1.2. Temperature control

New born piglets have very little energy reserves, therefore they are not ready to adapt to cold environments. If exposed to cold, piglets quickly metabolize fat and glycogen in an attempt to stay warm and become hypoglycemic, weak and inactive. Chilled piglets may die of starvation, disease or may be crushed to death by the sow.

I have done some statistical work on the death of young piglets and have observed that many piglets die during the night due to management negligence and low temperatures.

A proper farrowing environment provides a special, heated area for the newborn piglets with the temperature reduced gradually from 32-35ºC at birth to 25-28ºC one week later. The area of the sow must be kept at 20-22ºC.

According to my practical experience, during the outbreaks of diarrhea, one should in the first place examine the temperature of the pens. Right after, the use of drying powders on the skin of the piglets helps the animals to maintain the temperature of the body and reduces mortality.

1.3. Ventilation

Piglets need good air quality to survive and grow.  Farrowing houses are known to be dusty, because sow’s feed tends to be dusty. Besides, during cold seasons, there is the tendency to close all the natural openings such as windows in order to keep the temperature in the pen and save energy. This leads to poor air quality that contributes to the spread the diseases.

Therefore, farrowing units need artificial ventilation during cold seasons, but air movement must be slow and cold airflows that could chill the piglets should be carefully avoided.

2. ANIMAL HEALTH PRODUCTS FOR TREATMENT

Antibiotics are the treatment of choice for diarrhea outbreaks that have been caused by bacteria sensitive to antibiotics. But antibiotics are not helpful neither in the increasing cases of infections by resistant bacteria nor against viral diseases. Besides, antibiotics do not solve directly the problems associated to diarrhea, such as dehydration. Moreover, antibiotic abuse is often the cause of a slow growth during suckling period and one reason for poor weight at weaning, because antibiotics will kill beneficial intestinal bacteria while they eliminate pathogenic microorganisms. Once we ensure that the environment in the farrowing pen is optimal, we feed piglets with a cocktail of phyto-active ingredients, electrolytes and vitamins and we can complete recovery in 2-3 days.

• Some phytoactive ingredients are microbiocide, fighting the pathogenic bacteria and reducing the risk of secondary infections in the case of viral diseases. Other phytoactive ingredients are able to stimulate the growth of favorable bacteria in the gut. This feature is especially interesting in suckling animals, because their gut flora is under development, as we discussed in this blog.

• Electrolytes and rapidly absorbed sugars provide excellent nutritional support to suckling animals, especially to ill animals, that may have losses of nutrients through watery faeces.

• Vitamin E is related with a higher piglet body weight, a better health status at weaning and with a better immunity status.

In mild infections

During mild infections, with moderate signs and low mortality, the use of phyto-active ingredients, electrolytes and vitamins proves to be effective within 24-48 h, showing a clear improvement of the appearance of feces and of the status of the animals.

In case of explosive diarrhea outbreaks with high mortality

Many experiences in different areas show that the use of phyto-active ingredients, electrolytes and vitamins reduces the negative consequences of explosive outbreaks with high mortality, being able to cut down the mortality from higher than 60% to less than 40%.