Comprehensive Guide to Common Problems and Answers for Pig Farms
1. The edge of a pig's ear is swollen and leaking watery fluid. How should this be treated?
Answer: This is a typical symptom of Haemophilus parasuis, caused by local infection of the ear by Haemophilus bacteria. If the swelling is severe with a lump and the lump contains watery or purulent fluid, first draw out the fluid with a sterile syringe, then inject an antibiotic to which Haemophilus is sensitive, either locally or systemically (such as long-acting florfenicol injection, ceftiofur sodium, etc.), and it can be cured.
2. How do you determine whether a blue ear disease area is an infected area or a non-infected area?
Answer: It can be determined through three laboratory methods: First, test for blue ear disease antigen in the laboratory. If the result is positive, it proves the pig farm is infected with blue ear disease and can be classified as an infected area for blue ear disease. Second, if the pig farm has never been vaccinated against blue ear disease and the laboratory antibody test is positive, it proves it is an infected area. Third, if the laboratory test for wild-type blue ear disease antibody is positive, it proves the pig farm is an infected area. If a pig farm is infected with blue ear disease, it is recommended to universally vaccinate with attenuated live blue ear disease vaccine, which takes effect quickly and works well.
3. What should be done if piglets have diarrhea?
Answer: First distinguish what is causing the diarrhea. For bacterial diarrhea (such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella), you can orally administer gentamicin or norfloxacin (norfloxacin) in drinking water, or inject mequindox injection. There are many causes of viral diarrhea, such as atypical swine fever, pseudorabies, rotavirus infection, etc., all of which can cause piglet diarrhea. This requires farmers to routinely do a good job of immunizing against these vaccines. After disease onset, if it is nursery pigs, you can add the immune enhancer yeast immune polysaccharide to the whole herd's feed at 2-3 kg per ton of feed to improve immunity. If it is unweaned piglets with diarrhea, you can add 2-3 kg of this product to the sow's complete feed. For all pigs' complete feed, it is best to add a broad-spectrum antibiotic combination, such as 2 kg of lincomycin-spectinomycin or 150 g of tiamulin + 300 g of doxycycline, and add it for 10-14 days to control secondary infection.
4. What should be done if a pig develops high fever disease and antibiotic treatment is not effective?
Answer: This may be caused by viral diseases such as swine fever and blue ear disease. It is recommended to routinely immunize well against conventional vaccines such as swine fever, blue ear disease, and pseudorabies. In addition, an immune enhancer can be added long-term to the complete feed of breeding pigs, nursery pigs, and growing pigs to increase resistance to disease. For sick pigs, use the long-acting broad-spectrum antibiotic "Yisuda" to control secondary infection, and the effect is relatively obvious.
5. A sow ate normally the day before but suddenly stopped eating the next day, with some vomiting, no fever, and no other symptoms. What should be done?
Answer: The sow may have indigestion caused by recent weather changes. It is recommended to orally give the pig the digestive aid "Shimusheng", and also inject the sow with vitamin B12 injection, which takes effect faster.
6. What should be done if pigs develop foot-and-mouth disease?
Answer: It is recommended that large-scale farms implement closed production, strictly restrict the entry and exit of idlers, thoroughly rinse vehicles used for selling pigs, dry them for more than 2 hours, and strictly disinfect them. At the same time, strengthen disinfection across the whole farm, disinfect once daily with pigs present. Compound iodine disinfectants such as "Baisheng" or peracetic acid types such as "Huifuxing" have the best killing effect on foot-and-mouth disease virus. In order to enhance herd resistance, when foot-and-mouth disease occurs, isolate sick pigs as soon as possible, disinfect twice daily, and use "Baisheng" stock solution to directly spray the affected areas of sick pigs to promote healing and reduce transmission.
7. What should be done if replacement gilts do not come into estrus?
Answer: The conditions that must first be met for replacement gilts to come into estrus: body weight above 120 kg or age above 8 months. If these conditions are met and they still do not come into estrus, inject cloprostenol (lutalyse) 2 ml per head. If they still do not come into estrus after 14 days, then use one dose of pregnant mare serum or inject according to the instructions.
8. Should sows be vaccinated against blue ear disease? What vaccine should be used?
Answer: At present, most pig farms in China test positive for blue ear disease. It is recommended to use attenuated live blue ear disease vaccine, universally vaccinate breeding pigs 4 times per year, give a booster 28 days after the first immunization, and then universally vaccinate once every 3 months thereafter.