A sow recently gave birth to a litter that was half stillborn. What is the cause?
During this period, half of this sow's piglets have been stillborn. What is the cause?
Answer
In the late gestation period of the sow, the fetus grows rapidly and presses on the abdominal aorta, causing venous return from the hindquarters; combined with nutritional factors that lower tissue osmotic pressure, edema appears in the hindquarters and the last few pairs of teats, making them prone to injury and infection. At the same time, the sow's exercise during pregnancy is insufficient, so the main issue is still the sow's qi and blood. In late gestation, Duomeinuo can be used to supplement the sow's qi and blood.
Also pay attention to trauma infection in late gestation, during group transfer, and after moving onto the farrowing crate.
Qinzhou + Liu Wu: During this period, half of the sow's piglets are stillborn. What is the problem? PRRS health care has already been done.
Answer
A stillbirth rate above 50% is indeed too high. Generally, if stillbirths are caused by PRRS, more than 2% proves there is a slight fluctuation, but when too many stillbirths appear, one cannot arbitrarily conclude that it is simply a PRRS problem. For disease diagnosis, differential diagnosis should be carried out comprehensively by combining the immunization program, clinical symptoms, necropsy, feeding management, and laboratory testing, and only then can a final diagnosis be made.
When too many stillbirths appear, analysis can be carried out from the following aspects:
(1) The pig farm's immunization program: gilts must be vaccinated against swine fever, Japanese encephalitis, parvovirus, and pseudorabies during the replacement stage; if a first-parity sow has not been properly vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis and parvovirus, stillbirths will be relatively numerous, and there will be many mummified fetuses;
(2) Stress factors, such as heat stress, can cause issues at different stages and can also lead to an excessively long farrowing process and stillbirths during delivery;
(3) The influence of mycotoxins
(4) An excessively long farrowing process: many causes, such as improper selection of breeding stock, improper flushing of the sow before farrowing, insufficient qi and blood in the sow, and delayed assistance during delivery, lead to stillbirths during delivery, but such stillbirths are mostly fresh stillbirths, with mature fetal development, without putrefaction, deterioration, or mummified fetuses, and with no pathological changes in the fetal internal organs.
At present, most family farms, due to rapid resumption of production, improper introduction of breeding stock, and the lack of strict procedures for gilt development and health management, for example, most pig farms have not vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis or parvovirus, resulting in many stillbirths or even whole litters of stillbirths. Pig farms should analyze the causes according to their own actual conditions and carry out effectiveprevention and treatment ⟦17 Henan Shen Zhixiong: If one pig in the same pen is infected with blood parasites, will it infect the pigs in the same pen or cause large-scale transmission?。
Shen Zhixiong from Henan: If one pig in the same pen is infected with blood worms, will it infect the other pigs in the same pen, or cause a large-scale infection?
Answer
In pig production, blood parasites mainly refer to Eperythrozoon and Toxoplasma, which generally are not transmitted by direct contact but mostly by indirect contact, such as through mosquito and insect vectors, or injection with unclean, unsterilized needles. When group outbreaks occur in the same pen, it is mostly because the pen has a high stocking density, poor sanitation conditions, and high temperature and high humidity stress, causing the whole pen to be affected.
Hunan Zhou Huaxiong: Can a first-parity sow that has been pregnant for one hundred days still be given a live vaccine or an inactivated vaccine (for PRRS or mycoplasma)? Is the stress reaction severe? Does it affect later farrowing?
Answer
For sows vaccinated against PRRS, it is best to avoid the heavy gestation period. The mycoplasma vaccine also causes relatively greater stress to pigs, so it can be given 14 days after farrowing, simultaneously with the piglets.
Jiangxi Yin Lin: Will using drip cooling in the farrowing house more easily make the farrowing house humid and cause piglets to have diarrhea? Is there a better method that both cools and avoids piglet diarrhea?
Answer
Generally speaking, different pig farms have different hardware measures, and the cooling measures they can implement also differ. Temperature control in a pig farm is a systematic form of control, and any single cooling measure has certain advantages and disadvantages. Drip cooling can be combined with fan ventilation cooling so that the humidity and temperature of the pig house reach a certain balance.
Sichuan Wei Chuanzhi: What causes a sow to bite the piglets after giving birth, and howto treat it
Answer
Piglet biting is more common in first-parity sows, especially with the current use of three-way cross sows. It is caused by pain during the farrowing process, farrowing stress, and heat stress, leading to insufficient milk later and pain during milk let-down.
Prevention tips: move first-parity sows into the farrowing house in advance; improve the sow's milk supply; put a muzzle on the sow; if the sow has particularly poor maternal behavior and vicious piglet biting, it is recommended to foster the piglets out.