Postweaning diarrhea is a frustrating disease. Not only is it costly to the pig and producer, but often the reason why it’s happening is unclear, says Adam Schelkopf, a veterinarian with Pipestone.
“Sometimes we’re left in a state of confusion because piglet diarrhea can happen very quickly,” he says. “We may not know which stressor is causing the challenge at the point when a pig or a group of pigs breaks with something.”
Every day, a myriad of things can go wrong in a swine operation. That’s why being extremely cognizant of all the little details matters.
“Pigs that get off to a strong start will finish strong,” says Corey Carpenter, a nutritionist with DPI Global. “The nursery is where we set up the performance path the pig is going to take for the remainder of the growing and finishing phase. A good start reduces the need for medical interventions and improves animal well-being.”
As producers continue to see an uptick in postweaning diarrhea, investing in the functionality of the pig’s gastrointestinal tract and helping mitigate stressors is more important than ever before.
“If we don’t invest in the functionality of the gastrointestinal tract and help mitigate the physical stress that pig experiences during this transition, it creates a strain on that animal and can cause it to deviate further from its genetic potential for performance,” explains Brooke Smith, veterinary nutrition lead for the Cargill Animal Nutrition North American Pork Technical Service Team.
Health and nutrition work hand in hand to achieve this developmental goal. She says it starts by matching the right nutrition program to the right age of the animal, taking into account their current health status and emphasizing diets that promote functional gastrointestinal tract development from an early age.
Start Pigs Off Right
Many studies provide evidence to show healthier animals are more productive. When producers prioritize strong health and feeding plans, Carpenter says it provides the best opportunity for pigs to reach their greatest growth potential and economic return.
Before bringing pigs into the barn or finalizing diets, take time to prepare your barn physically for new pigs. Is your barn sanitized? Are you setting up that pig for a good start by making sure the barn is completely cleaned, disinfected and dried? Once the barn is ready, make sure feeders are managed properly and waterers are working right.
Pay attention to the fundamentals, Schelkopf says. Good quality water, feed and feed ingredients are a must. In addition, make sure you have fresh feed — not moldy, wet or sour feed. Manage feeder settings to avoid wet pockets of feed.
“A goal with early wean pig nutrition is to prepare them for a simple, less expensive diet in grow finish,” Carpenter says. “Maximize feed intake as quickly as possible after weaning as this has direct impacts on subsequent performance and health.”
He recommends using lactose and highly digestible specialty protein sources and gradually removing those high-cost ingredients on a phase-to-phase basis. Carpenter reminds producers to justify specialty ingredient investments without expectation of improved grow-finish performance.
“Get eyes on pigs more frequently in the first several days following placement in the nursery,” Carpenter advises. “This time is critical to identify fallbacks and pigs that may need some type of intervention. Pay particular attention during ration changes from one phase to the next and look for signs that pigs may need additional care and support.”
Carefully observing pig feed intake relative to changes in management, shifts in weather conditions, health protocols, etc., and planning accordingly is essential. Although many of these factors are out of a producer’s control, it’s good to have a plan on how to manage expectations from there.
Make Transitions Less Stressful
Schelkopf says multiple changes all at once can affect intestinal systems.
“How we avoid stacking stressors is very important,” he says. “If we’re finding vaccination or treatment events are compounded by ration changes, environment changes or changes to a pig’s health status, from a macro standpoint those compounding stressors will exacerbate enteric challenges.”
That’s easier said than done, especially in the Midwest where producers are faced with a tremendous variability in seasonality.
“This has a big impact on how we manage ventilation systems in our barns and how we guard against insults. Whether it’s drafting, cold air, high humidity or high temperature, all can vary between day to night, day to day or week to week. Some of those things are out of our control, but how we adapt to the seasonality the Midwest can cause certainly requires careful thought,” he says.
When transitioning wean pigs, Smith encourages producers to avoid mistakes such as mixing multiple pig sources on a single site, prolonging facility fill times, missing opportunities to help encourage early feed intake through mat feeding, grueling or adequate sorting at placement and delaying medical treatment when necessary.
Avoid large increases in protein between phases (particularly soybean meal), she adds. Leverage further processed or more highly digestible protein sources in early pig diet transitions to help gradually change levels of other less digestible protein ingredients.
“Make sure the diets are formulated appropriately to match the physical age of the animal,” Smith says. “It does not hurt a pig to remain on a diet designed for a younger pig for longer, but it can hurt the pig’s productivity and health if they are transitioned on to diets designed for older pigs too soon.”
If farms encounter specific, predictable health challenges around dietary transitions such as E. coli near an N2/N3 diet phase change, she suggests lengthening the feed budgets of the younger diets to extend the feeding of the more GI-friendly rations through the period of anticipated challenge.
In addition, Carpenter says the use of water-soluble technologies added to drinking water can be helpful in aiding pigs in transitioning from one diet to the next.
“These technologies can be highly impactful, relatively inexpensive and the ability to use them on a barn-to-barn basis makes them a unique tool to target specific challenges in a system,” Carpenter explains. “These technologies may be all-natural plant extracts, vitamins, electrolytes or minerals. It is important to discuss the use of these technologies with both your veterinarian and your nutritionist before implementing.”
At the end of the day, Schelkopf says it’s important to communicate with your veterinarian and nutritionist to minimize the changes between nutritional steps to ease these transitions.
“If you have a disconnect between nutrition and health, then it’s hard to get the right strategy employed,” Schelkopf adds. “Work together to recognize the sensitivities of the pig that may be apparent, the different interventions by both of those teams and when that’s happening, and how you can manage together to create the low-stress environment that pig needs to get through a high-stress period.”
Invest in Execution
It’s time the industry focused more on why stressors occur, Schelkopf says.
“We need to talk about all of the things on the table that can contribute and break down those barriers, never to point fingers, but to put forth a collaborative effort,” he says. “It’s a frustrating situation when you have postweaning diarrhea that can lead to higher mortality and higher morbidity events. We all have a common goal of reducing that. Putting all the things on the table and trying to make adjustments in a number of different facets is very important.”
Timely response is critical. Some of the signs of diarrhea or early diarrhea outbreaks can happen very quickly, Schelkopf says. A responsive team of caretakers is the front-line force to recognize when problems are starting.
“We need to realize how important the husbandry skills of the team that’s taking care of those pigs or the farm are,” Schelkopf says. “Prepare and train them ahead of time to manage all those little details. Because as we know, things can be going well, and that’s when it is easy to overlook some of the little details. We must emphasize to our teams the importance of minimizing stressors and putting together the right environment for that group of pigs to succeed.”
It’s hard to never let up, but that’s what it takes to manage barns well. Poor execution of good feeding and management plans will add unnecessary cost and reduce resources efficiency, Carpenter adds.
“In my experience, producers have a pretty good handle on procedures that account for most of the success in transitioning weaned pigs effectively,” Carpenter says. “It generally comes down to how well these procedures are executed and if changes in disease status occur that are disruptive to these procedures.”
Your Next Read: When Pre-Weaning Diarrhea Strikes: 3 Things You Can Do to Slow it Down
