Pig farming on fermentation beds can reduce the occurrence of swine diseases
Taking the Vigorous Microecological Pig Farming technique as an example, pigs experience very little stress and a very low incidence of disease, similar to a semi-free-range state with extensive management, which is the prerequisite for a successful start-up.
This is the topic that friends new to the pig farming industry care about most, and also the issue they worry about most.
Why are pigs so hard to raise now, and why do swine diseases occur more and more frequently and become harder and harder to treat?
With the development of the pig farming industry, our country has introduced more and more pig breeds, with a great many varieties. Because there were previously no national regulations governing the import of pig breeds, anyone with money could go abroad to breeding farms to import breeding pigs. So from the very first imported breeding pig, hidden dangers for difficult disease control were planted. The result of many years of blind breeding-pig importation is the pig farming situation unique to China: "diseases of all nations." The complexity of Chinese swine diseases owes much to the credit of breed introduction. "Import pigs from all nations, bring diseases from all nations" is a fitting assessment of China's pig breed introduction. American lines, Danish lines, English lines... Landrace, Large White, Seghers, Duroc... nearly every breeding pig breed and line in the world can be found in our country, and naturally nearly every swine disease can be found here too. The streptococcus disease outbreak in the southwestern region some years ago and the highly pathogenic PRRS that swept the whole country can almost all be attributed to this breed introduction system. This is also one of the most fundamental reasons why swine diseases are becoming more and more frequent.
The large-scale piglet trading market model formed in our country many years ago was once all the rage. While it brought great development to our country's pig farming industry, it also allowed various diseases to spread across the length and breadth of the country. Even under today's farrow-to-finish model, in pursuit of high profits, the high-input, high-output, high-density rearing model has given viruses and bacteria a breeding ground. The desperate use of large doses of antibiotics leaves residues in the meat while also causing the widespread phenomenon of hard-to-treat swine diseases. As we know, in the 1980s and 1990s, when a pig had a cold and a fever, you only needed to simply pull up a few herbs to cure it. Now that no longer works; many times injections and medicine are of no avail.
In Taiwan, China, Guangdong and other densely pig-farming regions of our country, porcine circovirus has broken out over large areas in recent years, covering pigs' bodies with ugly red spots and lumps, causing decreased immunity and making them hard to sell. But on fermentation beds, skin diseases including circovirus rarely or never appear.
What is a pig's stress response, why should we pay attention to pigs' stress responses, and what serious consequences can arise from ignoring them?
Swine pathogens and viruses are becoming more and more resistant to drugs, and mutant strains keep emerging, making them impossible to guard against. Moreover, improved breeds of pigs (commonly called three-way cross pigs, four-way cross pigs, lean-type pigs) have stress responses far greater than native pigs, and abandoning imported pig breeds is already impossible in our country (imported breeds have a high lean meat rate, a low feed-to-meat ratio, and fast growth, and are the prerequisite for guaranteeing our citizens' pork consumption). The result of abusing antibiotics and pig stress is endless endogenous infections and superinfections, which in turn cause secondary infections. A tiny stress response, if ignored and allowed to develop, may also wipe out an entire farm.
What is a stress response? In the end, stress is "not adapting." What situations cause stress? It can be said that any change in and use of the environment, feed, drugs and so on can cause a stress response. The most common is weaning stress in piglets. When piglets leave the sow, eat feed based mainly on solid feed, and are moved to a different pen, the piglets will have a stress response, namely piglet weaning stress syndrome, manifested as: for the first two days after weaning, extreme restlessness and anxiety, calling for the mother, then turning quiet, with sunken flanks; after a few days, rough and messy hair coat, standing dumbly and listlessly, weak limbs, unsteady walking, preferring to lie down, afraid of cold, body temperature normal or slightly low, empty chewing, no interest in feed at all, some thirsty, fond of nuzzling and suckling the bellies of other pigs. Some have diarrhea, become extremely emaciated, and finally die of exhaustion. The main manifestation is fasting after weaning. Piglets can also, due to sudden changes such as weather (for example, easily changing spring weather), activate endogenous porcine circovirus (PCV2), thereby causing piglet multisystemic wasting syndrome, which is very hard to treat and can only be prevented.
Other things that cause stress responses include: piglet transport, sudden weather changes, changing feed, reactions to injections, changing pens, human driving and beating and scolding, abnormal noises, mosquito and fly bites... and so on. There is also the most important stress: "psychological stress" (this kind of stress will be introduced later). When stress begins, it may be just some small reactions, triggering minor illnesses such as colds and fevers, but because our country has so many kinds of swine diseases, frequent mutations, complex and interlaced breed introductions, and complex and changeable endogenous viruses and pathogens, it often triggers secondary diseases, constantly worsening the condition and making it hard to control, and in the end it may grow from small to large, and may even wipe out the entire farm. All of these are possible.