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Early weaning technique for piglets
With the continuous development of the domestic pig industry, the age of weaning piglets is constantly being advanced. That is, from the general level of the past 28 days weaning, gradually advance to 21 days or even 21 days. The early weaning of piglets can not only shorten the nursing time of sows, increase the reproductive rate of sows and the number of litters produced per year, increase the utilization rate of tillers, reduce the production costs of piglets, but also block the spread of certain infectious diseases. According to a study conducted at the University of Purdue, USA, weaning of 21-day-olds is better than using large amounts of drugs and vaccines to ensure the health of piglets. According to the literature, from the perspective of prevention, weaning within 10 days of age can prevent swine streptococcosis or porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome; weaning can prevent salmonellosis within 12 days of age. Weaning within 14 days prevents pasterellosis and mycoticosis. Weaning at 21 days of age can prevent pseudorabies and actinomycosis. Although the early weaning technique of piglets has special significance in blocking the spread of these diseases, it itself presents a lot of headaches for the operators, such as diarrhea and edema of piglets after weaning. In piglets with diarrhea, their growth is often hindered, and the feed utilization rate is reduced. If diarrhea is severe and cannot be treated promptly and effectively, the piglets will probably become stiff pigs and even cause death. In order to solve the above problems related to weaned piglets, people carry out various aspects such as different weaning ages, developmental characteristics of each stage, and nutritional needs in the aspects of feeding and management methods, feeding equipment, especially feed formulation, selection of feed ingredients, and production techniques. A lot of research and achieved great success. The early weaning methods of piglets and their advantages and disadvantages are described below to provide reference for pig farmers. One-stage feeding method This method is currently commonly used, that is, the same kind of suckling pig feed is used from 7 days of piglets to about 15 kg of body weight, and weaning is performed between 28-35 days of age. The advantage of this method is that the operation is relatively simple, and there is less stress due to frequent refueling. The disadvantage is that it is not possible to take care of different nutritional needs of piglets at each stage, and it is not possible to save costs. For example, if an ordinary corn-soybean meal sucker is used on the market, the so-called weaning syndrome may occur due to failure of nutrition to meet the needs of the weaned pig after weaning. If full use is made of a new type of piglet feed supplemented with nutrients such as plasma proteins, it may affect the economic efficiency of the pig-breeding industry because of the large investment. Two-stage feeding method This method uses piglets with different nutrient content from 7 days of piglets to 15 kg of body weight. About weaning between 21-28 days of age. 1. One week after suckling pigs are born and weaned: The preparation of this stage of the diet will usually use spray-dried plasma protein powder, acid preparations, enzyme preparations, high proportion of added whey powder (lactose), amino acids and fish meal. The vegetal materials such as soybean meal must be processed by using puffing technology. It is mainly based on the following physiological and digestive characteristics of suckling pigs at this stage: 1 Gastrointestinal digestive enzyme deficiency: Newborn piglets themselves can secrete various digestive enzymes that digest breast milk, and the lactase content is high. It can secrete enough lipase and protease to digest the fat and protein contained in breast milk, but the content and activity of other enzymes are very low. In addition, early weaning stress inhibited normal digestive enzyme secretion. Therefore, when selecting raw materials for piglet feeding, the digestibility of the raw material needs special attention. The addition of enzyme preparations will undoubtedly alleviate the lack of enzyme in the piglets at this time. 2 Insufficient acid secretion in the digestive tract: Newborn piglets are imperfect in the development of digestive organs, and the endocrine system is immature, and the content of free hydrochloric acid in gastric juice is very small. However, because breast milk is rich in lactose, it can produce organic acids after fermented by lactic acid bacteria in the stomach, so that the pH value in the digestive tract can be maintained at a low level, so that the digestion and absorption of proteins can be carried out smoothly, and the living bacteria can also be prevented from The environment enters the lower part of the small intestine, thus avoiding the occurrence of diarrhea. However, after weaning, the source of lactose obtained from the mother is interrupted, so acid preparations and higher levels of whey powder or lactose should be added to the diet at this stage. 3 Immunity is low: newborn piglets can acquire maternal antibodies by absorbing immunoglobulin in colostrum and produce passive immunity, but after three weeks of age, maternal antibodies decline. And weaning stress will reduce the level of circulating antibodies and inhibit the ability of cellular immunity. Therefore, to prevent diarrhoea and other diseases from occurring during this period, immune protein-rich plasma protein powders and antibiotics can be added to the diet. 4 Effects of Feed Antigen Substances: Proteins and polysaccharides that contain antigenic active ingredients in the diet may cause allergic reactions in piglets, thereby damaging the intestinal tissues of the piglets. On the one hand, this results in the amount of maltase and lactase. The decline in activity, on the other hand, makes it easy for the pathogenic microorganisms to multiply in the damaged gut, so that the piglet develops nutritive and pathogenic diarrhea. Therefore, in the production of piglet diets during this period, the vegetable protein and other raw materials may be subjected to conditioning treatment by using a bulking process to remove the antigenic substances in the feed. 2. One week after weaning to 15 kg: In this stage, the diet can be appropriately reduced protein and whey powder (lactose) content on the basis of the first stage diet, and at the same time can stop adding expensive plasma protein powder. Early isolation weaning method, which is the standard management model for disease control on farms, requires piglets to be weaned at 7-12 days of age and move the weaned pigs from the sow house to another place to be kept in isolation so as to block the spread of sow pathogens. , It helps to improve the health status and production performance of weaned piglets. Usually the first stage is the body weight of 2.3 - 4.5 kg, and the second stage is 4.5 - 7.0 kg. The rations used in the first and second stages are basically the same as those in the above two-stage feeding method, except that the nutritional requirements are higher. The third stage can be the same as the latter stage of the two-stage breeding method. Although this method is of great significance in disease control, due to its high requirements on pig breeds, breeding techniques, production equipment, and feed nutrient levels, and it is cumbersome to operate, it is more difficult in practical application. In summary, the early weaning of piglets and their accompanying feeding techniques are of great significance in terms of improving production efficiency, controlling disease, and reducing costs. However, due to the specific conditions of each pig farm, it is recommended that pigs be based In the actual situation, choose the appropriate weaning age and feed type to obtain the desired economic benefits.