How to treat hemolytic disease of newborn piglets? Detailed treatment options
Treatment options for hemolytic disease of newborn piglets
1. Causes
This disease is an autoimmune disease caused by a difference in blood type between the sow and the piglets. Because the fetus has specific antigens inherited from the boar, these enter the mother's body through the placenta and stimulate the sow to produce large amounts of specific antibodies (hemolysins, etc.). These antibodies can pass from the blood into the milk, and are most abundant in colostrum. After newborn piglets suckle colostrum, the antibodies are absorbed through the intestinal mucosa into the blood, causing red blood cells to be dissolved and destroyed, which brings on the disease.
2. Symptoms
⟧ After birth, piglets develop the disease several hours or a dozen or so hours after suckling colostrum, showing listlessness, fear of cold, rough and erect hair, refusal to nurse, weakness, etc. The conjunctiva of the eyes and the gingival mucosa appear yellow, the urine is red or dark red, the heartbeat is rapid, and breathing is fast.
3. Lesions
The skin and subcutaneous tissue are noticeably yellow-stained, and the mesentery, greater omentum, peritoneum and both the large and small intestines are all yellow. The liver is swollen, the spleen is enlarged, the kidneys are congested and enlarged, there are hemorrhagic spots or hemorrhagic patches on the endocardium and epicardium, and dark red urine accumulates in the bladder.
4．Prevention and control
At present there is still no specifictreatmentdrug for this disease. When piglets are found to be affected, all piglets in the litter should immediately stop nursing and be switched to artificial feeding, or transferred to another nursing sow to be suckled by her. After 3 days, the mother's milk can be fed to the piglets. When breeding sows, one should find out whether piglets previously produced after mating with the boar have shown hemolytic phenomena; if so, that boar must not be used for mating.