nutrient intake of lactating sows. On the other hand, high-efficiency reproductive nutrition technology for breeding pigs can be promoted and applied. By providing lactating sows with 10-15°C cold water, optimizing the amino acid ratio in feed (valine, arginine, taurine, etc.), supplementing fermented feed, and eliminating mycotoxins and other measures, the feed intake of lactating sows can be increased, body weight and backfat can be managed, lactation performance can be improved, and piglet growth performance can be improved. Apply sow feed additives such as arginine, chromium, L-carnitine, resveratrol, and sodium stearoyl lactylate to improve sow reproductive efficiency and increase the number of live-born piglets, birth weight, and weaning weight. Promote refined feeding technology for boars to increase the qualification rate of high-quality boar semen and ensure the supply of high-quality and safe pig semen. Accelerate the application of biologically fermented feed, produce new fermented raw materials and fermented compound feed, improve intestinal microecological balance, reduce piglet diarrhea rates, and improve sow reproductive performance.
6. Promote the application of alternatives to growth-promoting antibacterial drugs and related technologies
After growth-promoting antibacterial drugs are withdrawn, in order to reduce the incidence of diarrhea and improve the survival rate, farms should start from multiple aspects such as feed conditioning, nutritional regulation, and feeding management, adopt targeted comprehensive technical measures for pigs at different stages and with different health conditions, and combine them with the application of new efficient alternative products to ensure that production efficiency does not decline. Under general herd health conditions, lowering the dietary protein level of 21-day-weaned piglets to about 17% can improve piglet production performance and alleviate diarrhea; when herd health is relatively high, maintaining a dietary protein level of about 23% can achieve a better growth rate. Under conditions without antibacterial drugs, alternatives such as Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri, Clostridium butyricum, plant extracts, acidifiers, soybean isoflavones, and oligochitosan can be selected to improve intestinal health, enhance immune function, and effectively reduce the incidence of disease. By adopting feed conditioning methods such as fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysis, liquid feed, “steaming + secondary pelletizing” or “powder feed + pellet feed”, combined with antibiotic-free creep and nursery feed formulation schemes such as “low-protein diet + probiotics + enzyme preparations” and “organic acids + plant extracts”, early weaning stress can be alleviated and piglet survival rates can be improved.
7. Strengthen standardized daily management of farms
Before pigs enter the farm, emphasis should be placed on empty-house disinfection for more than 7 days, and random African swine fever virus testing should be carried out on 30% of the pig source; only negative piglets may enter the farm. At the entry stage, pig transport vehicles should not directly enter the farm. A first-level transfer point should be set up about 1 km outside the farm, and first-level washing and disinfection should be implemented for pig transport vehicles (clean the exterior of the vehicle, chassis, and scattered pig manure, then use a 1:200 dilution of potassium peroxymonosulfate to disinfect the vehicle exterior for 20 minutes) and second-level washing and disinfection (about 500 m from the farm, the driver does not get out of the vehicle, clean the exterior of the vehicle, chassis, and scattered pig manure again, and use a 1:200 dilution of potassium peroxymonosulfate to disinfect the vehicle exterior for 20 minutes). Piglets are transferred to a thoroughly cleaned and disinfected transfer platform (transfer vehicle) prepared in advance. For the third-level washing and disinfection before entering the nursery house, a disinfection point should be designed at the entrance of the nursery house, and a 1:200 dilution of potassium peroxymonosulfate should be used to disinfect the vehicle exterior for 20 minutes before piglets are transferred into the nursery house. Personnel entering the farm and pig houses must shower and change clothes. Clothing must be thoroughly disinfected to prevent cross-contamination. When bagged feed is used, the feed should be fumigated and disinfected in the storage room (one-way flow) before entering the pig house, and then used after about 3 days of storage. When bulk feed is used, a contactless feeding method should be selected to deliver feed into the feed tower of the nursery and fattening house. Long-term monitoring of African swine fever virus should be carried out, generally collecting pig oral fluid for testing once every 3 weeks, and every batch of feed needs to be sampled and tested. Strengthen environmental disinfection and epidemic prevention measures, select appropriate disinfectants, disinfect with pigs present once every two days, and disinfect pig house aisles and the periphery twice a week. Bird repellents and mosquito nets can also be installed around the pig house. When selling pigs, external pig transport vehicles are strictly prohibited from entering the production area, and pigs should be transferred to a transfer platform 1 km away for sales to prevent cross-contamination by vehicles.
8. Accelerate the use of idle existing production capacity
Publicize and promote five typical assistance models of “large enterprises leading small ones”, encourage leading enterprises to adopt multiple models such as merger and acquisition operations, leasing or joint venture operations, and company + farmers (family farms), guide and support small and medium-sized farms and households with contract-farming capacity to accelerate replenishment and restocking, solve the current situation of insufficient fattening capacity of large breeding enterprises at this stage, and achieve mutual promotion and win-win development between large enterprises and small and medium-sized farms and households. Give play to the technical and financial advantages of leading enterprises, help small and medium-sized farms and households improve their African swine fever prevention and control capabilities, and achieve pig loading and production through the renovation and upgrading of key links such as solid walls, second-level washing and disinfection, and transfer stations. As the hot and rainy season arrives, outdoor construction for farm construction will be affected to varying degrees. Where conditions permit, enterprises can use industrialized methods for pig house design and construction to accelerate the rapid commissioning of new production capacity.
Summer temperatures are high, and mosquitoes and insects breed easily. In addition to doing a good job in pig immunization, pig farms should also carry out insect killing and mosquito repellent lamp work at the same time. In addition, routine health care for the herd should also be done to improve the immunity and resistance of pigs.