Can Piglets Be Weaned in Summer? Detailed Explanation of the Specific Methods
The feeding and management level of weaned piglets is an important part of ensuring the profitability of large-scale pig farms. During the nursery stage, the maternal antibody level of piglets and the piglets' own immune level are relatively low. In addition, stress of varying degrees from group transfer, environment, and feed changes brings certain difficulties to the feeding and management of weaned piglets. So can piglets be weaned in summer? How exactly is it done?
Transition during group transfer
The farrowing house has much better environmental conditions than the nursery house. After weaning, piglets are moved from the superior environment of the farrowing house to the somewhat poorer environment of the nursery house. If the environmental transition is unsuccessful, it can easily trigger infections in weaned piglets such as Haemophilus parasuis, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, and influenza.
In the late lactation period, the farrowing house temperature is required to reach 25°C. After weaning, because piglets no longer have the warmth of the creep box and the protection of the sow, the nursery house temperature is required to reach 27°C, then decrease by 1°C to 2°C each week until it drops to 22°C. Before group transfer, check whether the insulation equipment, doors, and windows of the nursery house are intact with no drafts, and whether the floor is clean and dry. After cleaning, emptying, and drying, disinfect carefully and repeatedly. An acidifier can be added to the water tank, and the water output of each faucet should be checked until clean cool water flows from the faucet. This not only checks whether the drinkers are dispensing water normally, but also thoroughly cleans the bacteria and scale in the drinking water pipes, establishing the first line of defense for piglet health.
After piglets are moved into the house, while ensuring the temperature inside, fans can be turned on for ventilation, or windows can be opened for ventilation and air exchange. The window height should be consistent with the height of the nursery house pens. The size of the window opening can be determined according to the size of the pigs and the day's temperature, avoiding cold air blowing directly over the piglets. It is not recommended to open doors for ventilation and air exchange, because the cross-flow air from an open door is a draft that lets cold air pass quickly from the bottom of the nursery pen's slatted floor and come into direct physical contact with the piglets, which very easily causes diarrhea in piglets. Warming in the nursery house is mainly floor heating; an ambient temperature of 20°C to 25°C is sufficient, and a large warming box can also be used to save energy costs.
To prevent piglet stress caused by environmental changes, after weaning the sow should be driven away from the farrowing crate, and the piglets should still be fed in the farrowing crate for 7 to 10 days, combined with a transition in feed type and feeding method, so that the piglets successfully pass the weaning stage.
Feeding creep feed
Before weaning, piglets obtain nutrition from easily digestible sow's milk; after weaning, they switch to less digestible solid feed. When solid feed enters the piglet's gastrointestinal tract, it easily damages the small intestinal villi and weakens intestinal digestive function, affecting the digestion and absorption of feed and, in severe cases, causing diarrhea. Therefore, management during the weaning transition period should be strengthened.
Before weaning, piglets mainly drink milk and eat creep feed as a supplement. When piglets are just weaned, the feed should not be changed; continuing to feed the starter feed is beneficial for intake so they do not lose weight, and it can also prevent the occurrence of piglet edema disease. After 7 days, feed transition can then be carried out. During creep feeding, small amounts should be fed frequently, adding creep feed 5 to 6 times a day. After weaning, they completely consume creep feed, but it still needs to be mainly supplied in limited amounts 5 to 6 times as before weaning, supplemented with a small amount of feed for free intake. After continuing this for 3 days, gradually reduce the amount fed each time and increase the amount provided for free intake. It is recommended that this transition-period feeding method continue for one week, which helps protect the piglets' spleen and stomach function and ensures the growth of fattening pigs later. At this time, piglets are very likely to overeat, harming spleen and stomach function and causing diarrhea. Therefore, a work log should be kept, recording piglet feed intake and water intake, and the feeding plan should be adjusted in a timely manner according to the characteristics of each different growth stage. The nursery house should ensure sufficient, clean, and fresh drinking water.
In summer, with high temperature and high humidity, feed stays fresh for a shorter time and easily becomes moldy and spoiled. Sufficient clean and fresh feed should be prepared, and small frequent meals are recommended, preferably 4 to 5 meals a day. Keep the trough clean and hygienic, and it must be cleaned once a day with no feed residue left. If the feeding trough is not cleaned properly, or if the trough design is unreasonable and feed remains, it is very easy for piglets to eat moldy feed, causing diarrhea, coughing, fever, and so on.
A complete nutritional daily ration should be provided, appropriately increasing the dietary energy concentration. After weaning, piglets experience temporary weaning stress, causing reduced appetite, indigestion, and so on, which may lead to insufficient energy intake from the ration and affect growth. Therefore, the dietary energy concentration should be appropriately increased; coconut oil, soybean oil, and so on can be added to the ration to meet the piglets' energy needs.
Appropriately lowering the dietary protein level can reduce protein putrefaction in the intestinal tract and reduce digestive tract diseases. In the ration of early-weaned piglets, attention should be paid to appropriately lowering the protein level to eliminate the adverse effects of protein on the overall ration composition. Plant-based protein sources can be subjected to processing such as extrusion and concentration to remove or reduce anti-nutritional factors. Appropriate supplementation of selenium and vitamin E can enhance piglet immunity, reduce the mortality rate of weaned piglets, prevent the occurrence of piglet edema disease and liver dystrophy, and alleviate weaning stress in piglets.
Preventing stress
After weaning, piglets face environmental stress, psychological stress, and nutritional stress. These stresses can lead to a decline in piglet health and weakened resistance, causing post-weaning diarrhea in piglets, slow growth, or a low rearing survival rate. Management should be strengthened to avoid the occurrence of stress.
Piglets are moved from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one, and in addition, the mutual biting and fighting caused by weaning and mixing litters can cause environmental stress. At this time, the piglets' thermoregulatory function is still not fully developed, which easily leads to reduced resistance. At the same time, because weaning separates them from the familiar mother and environment, some negative effects occur, such as anxiety and restlessness, searching everywhere for their mother, and not eating feed. Piglets go from eating warm liquid sow's milk to eating solid feed, and need an adaptation process. Because sow's milk is nutritionally complete and easy to digest and at a suitable temperature, piglets like to eat feed when the sow's milk is insufficient before weaning. But when weaned and separated from the mother, due to environmental and psychological stress, plus solid feed being nutritionally incomplete, less palatable, and not easy to digest, piglets may not eat feed for 1 to 2 days right after weaning, and when hunger becomes unbearable they may eat too much. Combined with immature digestive system function, this easily causes nutritional diarrhea.
To reduce stress during this process, liquid feed or gruel feed can be used. Soak the feed in warm water, then add some dairy products, antimicrobial peptides, enzyme preparations, and glucose to improve feed palatability. As long as piglets can eat feed and feed intake does not decline but gradually rises, the survival rate will certainly improve.
Routine management
Weaned piglets are called by farmers the “hardest pigs to raise.” At this time, piglets have lost the protection of maternal antibodies while their own immune system has not yet been established, and they face various stresses after weaning. Therefore, they are susceptible to various respiratory and digestive tract diseases. To ensure that nursery piglets all survive and are strong and to ensure farming profitability, routine management of piglets should be strengthened.
Weaned piglets must be managed with “all-in, all-out.” Under the same nutritional and environmental conditions, raised on elevated beds compared with raised on the floor, the average daily gain increases by 51 grams, daily feed intake increases by 67 grams, and the survival rate increases by 15%. Where conditions permit, net-bed rearing can be implemented, which can effectively prevent the occurrence and spread of piglet diarrhea. Weaned piglets can be grouped according to the principle of splitting more but not fewer, and splitting strong but not weak. The stocking density is preferably 0.3 to 0.4 sq m of pen area per piglet, with no more than 20 pigs per pen. This can reduce mutual biting and fighting among piglets, make management easier, and promote piglet growth and development. Piglets with low body weight are more sensitive to various stresses and prone to disease outbreaks. They can be grouped according to body weight at weaning, with smaller piglets gathered together and raised separately, increasing local temperature, increasing feed nutrient concentration, adding nutrients such as dairy products, antimicrobial peptides, enzyme preparations, and glucose, and feeding with liquid feed, which can increase the piglet survival rate.
Train piglets in “three-point positioning,” that is, training piglets to rest, eat, and drink in fixed places, and excrete within a fixed area and not in the eating place. The training method is to induce piglets to defecate in the excretion area and to lie down, rest, and eat in fixed places. Generally, after 3 to 5 days of training, positioning can be formed.
Disease prevention and control
Piglets go through various stresses such as long-distance transport, being driven off the vehicle and around the pen, and needing to adapt to a new pen, new companions, and a new environment, resulting in poor resistance and susceptibility to illness. To reduce losses caused to piglets by stress, precautions should be taken in advance.
Some anti-stress drugs need to be prepared in advance, such as vitamin C, dexamethasone, and epinephrine. If long-distance transport stress is too great, multi-vitamins should be added to the water for anti-stress purposes to supplement the body's electrolytes, water, and nutrients. Before group transfer, a comprehensive health care plan should be formulated according to the local epidemic situation, and an appropriate immunization program should be formulated according to comprehensive conditions such as the epidemic situation in each place, the types and nature of the diseases, and piglet antibody levels, with preventive medication used at key periods. On the first day of transfer, do not rush to feed, as it easily causes digestive dysfunction. Feed can be gradually increased on the second day. Within one week, the feed fed should preferably be basically the same as the original feed to reduce indigestion and diarrhea.
For health care, some traditional Chinese medicines for clearing heat and detoxifying and fighting viruses, such as Banqing granules, can be used together with antibiotics such as amoxicillin, tilmicosin, and enrofloxacin. Where conditions permit, probiotics can be appropriately added to promote digestion and absorption and prevent diarrhea.
Immunization: one week after group transfer, after the piglets' condition is stable, reasonable immunization is needed, combined with the original pig farm's immunization situation. Regardless of whether the original pig farm was immunized against classical swine fever and pseudorabies, re-immunization is recommended; for other vaccines, refer to the original farm's vaccines and continue immunization.
Deworming: when the pig herd is stable and immunization is finished, deworm the whole herd and do a good job of hygiene and disinfection, so that eggs or worms do not infect other piglets.
Diarrhea after weaning in piglets is mostly because weaning stress leads to a decline in digestive system immune function, and the intestinal tract is infected by pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella. A combined Chinese and Western medicine method can be used for treatment, namely Kushen Zhili granules (Baitouweng powder) + apramycin + Jianwei powder. Traditional Chinese medicines such as Kushen Zhili granules can clear heat, detoxify, dry dampness, and stop diarrhea. Supplemented by the spleen-strengthening and appetite-opening effects of Jianwei powder and the killing effect of apramycin on pathogenic bacteria, this can achieve a good effect in preventing diarrhea.
For respiratory diseases, focus on prevention and control of viral diseases such as PRRS and circovirus, and bacterial diseases such as Haemophilus parasuis, Streptococcus, and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. The combined Chinese and Western medicine treatment plan is Jingfang Baidu powder (Yinhuang soluble powder) + tilmicosin (florfenicol / tiamulin).