How to prevent and control swine lungworm disease? Prevention and control methods every pig farmer must read
Swine lungworm disease is a helminthic disease caused by Metastrongylus nematodes parasitizing the bronchi and bronchioles of pigs. It is highly harmful to pigs, often causing bronchitis and even pneumonia, and is prone to complicating with pulmonary infectious diseases such as swine pasteurellosis and swine enzootic pneumonia. It often occurs as an endemic disease, mostly infecting pigs when they eat @#@254@#@ containing infective larvae. One month after infection, piglets mainly develop coughing, especially obvious when exercising in the morning and evening or when encountering changes in external temperature. Sometimes purulent mucus flows from the nostrils, and there are eye secretions. The appetite of sick pigs is generally normal, but growth and development stagnate, and they gradually become emaciated. In severe cases, vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing occur, along with strong paroxysmal coughing. Body temperature occasionally rises, with anemia, jaundice, extreme weakness, and eventually death from exhaustion.
On necropsy, a large number of worms are found inside the ends of the bronchi, appearing cotton-like, and there is localized emphysema on the surface of the lung lobes, sometimes causing bronchial rupture.
[Prevention and control measures]
(1) Strengthen feeding management. Pig houses and exercise yards should be cleaned frequently, attention should be paid to drainage and maintaining cleanliness and dryness, and manure should be piled for fermentation. Where conditions permit, pig farms, pig pens, and exercise yards should be paved with cement to prevent pigs from eating earthworms and to eliminate the breeding of earthworms.
(2) In areas where lungworm is prevalent, regular preventive deworming should be carried out. Piglets should be dewormed once at 2-3 months of age, and then once every 2 months thereafter.
(3) For treating sick pigs, levamisole can be used at 7 mg per kg of body weight, orally or by intramuscular injection once. For pigs with severe pneumonia, penicillin should be used continuously for 3 days while deworming. Ivermectin at 0.2 mg per kg of body weight, by subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, takes effect with one dose. Albendazole at 10-15 mg per kg of body weight, mixed into feed for oral administration.