How can small-scale pig farmers correctly and effectively prevent diseases?

At present, the pig farming model in rural areas has undergone considerable changes. The production speed of fattening pigs has accelerated, the fattening period has been greatly shortened, and the annual slaughter rate of meat pigs has risen substantially. The overall operation is gradually transitioning from decentralized, extensive management to various degrees of intensive, large-scale management. However, due to the sharp rise in feeding costs and the growing complexity of diseases, the expected economic benefits have not been achieved. To maximize the growth performance of pigs, reduce feeding costs and improve overall benefits, how can small-scale pig farmers correctly and effectively prevent diseases? These issues cannot be ignored.

1. Reasonable prevention

The survival rate of a pig herd depends to a large extent on the use of vaccines for disease prevention. For infectious diseases commonly seen in pig herds, such as swine fever, swine pasteurellosis, swine erysipelas and piglet paratyphoid, an immunization program suited to the local epidemic trends must be formulated to achieve overall prevention. Qualified, highly effective vaccine products should be selected and used correctly according to the product instructions.

The following program can be used as a reference for prevention: vaccinate against swine fever at 20 days of age; vaccinate with the triple vaccine against swine fever, swine erysipelas and swine pasteurellosis at 55 days of age; vaccinate against piglet paratyphoid at 70 days of age (if necessary, carry out early preventive vaccination at 55 days of age). Because the epidemic situation and trends of infectious diseases differ from place to place, it is difficult to find a fixed immunization program suitable for every farm. Therefore, vaccination times should be adjusted as appropriate, the number of vaccinations increased or decreased, and the types of vaccines changed.

2. Reasonable deworming

Due to various limitations in sanitary conditions and management measures, compared with large intensive pig farms, rural pig farming may face more opportunities for parasite infection and more serious harm. Moreover, because the incidence of parasites is high but the mortality rate is relatively very low and the symptoms are not obvious, people easily overlook them. Therefore, the overall losses caused by parasites are serious and hidden. Pigs may eat feed but not gain weight, or gain little weight (and may even eventually develop into runt pigs), and the herd's disease resistance and stress resistance decline. It is therefore necessary to establish a deworming program suited to one's own pig herd. In this respect, it is especially important for groups of pigs kept in poor sanitary conditions.

For deworming, broad-spectrum, highly effective and low-toxicity deworming drugs can be selected: avermectin (Alijia) or ivermectin (Yilijia, Haiguomie) to expel internal nematodes and kill external parasites, and albendazole (albendazole, Kangrumin) or praziquantel to expel tapeworms and flukes. Used together, they can basically cover the main parasitic infections commonly seen in pig herds, but attention should also be paid to piglet coccidiosis and toxoplasmosis, whose incidence has recently shown an upward trend. Deworming can be carried out three times, at 45 days, 90 days and 135 days of age. Daily hygiene management:

1. A sufficient supply of clean drinking water must be provided to the pig herd. Insufficient or restricted drinking water may affect feed intake and feed conversion efficiency; unsanitary drinking water easily induces or spreads diseases and is a very important route of infection for pathogens. Therefore, clean water should always be available in the pig pen for pigs to drink freely, and the feed trough should be separate from the water trough.

2. Regularly scrub and wash the feed trough and water trough to remove spoiled feed residue, manure and urine and other contaminants in the trough. It is best to expose them to sunlight for a period of time or disinfect them.

3. Regular cleaning and disinfection is an effective way to reduce infectious diseases in pig herds. You should choose cheap and easily available disinfection supplies according to your actual situation, such as plant ash, quicklime and bleaching powder, for regular disinfection. Before disinfection, manure and urine should first be cleared away and the pig pen washed. Daily manure and urine should also be treated regularly.