What are the common wrong practices on pig farms?
Reducing feed for sows before and after farrowing
"To avoid indigestion, constipation and other problems in sows before and after farrowing, feed should be reduced before and after farrowing"? We conducted a large number of comparative trials and proved this is wrong; whether feed is reduced or not has nothing to do with the above conditions. As for "not feeding or feeding less on the day the sow gives birth", that is a pointless statement! On the day the sow gives birth, even if you feed her, she will not eat or will eat very little.
Reducing feed for sows before and after weaning
"To reduce the occurrence of diseases such as mastitis in weaned sows, feed should be reduced before and after weaning"? Practice has also proved this is wrong. After weaning, the mother and piglets are separated, and the sow naturally stops producing milk; eating a little more feed also has no obvious relationship with whether mastitis occurs. It is correct to reduce the feeding standard for sows after weaning to 3-4 kg per day, but it is not for the purpose of preventing diseases such as mastitis.
Feeding pigs with straw or chicken manure
Feeding pigs with straw (such as corn stalks) has already been rejected by many experts, so it will not be discussed here. Some people still talk about feeding pigs with chicken manure. Under the current situation where purification measures and technology are not properly matched, feeding pigs with chicken manure should not be advocated, otherwise it will make pig diseases more complicated.
N-injection health care for suckling piglets
Many people selling drugs, and also some pig farming experts, promote this: suckling piglets should receive three injections, four injections... even six injections of health care drugs. I think this is really inappropriate. There are three reasons: first, frequent injections for suckling piglets cause too much stress, affecting weight gain and weaning weight; second, even if suckling piglets need health care medication, injections are not necessary, and oral administration or medication through drinking water can be used instead, because suckling piglets have a very strong ability to absorb drugs through the digestive tract; third, for suckling piglets, many injectable drugs can be changed to oral administration.
Autogenous vaccines
Some pig farms make autogenous vaccines in order to solve a pig disease problem. With current laboratory technology, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. To put it simply, in a certain pig herd, some pigs may have swine fever, some may have blue ear disease, some may have circovirus... For example, if this pig herd was recently diagnosed with an outbreak of circovirus disease, and an autogenous circovirus vaccine is made for this reason, then I ask: who has the technology to guarantee that the autogenous vaccine material you use has already removed or inactivated other viruses and bacteria that may exist? If the answer is no, then isn't that doing harm? It is possible that this circovirus disease is temporarily controlled, but won't other diseases in this pig herd spread even more?
Seasonal immunization on large-scale pig farms
Large-scale pig farms must not formulate immunization programs like free-range households, nor carry out so-called spring prevention and autumn prevention like rural veterinary stations. Instead, they should immunize by batch according to the production and growth stages of the pig herd; otherwise, the immunization effect will be greatly reduced.
Zero-hour pre-colostrum immunization for piglets
There is no need to do routine immunization, zero-hour pre-colostrum immunization for piglets, unless there is an outbreak and it is absolutely unavoidable. Moreover, in the vast majority of large-scale pig farms, zero-hour pre-colostrum immunization for piglets is often difficult to operate and cannot be implemented.
No vaccines during pregnancy
"Vaccines cannot be given during pregnancy, otherwise it will cause miscarriage or other side effects"? Vaccination during pregnancy is the most cost-effective and also the most valuable. As for whether it will cause miscarriage or other side effects, as long as the operation is standard, this has not been found with the vaccines commonly used on pig farms at present.
Viral diseases can be cured with drugs
"Viral diseases can be cured with drugs"? At present there are none; there are only auxiliary therapeutic drugs that treat the symptoms but not the root cause.
Using diethylstilbestrol to induce estrus and mating
Diethylstilbestrol can only make sows come into estrus, but cannot make them ovulate. Often, after anestrous sows are treated with diethylstilbestrol to induce estrus and are mated, the mating is in vain and they do not conceive.