blogs.reuters.

com

Pigs Husbandry
Animal Production in Tropics

Magdalena Miřejovská, Ph.D.,

mirejovska@ftz.czu.cz
• Terminology and Taxonomy
• Origin and Domestication
• Pig Population and Production
• General Characteristics
• Production Systems
• Housing
• Reproduction and Breeding
• Feeding
• Heath Issues

• Pig Breeds - Presentations

• Boar = hog = male pig over 6 months (and intended
for use in the breeding herd)
• Barrow = male pig that has been castrated before he
reaches sexual maturity
• Stag = male pig castrated late in life
• Gilt = female pig that has not yet been bred
• Sow = adult female pig that has been served
• Piglet = young pig (untill weaning)
• Weaner = pig from weaning until the age of 10 weeks
• Babyrousini – Babyrousa (babirusas)
• Phacochoerini – Phacochoerus
• Potamochoerini –Hylochoerus and Potamochoerus
• Suini – Sus (Old Word Pigs)
• Babyrousini – Babyrousa (babirusas)
• Phacochoerini – Phacochoerus
• Potamochoerini –Hylochoerus and Potamochoerus
• Suini – Sus (Old Word Pigs)
• Babyrousini – Babyrousa (babirusas)
• Phacochoerini – Phacochoerus
• Potamochoerini –Hylochoerus a Potamochoerus
• Suini – Sus (Old Word Pigs)
Sus scrofa
= wild boar
• origin: Island SE ASia
• roughly ~4 million years ago
• Sus scrofa (Sumatra …)
• S. barbatus (Borneo) - VU
• S. celebensis (Sulawesi) - NT
• S. verrucosus (Java) - EN
• S. cebifrons (Philippines) - CR
 Sus scrofa

• Divergence between Western-European and Eastern-

Asian populations
• ~ 1.2 million years ago
• Range expansion
• Adaptation to new environments – short evolution
• Temperate zones, Near East,
Far North, Himalayas, …
• Several domestication centres
• Near East (Anatolia) – 10 000 – 9 000 (8 300)years ago
• China – 9 000 (8 000) years ago
 ORK PRODUCTION
• Pork - the largest source of meat at the world level ?!
• Not produced and consumed in many countries
• religion & climate
x
• Greater importance in the rest of the world

www.fao.org
IG POPULATION
IG POPULATION
 www.wattagnet.com

ORK PRODUCTION

2011 www.targetmap.com
 IG USE AND PRODUCTS
• MEAT
• Single-purpose animal ??? OR ?
• Raised (mainly) for: meat
fat
blood
intestines
brain
organs
skin
bristles
bones
manure
breeding animals production
pet ?
…
 E920 = L-cysteine

Softening agent and shelf life extension

• Monogatric – simple stomach (+ hindgut fermentation)
• Middle size omnivores → human food? by-products!
• Newborn piglets - insufficiently developed
• Digestion
• Thermoregulation
• Immune system
• Multiparous
• Modern breeds 10 – 16 piglets
• Dental formula (permanent teth)
• 44 teeth
• Piglets 28 teeth
• Needle teeth
• Teeth clipping

• Male: canine teeth form tusks - hypsodont teeth

• grow continuously
• succesful management of pigs – planning based
on pigs' biology
• tropical countries – many pigs managed
primarily as scavengers x commercial pig
industry

nomadicfootprints.wordpress.com www.ilri.org www.fao.org

 kenpierpont.com

PIGS PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

IN TROPICS
• Traditional way used by villagers
Main characteristics
• Free range scavenging pigs
• Free move of pigs - find food for themselves
• or restriction by fencing
• or leg ties
• Sometimes supplemeted with kitchen refusals or crop
residues
• Poor nutrition → ↓ growth rate
EXTENSIVE SYSTEM
• All pigs outside
• exposed to adverse climatic conditions and predators
• night – simple enclosures, simple shelters
• High incidence of diseases and mortality
• danger of kidney worm and other parasites
• Local breeds
• Little investment of time or money

hungeree.com
Production goals
• pigs as ‘savings account’ or ‘insurance policy’
• sold only when extra cash is needed
Main characteristics
• Confined to limited space
• Feed and water provided by keeper
• Kitchen refuse or agricultural waste
• Simple shade to reduce heat stress
• Floor usually muddy and dirty
• Problems with drainage and feaces management
• Crossbred animals could be used
• Low or medium financial inputs
X
• More time and effort
www.travelblog.org
• Prevention of crop demage by pigs
• Reduction of risk of pigs stealing
• Reduction of spread of diseases and parasite infections

• Improved feeding and disease control

• Faster growing pigs

• Healthier pigs
• Larger litters

Production goals
• Creation of a ‘savings account’ or ‘insurance policy’
• Pigs are marketed
• Pigs kept to generate income
• In tropical regions mainly small-scale intensive pig keeping

• Numbers in tropics increasing – mainly in SE Asia (Philippines,

Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand)
• In regions where supply of by-products feeds and consumer
demand for pork
→ SE Asia: by-products from production of rice, wheat, maize,
coconut, sesame, peanut, cottonseed, oil palm...; fish meal

www.wspa-international.org www.wattagnet.com
Main characteristics
• Pigs kept to generate income (mainly meat for market )
→ need access to market!
• Pigs kept indoors
• pregnant sows may be allowed to graze outside
• Separate pens for lactating sows, weaned piglets, pregnant
sows, boars and fatteners
• Larger number of pigs → need to be managed
• Local x ‘improved’ breeds
• Kitchen waste and agricultural waste not sufficient
→ need of buying extra feeds
• Significant inputs of time and money required
• Know-how necessary → need knowledge!
• Careful calculation of costs and benefits

Production goals
• Provision of major source of income
• for group or household
• Pigs raised to be sold
• Regular access to market is needed
• concrete floor (not too smooth, not too rough) - daily
cleaning
• or slatted floor – over dunging passage or entire area of pen
→ slats: - wood, concrete, steel or aluminium
- width 10 – 13 cm
- space between ≤ 2.5 cm
→ space below should slope towards drainage outlet
→ not for farrowing pens

www.pig-vision.com www.farmissues.com
HOUSING
• pens:
→ covered by roof
→ 2.4 – 3 m at highest point www.philincon.org

→ thatch (grass, reed, coconut frond, nipa ...)

or galvanized iron sheets
→ various materials of pen
(perforated superior to solid)
• series of pens (of different size)

kenleighacres.com

www.sabalolodge.com Good, enough shade Not good, no shade

HOUSING
www.uq.edu.au
• Farrowing pens:
→ farrowing rails or crate
• For example: pen 2.4 x 4 m
→ sow + litter
→ up to 12 piglets
→ 8 fattening pigs
→ 3 breeding sows
• Feeding trough:
→ fixed or movable
→ concrete, glazed pipe,
galvanized iron – easy cleaning
• Self-feeders
HOUSING
• water in each pen
→ feeding troughs peteandjensbackyardbirds.com

→ automatic drinkers – bowls or nipples (one for 20 – 25 pigs)

→ drinking water – not exposed to sun
• water for cleaning and wallows
• tree shade over piggery building
desirable x not in hurricane zones
• feed storage shed the highest level www.certifiedhumane.org

x midden or manure-collecting area the lowest

• pig manure
→ dried and sold as fertilizer
→ methane gas production
HOUSING
• water in each pen
→ feeding troughs peteandjensbackyardbirds.com

→ automatic drinkers – bowls or nipples (one for 20 – 25 pigs)

→ drinking water – not exposed to sun
• water for cleaning and wallows
• tree shade over piggery building
desirable x not in hurricane zones
• feed storage shed the highest level www.certifiedhumane.org

x midden or manure-collecting area the lowest

• pig manure
→ dried and sold as fertilizer
→ methane gas production
INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• Pig-fish integrated system
→ pig dung - pond fertilizer - ↑ growth of microorganisms
and plants → increase of fish production
→ SE Asia

www.fao.org

• Fertilization of fruit trees and other crops

• In temperate zones problem with dung
disposal – environmental regulations
MANAGEMENT
• Mating lasts a month and a half
• 1 male mating with 5-10 sows
• Estrus usually first occurs after one to two years in sows
• Males “rut” after 4–5 years
• Gestation period 114–140 days according to the parity
• Females separate & nest
• Litter sizes depending on the age & nutrition of the mother
(average 4–6 piglets)
• Newborn piglets weigh around 600–1,000 grams
• Competition = teat order
• Lactation 2.5–3.5 months

www.allposters.com
BREEDING STOCK
• 3 months of age – separation of young breeding stock
• Selection of more pigs than required
• Pigs from other farm: known history, brucellosis and
leptospirosis test, deworming
• All breeding boars and gilts:
→ 12- 14 teats
→ no inherited defects
→ from lines with no history of inherited defects
→ from lines with characteristics of rapid growth
• Boars and gilts together un l 4 months → segrega on →
reared outside or fed green feed + concentrate ration
BREEDING: choosing when to start
breeding
• Boars: first mating: 8 – 12 months & after 1 year, can use 2 – 4
per week
• Evaluation of reproductive soundness
• Female in heat – observation of: libido, mounting, mating

40
• Sperm evaluation
• Appropriate feed – nutrient reqs met but avoid excessive fat
deposition

www.titusshowpigs.com
BREEDING: choosing when to start breeding
• Gilts: first mating: 7 – 8 months
• Bringing gilts into oestrus
• Contact with boar
• Gilts at age of 9 months without oestrus → cull
• 2nd/3rd/4th oestrus = larger litter, less problems during
farrowing (21d; 48 hrs)
• Correct age and weight at first service
• 60% of the two-year-old dam weight
• Synchronisation - progesterone analogue
• Flushing

FLUSHING = additional feed given to gilts

or sows before breeding or mating to
increase the chances of conception 1 week
(or less) before the breeding or mating day
BREEDING: choosing when to start breeding
Gilts/sows:
• Appropriate feed – nurients x avoid excessive
fat deposition
• Appropriate size of boar
• Served twice if using boar
• First day of heat observation
• 12 – 24 hours later (different male for second
mating ?)
• service 5 – 20 minutes
HEAT DETECTION
Early heat signs
• General restlessness
• Red and swollen vulva
• White mucus discharge www.drostproject.org
www.thepigsite.com

Service period signs (oestrus 40 – 60 hours) www.fao.org

• Less red and swollen vulva

• Slimy mucus discharge
• Tendency to mount and be mounted by others
• Stand still when pressure to back – standing test
Post oestrus-period signs
• Not stand still when pressure to back
• Not swollen vulva
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
• For small producers keeping of boar expensive
→ ″sharing ″ of boars – danger of disease transmission
→ artificial insemination
• One boars’ ejaculate – insemination of 8 – 10 females
• Semen capacity for ferilization declines after 1 day

www.wattagnet.com dbtindia.nic.in
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
virginology.org

Collection of semen
• 2 – 3 x/week
• Dummy sow
→ need of boar's training
→ right height, stable, comfortable,
stand on a dry, slip-free floor
• Or oestrus sow – occasional collection
• Another boar's semen, saliva,
www.drostproject.org
sow urine - stimulation
• Manual collection – artificial vagina
• Fracions separation

Modern system pigprogress.acc.blueskies.nl

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
Sperm fractions:
• Pre-sperm fraction – clear seminal fluid, mucoid, dead sperm
cells, heavily contaminated with bacteria; should not be
collected
• Sperm-rich fraction – creamy-white colour, the greatest
density of spermatozoa
• Post-sperm fraction – high volume (up to 250 ml, clear
seminal plasma , free of spermatozoa, gel (secreted from the
accessory glands)

www.pig333.com
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
Semen evaluation
• Volume : 100 – 500 ml
• Motility: ≥ 70 %
• Density: ≥ 200 000/mm3
→ sperm fraction: ≥ 500 000/mm3 www.thepigsite.com

• Abnormalities: ≤ 20 %
• pH: 6.6 – 7.9
• Total sperm number: > 50 000 000 000

scienceblogs.com
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
• Use of collected sperm – undiluted or diluted
• Sperm dilution:
→ short-term conservation (up to 72 hours) – milk, yolk
→ longer conservation (max. several days) - more complex
diluents
→ dilution according to sperm
concentration (max. 1:6)
• Storage at 10 – 16 °C
• Pig sperm cryoconservation (freezing):
→ problematic
→ dilu on 1:1 → incuba on at room temperature (2 – 5
hours) → dry ice (- 79°C) → liquid nitrogen (- 196°C) → a er
thawing motility ≥ 25 %
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
Sow inseminaion:
• 'standing' reaction test twice a day – better with boar nearby

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/
Timing
• 8 – 12 hours after the first 'standing' reaction
• after 8 – 16 hours reinsemination
• cleaning of vulva and area around, wiping off → lubrica on of
catheter → insertion of catheter (Melrose type)
→ attaching semen bottle
• stimulation of sow desirable

www.store.bowersswine.com
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
Sow inseminaion:
• 'standing' reaction test twice a day – better with boar nearby

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/
Timing
• 8 – 12 hours after the first 'standing' reaction
• after 8 – 16 hours reinsemination
• cleaning of vulva and area around, wiping off → lubrica on of
catheter → insertion of catheter (Melrose type)
→ attaching semen bottle
• stimulation of sow desirable

www.store.bowersswine.com
GESTATION OF GILTS AND SOWS
• 115 days (110 – 120 days)
• Symptoms (and obvious) of pregnancy:
→ Calmer behavior
→ Bigger appetite
→ Search of solitude
→ Bigger abdomen
→ Enlargement of udder www.backyardchickens.com

→ Increase in weight

www.dawgsaloon.com jpheritagefarm.com
CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF
BREEDING SOW
• Separation of gilt/sow before farrowing - farrowing pen – at
least 1 week before parturition
• Before placement to farrowing pen: deworming, washing (soap
and antisepic)
• Provision of material to build nest (long straw)
• Quality feed x 24 hours before farrowing no feed
• Farrowing pen:
→ farrowing rails or crate (iron or wood) – piglets protection

www.littlemortonfarm.co.uk www.finronesystems.com
PARTURITION = FARROWING
• Before farrowing:
→ Elevated temperature
→ Enlarged udder + swollen teats (colostrum)
→ Swollen vulva; sagging abdomen
→ Anxiety
→ Switching tail
→ Frequent urination and defecation
→ Creation of „nest“
→ Breathing heavily blogs.discovermagazine.com

→ Alternately lying down and getting up

• 2 – 4 hours (huge variation: 1 – 12 hours)
• Piglets' weight: 1 – 1.5 kg
• Sows: 8 – 14 (16) piglets, gilts: fewer
CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF NEW
BORN PIGLETS
• umbilical cord pulled away or cut (to about 5 cm lenght)
→ desinfection (iodine solution)
• drying with cloth or straw
• place to udder – first milk (colostrum)

www.fao.org
 Lactation
• Modern breeds: 42 – 56 days (x weaning)
• 6 – 8 kg of milk/day
• Higher production at beginning, decrease after 21st day
• First milk = colostrum
→ high content of proteins x less fat and (slightly)
In comparison with cowless
milk:sugar
than in milk → almost 2x higher content of
protein and fat
→ more vitamins (A, D, C) → higher content of minerals
→ globulins – immunity → the same sugar content
→ gradual change of content → after 2 weeks (mature) milk
Sow Sow Cow (milk)
% (colostrum) (milk)
Water 74.5 79 – 83 85.5 – 89.5
Protein 13 – 18 5.3 – 7.3 2.9 – 5
Fat 4–6 3.9 – 9.5 2.5 – 6
Sugar 3–5 3.1 – 6 3.6 – 5.5
• Sensitive to cold (2-3 days, 32°C) & decr as age
• Thermoregulation
• Piglet at birth insufficiently developed, physical thermoregulation
from 3rd week
• Small stomach

56
• Frequent sucking (12 – 14/day)
• Digestive capacity increases with age
• Large intestine matures slower - digest fibrous feeds better in direct
relation to its age
• Immune system
• Colostrum (sharp decline of gamaglobulines 10 – 12 hours after
birth)
• Formation of antibodies after 3 weeks
CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF
PIGLETS
Heat lamps
Radiant heater
Heat pads
• Heating – infrared lamps (Piglets inkubator)
• Teeth trimming (needle sharp teeth) - prevention of bitting
udder and others
• Prevention of anaemia
www.fao.org
→ small reserves of Fe
→ problem mainly for indoor piglets
and temperate zones
→ pale - ears and belly, breathe rapidly, diarrhea
→ oral iron supplement (liquid)
→ iron injection
• Tail tip cutting – within first 4 – 7 days – chewing prevention
(infection)
CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF
PIGLETS
• Introduction of creep feeds from 1 week (high protein) – not
accessible to sow
• Motherless piglets – colostrum!, cow or goat milk – warmed
up (37 – 40°C)
• Castration:
→ Surgical without anesthetic
→ Male piglets not for breeding
→ Easier management,
prevents undesirable mating
→ 7 – 10 day before weaning www.pig333.com
MARKING (IDENTIFICATION)
• Variety of tracking and identification systems
• Ear tags – easy-to-read numbered plastic tags; can
be lost
• (Ear) tattoos – tattoo pliers; can be hard to read;
immediately after birth
• Ear notches – cheap, lifelong; v-shaped notches;
ear notching pliers; at 6 weeks of age
• Electronic identification – electronic implants; costly
• EU : - piglets before weaning
- tattoo or ear tag – left side/left ear
- four-digit alphanumeric code

www.daf.qld.gov.au
WEANERS
• Very early weaning: up to 10 days
• Early weaning: 11 - 21 - 28 (- 35) days
→ higher nutrient requirements; increase of sow´s
productivity
• Traditional w.: 8 weeks - weaners should weight 14 – 18 kg;
different sizes of piglets, long reproduction interval
• Taking sow from piglets, not piglets from sow
• Weaning gradual – few hours → whole day → all me
• Deworming of piglets

www.farmersguardian.com
FATTENERS
www.sulit.com.ph

• Pigs raised for meat, lard, bacon

• Groups of pigs of the same age
• Litter mates preferably fattened together
• Feed:
→ wet or dry
→ self-feeders, automatic feeders – dry
→ regular intervals of feeding
→ fed to apetite but not to repletion
• In tropics generally slaughtered at 45 – 65 kg
• In tropics 55 kg pig in 5 months
• x fattening rate depends on inherited ability, feeding, managerial
practices
• Generally: crossbred fatten more rapidly than purebred, hog more
rapidly than gilts

Modern slaughtering
FEEDS AND FEEDING
• Monogastric animals
• Omnivores – all kinds of feed (x much fibre)
• Human feed competitors – use of by-products and waste
• Need to cover nutritional needs:
→ Carbohydrates
→ Fats
Amino acids – lysine !
→ Proteins metionine, tryptofan a
→ Vitamins treonine
→ Minerals
→ Waters
• Comercially prepared feeding rations - imported concentrates
(80% maize and 20% soybean meal)
x
• Local products (highly efficient, more economically attractive)
Lactating sow diet compositipon - example
•40%
According to category Corn, ground
15%
• Age, sex Unhulled rice, ground
• Purpose of breeding
13% Rice bran
• Piglets (before weaning), weaners, gilts, gestating
9% sows, lactating sows, fatteners,
Soybean breeding
meal boars …
10% Groundnut meal
3% Fishmeal
8% Legumes, dried
0.5% Common salt
1.2% Minerals
0.5% Additives (vitamins,
mino acids, probiotics
atd.)
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Probiotics
• Prebiotics
• Enzymes
• Clays
• Herbal extracts
• Acidifiers, sweeteners
• Colorants – synthetic, natural
• Preservatives – antioxidants …
• Zinc oxide
• Antibiotics
• Anthelmintics
• Growth enhancers …
FEEDS: Cereals (high in carbohydrates)
Cereals and cereals products:
• Barley: Australia, parts of Africa and Asia
• Corn: grain + cob
→ should not be fed alone – lysine and tryptophan deficient;
new varieties (higher lysine and other amino acids – Opaque 2)
in W Africa and others
• Oats: not much in tropics, only mountains regions
• Rice and rice products (bran, husk ...): high fibre, lignin, silica;
low amino acids; laxative effect (bran)
• Sorghum
• Millet
• Wheat and wheat bran: Australia, South America
FEEDS: Root crops (high in carbohydrates)
Root crops
• Cassava (Manihot esculenta): roots, leaves; for fat production
(firm fat); SE Asia, Africa, Central and South America; vitamins,
cyanogenic glycosides – boiling or crushing + sun drying; silage
• Potato: mountains, dry tropics
• Sweet potato (Ipomea batatas): vitamins; ↓crude protein, fat
and fibre x ↑carbohydrates; cooked or silage
• Taro (Colocasia sp.): highly digestible, low amounts of the AAs
(histidine, lysine, isoleucine, tryptophan, methionine); cooked
or silage
• Yam (Dioscorea sp.): extensively in West
Africa; deficient in lysine and other
sulfur-containing AAs; cooked or silage
mindydwyer.com
 EEDING Other carbohydrate sources
• Bananas and plantains: fruit, (leaves); ↓ crude proteins; poor
in Ca and P, rich in K; fresh or ensiled; Latin America, SE Asia,
China
- green fruit – ↑ crude fibre, starch, ↓digestibility, tannins;
better cooked
X
- ripe – simple sugar, ↓ fibre; for gestating sows

www.feedipedia.org/ www.suggestkeyword.com
FEEDS: Other carbohydrate sources
Others
• Sugar cane: juice; gestating and lactating sows www.nrcs.usda.gov/

• Cane molasses: improve palatability; ↑ energy, fat and fibre

free; ↑ level in diet - diarrhea
• Citrus molasses: bitter taste
• Sago (sago palm): crude wet or flour
• Sugar: if low price , for piglets

www.flickr.com http://blessingsandbubbles.blogspot.cz/
FEEDING: High protein www.soymeal.org
www.secertarim.com.tr

Feeds containing mainly proteins

• Soya beans (Glycine max ): favourable amino acid composition,
young growing piglets; not raw (trypsin inhibitor) - can affect
digestion and absorption of protein and fat - meal or treated
• Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis ):
tropical legume, anti-nutritional
factors (no more than 5% of the diet); www.suntemplefood.com

Brazil
• Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan ):
nitrogen, crude fibre x trypsin inhibitor;
Asia, Africa, America www.daleysfruit.com.au

• Cow pea (Vigna unguiculata ): www.onlyfoods.net

cooked up to 30% in the diet;

Asia, Africa, America, Europe
ritefmonline.org
FEEDING
• Coconuts: raw kernel or meal (after oil extraction); stimulates
milk production – for lactating sows; 30 % in diet or 40 % +
AAs (lysine, methionine …)
• Cotton seed: meal – toxic substance (gossypol) x proteins
utilization - pigs very sensitive → low level (less than 10 % of
seed in diet)
• Linseed: meal; low level
• Sesame: South America www.abdulsattarsons.net
• Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea): meal; seeds - trypsin inhibitor
- neutralized by heat during oil extraction, lack of lysine, risk
of contamination with Aspergillus mould/fungus (aflatoxins)

www.bonageri.com
FEEDING
• Sunflower seeds: meal; no toxins x high fibre
content and low level of lysine
and threonine www.agrawalimpex.com

balkanseed.com

• Rubber seeds (Hevea brasiliensis): meal; up to 25 % crude

protein, poor in methionine; hydrocyanic acid – heat
treatment; up to 20 % in diet

fairfun.net
www.123rf.com
• Trees and shrubs: anti-nutritional factors,↑ crude fibre
- Leucaena leucocephala –  toxic mimosine – soaking
and/or sun drying; up to 15 % in diet
- Trichantera gigantea –  18% crude protein in dry matter
(leaves) www.flickr.com

www.floradecanarias.com www.feedipedia.org
FEEDING
• Aquatic plants: fresh or ensiled; Philippines,
Bali, Colombia … journal.eriksjodin.net

- Lemna minor and Azolla spp. – high protein content

• Yeast: vitamin B, high level of lysine
- Saccharomyces yeast - alcohol industry
(brewers)
- torula yeast from sugar cane molasses
• Milk and milk by-products: piglets starter www.youtube.com

• Blood meal: South America

• Fish meal: artificially dried or sun-dried (lower protein, higher
oil content, may contain bacteria)
• Meat and bone meals: danger of BSE
 www.moonshineink.com

FEEDING
• African oil palm: palm oil - improve palatability,
palm kernel meal, palm fruit
• Avocado
• Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis): cooked or silage
• Pineapple bran: high fibre science.howstuffworks.com

• Citrus fruit: small quantities

• Papaya: leaves, stem, fruit
• Pumpkin: vitamin B
• Tomato
• …
• Kitchen waste
• Swill (factories, schools …)

www.iwm.org.uk
• Local pig breeds often more resistant to diseases
• Free-range or semi-intensive systems
• Infestation by worms or other parasites
• Intensive systems

78
• Many animals kept together in a small space = quickly spread
• Provide sufficient nutritious food & shelter (rotate & clean
EVERYTHING)
• Vaccination
• Distance from other pig farms
• Biosecurity – foot bath, rodent control, visitors….
• Draft (temperature) and dust-free
• Not overcrowded
Health management: important illnesses
• Humid tropics…up to 50% mortality!
• Parasites
• Worms (kidney), Mange, Coccidiosis, Trichinellosis, Ascariasis
• Bacteria

79
• Brucellosis, Erysipelas, Salmonellosis, Enteric Colibacillosis (E.
coli infection)
• Viruses
• Swine Influenza (flu), Foot and Mouth disease, African swine fever
• Management
• Deworming, hygiene, pest control, vaccinations, spraying for
external parasites, quarantine sick animals & dispose of dead
animals
African Swine Fever
• Asfarviridae family
• warthogs, soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros
 natural hosts, no disease signs
• endemic to sub-Saharan Africa
• 1957, 1960 Portugal  Iberian Peninsula
• second half of the 20th: of European countries, Caribbean islands,
and Brazil
• 2007 Republic of Georgia  Russia and some of its neighbours
• 2014 Baltic States and Poland
• 2018 China
African Swine Fever
• Asfarviridae family
• warthogs, soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros
 natural hosts, no disease signs
• endemic to sub-Saharan Africa
• 1957, 1960 Portugal  Iberian Peninsula
How African
th: ofswine fever spread
• second half of the 20 European countries, Caribbean islands,
from Africa to Europe to Asia
and Brazil from 2005 to 2019
• 2007 Republic of Georgia  Russia and some of its neighbours
• 2014 Baltic States and Poland
• 2018 China
Disruptions in logistics and transportation due to the
coronavirus have slashed China's live hog supply and
pushed up consumer prices drastically.
Clinical Signs:
• High fever 40-42°C (48 hours)
• Loss of appetite
• Depression
• Very unsteady when stood up
• Vomiting and/or diarrhoea with bloody discharge
• Haemorrhages on the skin: ears, belly, lower legs, nose
• blue-purple colour
• Group will huddle together and are usually shivering
• Abnormal breathing
• Heavy discharge from eyes and/or nose
• Comatose state and death within a few days

Clinical presentation
Clinical Signs:
• High fever 40-42°C (48 hours)
• Loss of appetite
• Depression
• Very unsteady when stood up
• Vomiting and/or diarrhoea with bloody discharge
• Haemorrhages on the skin: ears, belly, lower legs, nose
• blue-purple colour
• Group will huddle together and are usually shivering
• No treatment,
Abnormal breathing no vaccination
• Heavy discharge from eyes and/or nose
• Comatose state and death within a few days

Clinical presentation
• Prone to heat stress
• Few functional sweat glands
• Thick subcutaneous adipose tissue layer
• impedes heat loss
 Respiratory route (i.e., panting) for heat dissipation
x relatively small lungs
 Behaviour
• First signs:
• increased respiration rate and loss of appetite
• drink excessive amounts of water
Heat stress reduction: Management tools
• Reduce stocking density.
• Increase ventilation and airflow.
• Maintain drinking water temperature as low as possible (ideal
around 10°C x but difficult to achieve).
• Avoid feeding between 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. (the hottest
period of the day).
• Increase dietary energy density.
• Minimise excess non-essential amino acids and fibre
 minimising intestinal fermentation and therefore heat
production x increase dietary fat

• Genetic opportunities - heat susceptibility appears to be a

heritable trait
Heat stress reduction: Management tools
• Outdoor animals – reduction of solar radiation
• Shade (trees, artificial barriers )
• Indoor - ceiling and attic insulation
• Evaporative cooling pads
• Fogging/Misting
• Direct cooling
• Elevated airspeed – fans, wind
• Wetted skin - sprinklers
• Floor cooling
• circulation of cool water
through the floor the pigs lie on