After farrowing and care of newborn piglets, the next important juncture is weaning. If the process goes smoothly, it can cut days to market and add pounds of pork so it’s important to control what you can. These of those factors are feed intake, feed quality and weaning age.
Feed Intake Critical
Pigs that are used to eating creep feed before they’re weaned have an advantage over those that haven’t, according to research.
Frédéric Vangroenweghe with Elanco Animal Health in Brussels, Belgium and other researchers looked at piglet feed intake during the end of the lactation period and how it impacted post-weaning diarrhea incidence and survival rate.
“Post-weaning diarrhea (PWD), also called post-weaning (pw) enteric colibacillosis, in pigs remains a major cause of economic losses for the pig industry,” he said in a presentation at the 2017 American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting. “PWD typically causes mild to severe watery diarrhea between five and 10 days after weaning and is caused primarily by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC).
“Besides the presence of the pathogenic bacteria, other influencing factors can impact the pathogenesis of the disease, such as feed intake before and after weaning.”
