CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF PIGLETS FROM BIRTH TO WEANING
Piglets begin to explore his environment within a few minutes after birth and soon
find his way to nipple and begin to suckle. Because of his curiosity, it is essential that the
pen environment should be clean to minimize chance of exposure to disease and parasite.
Normally individual piglets identify themselves with a particular teat during the first few
days of life and jealously protect their access to it. The teat order will be set within 10 days.
But in small litter it is common for a piglet to claim more than one nipple. On the other hand
in larger litters, the weakest pig may starve because they cannot compete for a nipple.
The normal nursing behavior pattern is for a uniform time interval between each
feeding over a 24 hours period. The average nursing interval is less than 1 hour so that
suckling piglets receives more than 24 feeding daily, each feeding consist of only few
minutes and it decreases when lactation advances.
1. Clean all the piglets and make their body dry.
2. Allow piglet to suckle milk from mother sow for 8-10 Times in days.
3. To prevent ‘naval ill’ the naval card should be tied off to prevent loss of blood and it
should be cut 3-5 cm distal to the legation and this portion should be dipped in a solution
of 2% iodine or 70% ethyl alcohol.
4. The ‘needle teeth’ should be clipped. The baby piglets have four pair of sharp teeth tow
on each jaw called needle teeth or wolf teeth. They are of no practical value to the pigs
themselves and they may irritate the sow’s udder during nursing and cause injury to other
piglets while fighting or playing. Therefore it is advisable to clip these needle teeth
shortly after birth [with in 10 days]. Side cutting pliers are suitable for this purpose. It is
important to avoid loosening of the base of the tooth or leaving jagged edges or causing
injury to gum.
5. The piglets should be ear-tattooed immediately after birth and the same animal ear
punched/ ear notch at 6 weeks of age.
6. Male piglets not required for breeding are generally castrated as this operation generally
facilitates easy of management and prevent indiscriminate breeding. This operation
should be done after 3 – 4 weeks of birth. This allows the piglets to recover from the
castration check [growth retardation] before it receives a weaning check.
7. Cutting of ta.ils is advisable whenever pigs are to be raised in total confinement. This can
be done at the time of needle teeth clipping using side cutting pliers.
8. Tramping of piglets by sow should be preventing during first two weeks.
9. Creep area provide to piglets for protected from crushing , overlying by sow and separate
creep ration.
10. Creep feeding – concentrate feeding start 2-3 weeks its are separate from mother.
11. Feeding of piglets
Age (Days) Feeding
0-7 Mother milk= 1- 2 liter milk, 8-10 times a day
7-21 Pre starter ration protein 24 %, Mother milk
21- 35 Ration protein 18 % , 0.5 Kg, Mother milk
35- 56 ration protein 16 %, 1 kg , Mother milk
DCP= 20 %
12. Protect the piglets against extreme weather conditions
13. Weaning at age 56 days / 2 months
14. Orphan Pigs: The ‘orphan pig’ results when the sow dies after farrowing, mastitis,
lactation failure or litter larger than the sow is able to rise.
Two possibilities are there to raise ‘orphan pigs’ [1] adaptation by a foster sow
[2] raising by cow milk or sow milk replacer
First the piglets should receive colostrum before ‘gut closure’ cow colostrum
apparently provides some immunity. If some other sow farrowed during the same period
their colostrum can also be used.
Adaptation by a foster sow: if another sow has farrowed within a short period
before or after birth of the orphaned litter, the piglets may be transferred to her. This
transfer must be done within few days after farrowing because those mammary glands
that are not used soon stops their milk production. To insure acceptance of new pigs, the
sow should be separated from her own litter while the new pigs are combined, and a
disinfectant or other odorous materials should be sprinkled on all the pigs to disguise
odour
Raising by cow milk or sow milk replacer: Pigs raised on cow milk or sow
milk replacer have a strong suckling instinct and will suckle the ear and naval of other
pigs when kept together causing unrest that drains their strength. This can be avoided by
housing them individually for the first two weeks.
• Feeding should be as frequent as possible to stimulate normal nursing pattern [ feeding
once in every hours for few minutes]
• The first feeding should be given during the first 12 hours if possible
• The piglets should be trained to drink from shallow bowl. It can be done by pushing
their snout into the milk. After one or tow feeding they learn to consume milk quickly
from the bowl
Diet composition of a sow milk replacer
Constituent composition
Casein 44.3
Glucose 44.1
Lard 33.00
Soya lecithin 2.00
Vitamin and mineral 10.60
Water To one liter
A readily available sow milk replacer is one egg thoroughly mixed in 1 lit of cow milk
with 1/8 teaspoon full of ferrous sulfate
PIGLET MORTALITY
The major task in pig husbandry is avoiding piglet mortality and raising piglets
successfully up to weaning. After weaning the mortality is comparatively less
Still birth
Still birth may be due to
1. Death before start of parturition (pre-partum death)
2. Dying during parturition (intra-partum death)
Pre-partum death may be due to deficiency of iron, which can be prevented by
injection of sow with iron. Intrapartum death is due to anoxia induced by lack of placental
blood flow associated with uterine contraction or premature rupture of umbilical card. This
intra-partum death occurs mostly in aged sows.
Pre-weaning mortality
The pre-weaning mortality ranges between 12-30%. As for as lowest mortality of 11% is
equivalent to the loss of approximately 250 piglets in a year in a 100 sow herd. Over 50% of
losses of live born piglets occur with in first 2-3 days of life.
Causes of mortality
Sl. No Reasons %
1 Still birth 17.4
2 Eaten by the sow 0.50
3 Genetic defect 1.60
4 Over laid (crushing by mother) 66.30
5 Enteritis 2.20
6 Pneumonia 0.50
7 Unknown 11.50
Congenital abnormality
Congenital abnormality accounts for 5% of losses. The most common cause of death in
the category are atresia ani, congenital splay leg and cardiac abnormality
Disease
Disease condition accounts for 6% of mortality. Disease condition such as agalactia in
sow, sour in piglets are responsible for loss. Maintenance of high level of hygiene, proper
selection of replacement stock, arrangement for feeding of adequate colostrum, proper
vaccination and proper therapeutic measures can avoid this risk.
Starvation and overlying by the pig
70% of death is due to starvation and overlying by the sow, which can be avoided by
1. Improving birth weight and vigor of newborn piglets
Higher plan of nutrition during pregnancy ensures better birth weight. Piglets with higher
birth weight have higher glycogen reserve, which is the source of energy, which the piglet can
utilize most effectively, in early life.
2. Minimizing risk of chilling or hypothermia
The normal deep body temperature of the pig is 39 C, the lower critical temperature is
34 C. When the new born piglet exposed to cold condition, it has to mobilize its limited
glycogen reserve to maintain body temperature. As a result it is less competitive at the udder
and is more likely to suffer from starvation and or by over lying by the mother. At the same
time higher temperature of the farrowing pen may affect the sow’s appetite and there by weight
loss and lower milk yield of sow. To avoid such dual problem localized comfort environment
can be provided to the piglets in the form of infra red lambs and adequate dry bedding in a
localized area for piglets. The litter materials will provide 8 C more temperature to the piglets
which is an cost effective measure.
Similarly new born piglets during their first 24-48 hours prefer to lye close to the sow’s
udder. Only older piglets use the creep area or localized heat source. During this period sow
prefer to lye close to the heat source showing their udder or back. Heat source can be kept on
either side of the sow’s udder and back.
3. Improving the chance of adequate and regular nutrition
When the litter size is large, the stronger piglets may get more colostrum and milk than weaker
one. The stronger suckling stimuli induce secretion of more milk hence the litter can be divided
in to 6-7 as a sub group so that all the piglets can be ensured with sufficient colostrum.
4. Minimizing agalactia
It is a part of complex condition of MMA (M= mastitis, M= metritis & A=agalactia).
The MMA syndrome can involve metabolic, bacterial and hormonal factor with stress plays a
part. Since its main effect is loss of milk in the first three days after farrowing, the condition
contributes to piglet loss from starvation.
Reason and control of MMA
1. Elevated temperature of sow is associated with this condition, hence regular monitoring of
sows rectal temperature and treatment with antibiotic and oxytocin is essential to avoid this
condition. Such conditions which are not detected earlier, it can be noticed by loss of body
condition of piglets and it is very difficult to recover the condition quickly. In refractory
case prompt provision of an alternative source of food for piglet by foster sow or artificial
feeding will minimize the loss
2. Heat stress to sow due to artificial brooding of piglets may be another reason. Cooler
condition to the mother is likely to give benefit.
3. The udder and teat of sow should be dry and kept hygiene to avoid such problem
5. Using farrowing equipments
Crushing by sow can also be prevented by providing suitable farrowing equipment or
making necessary fittings inside the farrowing pen like guard rails can minimize this. (Guard
rails are thick iron rails fixed 12” above floor and 12” from the wall. This provides space for
the piglets to escape at the time of accidental crushing. Mortality due to over laying is usually
lower during first and second litters and culling of those animals is an uneconomical practice
and more rational practice is providing properly designed farrowing pen.
Piglet anemia
It is highly fatal disease of suckling pigs caused by a marked decrease in hemoglobin and
fatty degeneration of the liver.
The newborn piglet has only limited reserve of iron in the liver for hemoglobin synthesis.
This is due to poor placental transfer of iron to foetus. The newborn piglets contain only about
50 mg of iron stored mainly in liver and their daily need is about 5 to 10 mg. The sow milk is
very low in iron and the suckling pig should be supplemented with iron during first few days to
prevent piglet anaemia. Fresh clean soil is one of the sources for iron but indoor rearing under
concrete flooring prevents the piglets access to fresh soil.
Cause – lack of iron and copper salts in milk of sow, On concentrate floor
and limited milk diet from sow
Symptom of piglet anaemia
a. Pale in the region of ears and belly
b. Listlessness
c. Rapid breathing
d. Often exhibit diarrhea
Piglet anaemia can be controlled by
1. Placing fresh, clean earth in the piglets pen each day
2. Using soil drenched with a solution made from 500 gm ferrous sulphate, 75 gm copper
sulphate and 3 litter of water
3. Daily administration of 4 ml of 1.8 percent ferrous sulphate solution
4. The daily painting of the mother’s udder with ferrous sulphate solution and sugar [0.5 kg
of ferrous sulphate in 10 liter of water]
5. All these methods are labour intensive and the safest and easiest method of combating
piglet anaemia is to inject the piglet with 100-150 mg of iron in the form of iron
dextron 3 days after birth. If necessary a second and slightly smaller injection can be
made some 3 weeks later
