Piglets growing slowly? Six main causes to identify accurately

The growth rate of piglets largely determines the cost and profit of a pig farm. If piglets grow quickly and the feed-to-meat ratio is low, they use fewer resources, and costs naturally decline. So, during the breeding process, what causes can lead to slow growth in piglets?

1. Stress from teeth clipping, tail docking, and castration

After birth, piglets need a process of adapting to the external environment, and during this process they are also affected by some human-induced stress factors. These include: teeth clipping, tail docking, and castration. As we know, teeth clipping is to prevent piglets from biting each other when competing for milk and from damaging the sow's teats; tail docking is to prevent the phenomenon of tail biting among them, so that piglets can grow quickly; the purpose of castration is also to facilitate management, speed up fattening, and reduce the feed-to-meat ratio. In intensive pig farms, teeth clipping, tail docking, and castration must all be completed within 1 week after birth. The above operations all cause relatively great pain to piglets. If effective measures cannot be taken to help piglets recover from the stress as soon as possible, it will cause insufficient intake of sow's milk during the suckling period, slow weight gain, and then after weaning affect feed intake, causing piglets to develop slowly; moreover, when operations are improper and disinfection is not strict, wound infections are likely to form, leading to disease or death of piglets.

????2. Unscientific feeding management

1. The influence of environmental stress factors on piglets. For example, poor insulation in farrowing houses and nursery houses in winter, and poor ventilation and heat dissipation in summer, lead to cold and heat stress; stress from group transfer caused by environmental changes during the transfer process can all easily affect the normal feed intake of piglets, and may even lead to disease.

2. Extensive management of the pig house environment, unsuitable for the growth and development of piglets. Especially in winter, poor ventilation in the pig house and untimely manure cleaning cause the accumulation of harmful gases such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide in the pig house, and the oxygen content is too low; the environment is dry, and dust carries a large amount of pathogenic bacteria, causing difficulty in breathing for piglets and a high incidence of infectious diseases.

????3. Improper weaning of piglets

The situations of improper weaning in large-scale pig farms are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

1. The weaning time is unreasonable. Pig farms do not choose the weaning time according to the breed or growth status of the pig herd, but instead wean at a fixed time period all year round. In addition, if weaning is too early, piglets' resistance and adaptability are insufficient, and their bodies are weak; if weaning is too late, it affects sow utilization, and piglets find it difficult to adapt to creep feed and nursery feed.

2. The weaning method is unreasonable. For convenience, many pig farms choose the one-time weaning method. At the appropriate age, they directly wean and transfer to the nursery house. This practice easily increases weaning stress.

3. Post-weaning handling is improper. After weaning, piglets must adapt to stress such as feed change and group transfer. However, many pig farms do not manage piglets well in the early nursery period at this time, and the addition of trace elements in the feed and the comfort level of the rearing environment all fail to meet requirements.

????4. Untimely creep feeding of piglets

Creep feeding of piglets is intended to stimulate the development of their digestive organs and the improvement of digestive function during the suckling period, supplement the nutrients needed for piglet growth, and gradually adapt piglets to the change in feed type. Many pig farms do not pay enough attention to creep feeding. They only start feeding creep feed 3-5 days before weaning, and simply use finished creep feed to let piglets eat freely. Solid creep feed is difficult for piglets to accept, and the creep feeding time is too short, which may both cause piglets to be unable to truly adapt to creep feed at weaning, resulting in increased weaning weight loss.

????5. Caused by piglet diseases

Disease is also an important cause of slow growth in piglets. Disease factors include many kinds:

1. Diseases caused by excessively high mycotoxin content in feed. Mycotoxins in feed have always been an important factor affecting pig farm production. Mycotoxins accumulating in the sow's body can reduce the sow's milk yield and the content of maternal antibodies in colostrum, causing piglets to consume less sow's milk and be unable to obtain enough nutrition and antibodies. Moreover, many mycotoxins can be transmitted through milk, causing piglets to become ill.

2. Parasitic diseases. Many parasitic diseases are wasting diseases. Although the mortality rate of piglets after infection is not high, they reduce feed conversion rate, causing piglets to grow slowly or even stop growing.

3. Viral and bacterial diseases. When bacterial and viral infections cause physical damage to piglets, they lead to a decline in body function, causing reduced feed intake in piglets, and even complete refusal to eat or drink. In particular, some bacterial diseases and septicemia caused by endotoxins generally cause systemic damage that is difficult to recover from.

6. Errors in immunization and health care procedures

Errors in immunization and health care for piglet herds include:

1. Immunizing the piglet herd too early. In the early suckling period of piglets, their immune organs are not fully developed, and vaccination begins before a normal immune response can be established.

2. Relying entirely on vaccine immunization to prevent and control infectious diseases, with too many types of vaccines. Immunizing with too many and too frequent vaccines easily keeps piglets in a state of resisting injection stress stimulation for a long time, preventing normal growth.

3. The health care plan is unreasonable, habitually adding antibiotics to feed for a long time and blindly using nutritional supplement feed additives. The palatability of antibiotics and the absorbability of nutrients in feed additives all affect the growth and development of piglets. Cao Yonghui