Written by Dr. Wesley Lyons, Pharmacosmos Inc.
One of my first mentors in the swine veterinary profession ingrained me that pigs need four things to thrive: feed, water, air, and comfort. To this day, I carry that mantra with me through every group of pigs and barn that I walk through. Pig health and growth beyond weaning rely on this four-legged stool. If any one of those four key areas is missing, the balance is thrown off, and the pigs will not grow optimally. Another key mantra that this same mentor taught me was that when dealing with pigs, a belt and suspenders approach is ideal. What he meant by this was that pigs don’t always read the rule book. Having a second layer of insurance, whether that be in biosecurity, barn alarms/alerts, or health protocols is the ideal risk management approach. The industry continues to evolve and adopt new technologies and protocols to achieve this belt and suspenders approach.
One main difference I can see from my 15 years of experience is wean age. I can distinctly remember those 8–10-pound, 18 day old wean pigs from my first summers as a veterinary student. We have come so far as an industry in learning that, while it’s sometimes necessary to wean them due to health at the sow farm, those young and lightweight pigs need more time with the sow. As the industry settled on a 21-24 day wean age and modern genetics and nutrition push those pigs to 16+ pounds, the requirements for those pigs to excel beyond weaning have also increased.
A recently completed research trial at the University of Georgia reconfirmed previous research that showed baby pigs need between 37 and 68mg of iron per kilogram of gain. If we assume the average is ideal for the average pig, that’s 52.5mg of iron per kilogram of weight gain prior to weaning. A 16 pound wean pig, therefore, needed around 380mg of iron for optimal growth to that point. In many farms in the US, that baby pig likely only received 200mg of iron. That 200mg standard of care was set in the 1950’s and hasn’t changed since. In essence, we’re putting a belt on that pig that now has much larger pants to fill.
Taking a belt and suspenders approach to ensure the pigs have all the resources they need to thrive once they hit the nursery barn demands a thorough review of iron dosing at the sow farm level. If baby pigs are weaning at 21 days or greater and over 12 pounds on average, they need more than a standard 200mg of iron. Optimal dosing protocols can look different for every farm. A dose of Uniferon for treatment of iron deficiency anemia and a dose for the prevention of iron deficiency anemia is the belt and suspenders approach these baby pigs need.
The Uniferon team at Pharmacosmos continues to perform 3rd party research with universities and customers proving the need for increased iron dosing in larger, older wean pigs. Uniferon 200mg/ml is labeled for the treatment and prevention of iron deficiency anemia in baby pigs. If any producers would like a thorough review of their iron dosing program on farm, please reach out to the Uniferon team.
