VTS257: Lg Animal Diseases & Nursing

1. Pigs
porcine

2. Terminology
• Sow- adult female having had one or more
litters
• Gilt- female not having reached sexual
maturity or has not had a litter
• Boar- intact adult male
• Pig- any swine other than sow, gilt, boar
• Barrow- neutered adult male
• Farrow- to give birth

3. Production Management
• Pasture
- Fewer animals per acre
- Decreased incidence of respiratory disease,
parasitism
- Alternate land use when hog market is poor

4. • Confinement units
- Environment impact
- Animal welfare issues
- Management intensive
- Increased production, increased investment
- All in/ all out management

5. Production information
• Sows average 2 litters per year
• Litter size average 9-10 piglets
• Average weaned per litter, 8
• Highest death losses in first 3-4 days of life
• Weaned at 3-4 weeks, 10-15 lbs
• Nursery to 10 weeks of age, 50 lbs
• Finishes at 250 lb market weight

6. Estrus in swine
• Polyestrus all year
• Estrus detection
- Lumbar pressure
- Boar scent

7. Behavior
• Aggressive behavior has serious economic and
physical consequences
• Adult boars will circle and threaten, fighting
sideways, pushing and slashing with tusks
• Separate boars with solid plywood
• Do not put new animal in established group,
they will attack and my kill
• Lactating sows will attack if perceive baby is
hurt

8. Hog Breeds
• Yorkshire
- white, ears up, most common
• Duroc
- red, floppy ear, second most common
• Landrace
- white, bigger floppy ears, long bacon body
• Chester white
- white, floppy ears, not as long as landrace
• Hampshire
- Black pig with white band around belly, similar to belted
Galloway cattle

9. Market Stock
• Birth to feeder- 40 lbs
• Feeder to finisher – 40-200 lbs
• Birth to slaughter – 250 lbs

10. Environmental temp
• Newborn 90-95
• Weaning 80-85
• Post weaning 70
• Adult 50-60
• Mature sow/pigs 50-55
Farrowing pen- one space with two
temperatures by a warming light for piglets

11. Nutrition
• Pigs have the same GI tracts as humans,
monogastric
• Usually utilize soy for protein and corn for
energy in hog diets

12. Porcine Stress Syndrome
• Pigs are very sensitive to stress
• Trucking, environmental change, management
• People that treat pigs nicely are rewarded
with increased production

13. Breeding Sow
• Bred at 6-7 months, 200 lbs
• Want 14 teats per sow
• Males bred at 5-6 months, 200 lbs
• Back fat and loin eye measured on live animals
with ultrasound
• 1 male/20 females
• 8-15 gilts per pen
• Artificial insemination regularly used
• Progesterone for estrus synchronization

14. Newborns
• Must have iron as milk is deficient, indoor do
not have access to iron in soild
• Inject iron in neck or feed sod
• Castrate males at 2 weeks
• Intact males stink and meat tastes funny, wait
6 months after castration before slaughter

15. Housing
• Water nipples place so pigs reach up slightly to
drink
• 1 nipple/10 pigs, minimum 2 nipples per pen
• Monitor environment at floor level
• Will climb vertical slats
• Chutes and docks should have solid walls
• Humidity 50-60%
• Ventilate from young to old
• Remove tails to prevent them from being chewed
off

16. Swine Viral Diseases
• Swine influenza
- Highly contagious, whole herd in 1-3 days
- Fever, anorexia, coughing, barking sound,
mortality 1-4%, morbidity 100%
- Treatment: nursing care
- Rare but can be zoonotic, affected animals
cannot appear at pubic functions

17. • Transmissible Gastroenteritis ( TGE)
- Affects baby pigs less than 10 days of age
- Symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, death
- Morbidity and mortality 100%
- Prepatent period 24-48 hours
- DX- virus isolation from baby pigs intestine at onset of
diarrhea
- Tx of little value
- Prevention: vaccinate during gestation, feed pregnant
sows macerated intestines of baby pigs that have dies
of TGE

18. • Parvovirus
- SMEDI: stillbirths, mummified fetuses, embryonic
deaths, infertility
- Trans: oral, consumption of viremic fecal material
- Tx: none
- Prevention
a. Vaccinate sows pre-breeding
b. Allow gilts/replacement sows to comingle with
stock or access to stock feces prior to breeding

19. • Pseudorabies ( Aujesky’s disease/mad itch)
- Affects pigs ( cattle, dogs)
- Morbidity and mortality: suckling pigs 100%,
mature pigs asymptomatic infection and
spontaneous recovery
- Trans: direct contact with contaminated feces
and water
- Prepatent period: 2-7 days

20. • Pseudorabies signs
• Suckling pigs
- Fever 107, incoordination, recumbency, paddling
- Convulsions, death within 12 hours of onset of
symptoms
• Feeder pigs
- Mortality < 5%, fever, posterior incoordination,
weakness
• Pregnant sows abort

21. • Pseudorabies cont
• Diagnosis: serology, virus isolation, fluorescent
antibody
• Tx: hyperimmune serum administered to baby
pigs in presence of outbreak
• Prev: strict sanitation, isolation, all in all out
• REPORTABLE DISEASE

22. Bacterial Diseases of Swine
• Atrophic Rhinitis
• Infectious agents: Bordatella bronchiseptica and
Pasteurella multocida
• Symptoms
- Atrophy of turbinate bones
- Deviation of snout
- Increased susceptibility to other respiratory
diseases
- Decreased rate of gain
- Carcass devalued at slaughter

23. • Atrophic rhinitis cont
• Trans: aerosol and direct nose to nose, carrier
sows infect piglets, piglets infect other piglets
• Prevention
- Vaccinate prior to clinical disease
- Prevalence of organisms in herds 25-50%
- NOTE: vacc does not eliminate organisms from
herd but prevents signs

24. • Colibacillosis
• Infectious agent: E.coli enterotoxin producing
• Symptoms: related to age of pig, 1-4 days of age
mortality 70%
• Prepatent: 12-24 hours
• Litters from gilts more likely to be affected
• Dx: fecal culture
• Litmus test
- ph> 8 E. coli, ph<7 viral or protozoal

25. • Colibacillosis con’t
• Tx: antibiotics, fluid replacement, nutrition
• Prevention
- Commercial vaccine, autogenous bacterin
- Milk culture fed to sows during gestation
- Sanitation, good management, minimize
stress

26. • Clostridial Enteritis ( hemorrhagic enteritis,
bloody scours)
• Infectious agent: Clostridium perfringens Type C
• Affected: baby pigs <7 days old
• Symptoms: bloody diarrhea, dehydration, death
• Tx: none, symptoms due to toxin
• Prevention: vaccinate sows/gilts during gestation,
administer Type D antitoxin to baby pigs at birth

27. • Erysipelas
• Infectious agent: Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, is
ubiquitous in environment, cultured from 50% of
normal swine
• Symptoms:
Acute
- Fever > 108, abortions, stillbirths, mummified
fetuses
- Diamond shaped skin lesions
- Sudden death

28. • Erysipelas cont
Subacute/chronic
- Inappetance, infertility, arthritis, heart valve
damage, endocarditis
Prevention
- Vaccination
- Good management practices, sanitation,
deworming, nutrition, eliminate other co-existing
diseases in herd, minimize stress
ZOONOTIC

29. • Leptospirosis
• Symptoms: abortions, stillbirths, birth of
weak, non-viable pigs
• NOTE: permanent carrier state exists.
Organisms persist in kidneys and or
reproductive tract, intermittently shed in urine
or repro tract secretions and discharge
• Prevention- vaccinate
ZOONOTIC

30. Disease Rules of Thumb
• If the disease manifests during pregnancy (
abortions, stillbirths, mummified fetuses,
weak pigs at term), vaccinate prior to breeding
• If the disease manifests post farrowing, ( in
baby pigs) vaccinate during pregnancy

31. Miscellaneous Diseases/conditions
• Mastitis/Metritis/Agalactica
• Affected: sows 12-48 hours post farrowing
• Symptoms: fever, depression, anorexia, lack of
interest in baby pigs, mastitis
• Duration: 2-4 days
• Mortality
- Sows < 2%
- Baby pigs >80% due to starvation and crushing
• Tx: antibiotics, oxytocin, transfer baby pigs to
another clinically normal sows

32. • Porcine Stress Syndrome ( malignant
hyperthermia)
• Heritable disease of Ca metabolism in heavilty
muscled breeds
• Stress ( handling, processing, transportation)
not necessarily related to high env. Temps and
halothane anesthesia result in elevation of
core temp

33. • Porcine stess syndrome cont
• Symptoms:
- Muscle tremors, twitching, dyspnea, cyanosis
- Muscle rigidity, death within 15-20 minutes
- Post mortem pale, soft, exudative meat, (PSE)
carcass devalued
• Prev/control: genetic testing for recessive
gene

34. • Iron deficiency
• Disease of confinement- baby pigs on dirt
have access to iron in soil
• Routine processing of baby pigs include:
- Nipping teeth, notching ears, docking tails, iron
injection, nose rings ( installed in pasture raised
hogs to prevent rooting/destructive behavior)

35. Historical diseases
1. Swine pox
- virus, carried by lice, skin lesions, immune by
recovery
2. Parakeratosis
- Deficiency in Zn or excess Ca, 6-16 weeks, skin
lesions, correct diet to control
3. Greasy pig disease
- Exudative epidermitis, sick pigs with abnormally
thickened and exudative skin, Staph. Hyicus,
recovery leads to immunity

36. Preventative Health Program
• Prebreeding recommendations for Boars
- Purchase at least 60 days before breeding
- Quarantine at least 30 days, then allow fence
contact with sows/gilts for 30 days
- Immunize for leptospirosis and erysipelas
- Treat for internal and external parasites

37. • Prebreeding for sows and gilts
- Immunize for leptospirosis, porcine parvovirus
and psuedorabies 2-4 weeks prebreeding
- Flush gilts by increasing energy in diet to
increase ovulation for breeding
- Treat for internal and external parasites

38. • Prefarrowing for sows and gilts
- Limit feed to 4 lb per head to avoid obesity
- Immunize for colibacillosis, atrophic rhinitis,
erysipelas, TGE, porcine rotavirus and
Clostridium perfringens type D
- Treat for internal and external parasites with
approved products
• Farrowing- gradually increase feed ( 1lb of
feed for every pig nursed)

39. General Recommendations for piglets
• Birth
- Clip needle teeth, dock tails, ear notch, inject
iron dextran
• One week
- Immunize for TGE, rotavirus, atrophic rhinitis
• Two weeks
- castrate

40. Piglets con’t
• 4-5 weeks
- weaning, immunize for atrophic rhinitis,
erysipelas, Actinobacillosis infection
• 6-8 weeks
- Treat for internal and external parasites
• > 8 weeks
- Repeated treatments for external parasites