What Causes Sudden Death in Pigs

In the process of raising pigs, there are actually many cases of sudden death in pigs, and the causes vary, but the final result is always the death of the pig. This phenomenon generally occurs more often in piglets and growing-finishing pigs. So what are the causes of sudden death in pigs? Let's take a look below.

1. Acute digestive system diseases

Acute digestive system diseases mainly include acute gastric ulcers, hemorrhagic intestinal syndrome, clostridial enteritis (red diarrhea in piglets) and other diseases. Pigs with acute gastric ulcers have a relatively pale body surface, accompanied by vomiting, and finally die suddenly. Hemorrhagic intestinal syndrome is very difficult to detect, and generally occurs in boars or fattening pigs around seven to eight months old, mainly caused by stress reactions. Clostridial enteritis (red diarrhea in piglets) mainly occurs in piglets around one week after birth.

2. Respiratory system diseases

Respiratory system diseases mainly refer to acute infectious pleuropneumonia, and the occurrence of this disease can also cause sudden death in pigs. The characteristic of this disease is that the pig suddenly falls to the ground and dies, but before that it also shows characteristic signs, such as rapid breathing and the discharge of pale red foamy fluid. So when this phenomenon occurs, we must treat it promptly, otherwise the probability of death is very high.

3. Sudden death stress syndrome

Sudden death is actually very easy to explain, and generally when death is caused by this reason there are no warning signs at all, so it is also the most difficult to deal with. For example, a boar being overly excited during mating can also cause sudden death, or being excessively frightened, or having too strong a stress reaction during group transfer and transportation, etc. These are all causes of sudden death.

4. Swine fever and blue ear disease

Swine fever is an acute and highly contagious disease. When this disease occurs, the pig may die before any treatment can be carried out. The currently prevalent African swine fever is also like this, so the mortality rate of pigs is extremely high. Blue ear disease, on the other hand, is an acute and highly lethal epidemic disease caused by a variant strain of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. When a pig develops blue ear disease, its body temperature rises rapidly, and symptoms such as conjunctivitis, eyelid edema, coughing and panting appear, ultimately leading to sudden death.

In fact, there are many causes of sudden death in pigs, such as swine erysipelas, mycotoxin poisoning, piglet edema disease, white muscle disease, foot-and-mouth disease in suckling piglets, swine dysentery, the most acute form of swine pasteurellosis, and the most acute form of swine streptococcosis, etc. These diseases can also cause sudden death in pigs. So what we can do is to carry out scientific feeding, strict daily management and vaccine prevention and control during the breeding process.