Analysis of the Causes of Tail Biting in Pigs and Control Methods

In large-scale, intensive @#@227@#@ production, it is common to see nursery and finishing pig herds develop the bad habit of biting each other's tails. Tail biting in a herd not only increases feed consumption, affects growth and makes management more difficult, but in severe cases can also lead to injury and bacterial infection in the pigs. So what causes tail biting in pigs? Based on summaries, it is related to the following factors:

(1) Management factors: (1) insufficient feeding, not enough feeding spaces, unreasonable trough design, etc., causing pigs to go hungry; (2) poor water quality, insufficient or restricted drinking water; (3) poor ventilation, foul air, too low or too high a temperature, excessive humidity; (3) moving pigs between pens as well as excessive stocking density and obvious differences in pig size; (5) vaccination, noise, frequent or sudden feed changes; (6) the presence of incompletely castrated pigs in the pen.

(2) Disease factors: (1) exudative dermatitis, which is especially obvious when mixing groups and merging pens; (2) parasitic infections; (3) bites from blood-sucking insects (such as mosquitoes and flies).

(3) Nutritional factors: (1) feeding pigs poor-quality or spoiled raw materials; (2) malnutrition caused by low-nutrient feed; (3) feed that is low in salt, low in protein, or has an imbalanced calcium-to-phosphorus ratio.

(4) Control measures: (1) The most effective and most thorough method is tail docking. Piglets should have their tails docked and teeth clipped promptly after birth. Leave only about 2 cm of the tail; the cut site should be disinfected to prevent infection, and using an uneven cut can prevent heavy bleeding. (2) Once pigs begin tail biting, it indicates that the environmental conditions of the pig house are already very poor. Different measures can be taken in response to the management causes above: pigs in each pen should be uniform in size, strength and sex; there should be no uncastrated or incompletely castrated pigs in the same pen; merging pens should be done while the pigs are hungry, and they should be fed immediately after merging; internal and external parasites of the pigs should be controlled promptly; in summer, in particular, measures to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and flies should be strengthened. (3) Strengthen the prevention and control of pig diseases. When pigs that bite tails appear, such pigs have aggressive characteristics and should be isolated and raised immediately. (4) Use high-quality, nutritionally balanced feed. Under special circumstances, if the pigs can drink water freely, the amount of salt can be increased to 0.9% in the short term. (5) In other countries, some pig farms place toys in the pens for the pigs to play with; these toys are generally made from materials such as rubber, plastic, wood and stones.