Swine Production Technologies

Swine Raising Introduction

Hog raising is a very popular enterprise in the Philippines such that there is a proliferation of backyard producers, which dominates the swine industry and a healthy viable commercial sector.

Despite the crises facing the swine industry, still many people are venturing in this enterprise. This manual hopes to bring appropriate technology to the interested farmers and would-be swine producers in order that they may realize profitable production and improve their quality of life.

Kinds of Swine

Landrace

Landrace are white, have short legs and medium to large drooping ears. The sows are noted for their excellence in mothering ability and litter size. They are heavy milkers and produce pigs with superior rate of growth and efficiency in feed utilization. When crossed with other breeds, they produce pigs of highly acceptable carcass quality. They are however, weak on the feet and legs and have problems adapting to rugged conditions. Such defects should be corrected by proper selection and breeding.

Largewhite

Yorkshires are entirely white with medium, erect ears. Sows have superior mothering ability, farrow and wean large litters and are excellent milkers. They adapt well to confinement but not to rugged conditions.

Slaughter animals yield a high dressing percentage, produce fine quality meat and compare favorably with other breeds in growth and economy of grains.

Berkshire

Berkshires are black with six white points – four white feet, some white in the face and tail. The ears are erect and inclined forward as the animal grows older. They are known for their style, meatiness and good adaptability to rugged conditions. They have desirable length in converting feed to weigh gain. The sows are not as prolific as the other breeds.

Hampshire

Hampshire are black with a white belt around the shoulder and body. They are generally short legged and lack body thickness. The sows have a reputation of weaning a high percentage of pigs farrowed and are able to adapt to very rugged conditions. The growth rate, however, has generally been average or below.

Duroc Jersey

The Duroc color is of varying shades of red. The sows are prolific and are good mothers. They produce pigs that are superior in growth rate, feed conversion, and their performance under rugged conditions is better than any of the white breeds.

Pietrain

The Pietrain is a very meaty type of pig with spotted black and white color. It has well-shaped hams, loin and shoulders. Ears are erect. The carcass has a high lean meat percentage, but it has a poor body constitution. Feed efficiency is not really good and they are a little bit slow grower. This breed is also highly susceptible to stress. Thus, Pietrain is only worthwhile in crosses but not as purebreds.

Management Practices

Most gilts of the improved breeds reach the age of puberty at about six to eight months of age but they should not be bred until they are eight months of age or are weighing about 90 to 100 kg.

Swine Housing

Generally, boars should be four to six months old at the time of selection. Whatever systems of operation, hog houses must be constructed properly to ensure maximum performance of the pigs. A good hog house may not improve the health conditions of the animals but a poor one will certainly increase disease problem easily.

Selection Criteria

When selecting breeder sows on the basis of physical appearance, consider the following:

• The gilt should have well developed udder with a minimum of six pairs of properly spaced function teats. A sow with poor udder development is likely to have a poor milking capacity;
• Choose those which do not have inverted teats such teats are inherited and do not secrete milk;
• A long body is more desirably in sows because it provides more space for udder development;
• The body should have a uniform width from front to rear;
• Good development of the ham. Loin and shoulder is required of a breeding animal;
• Must have a sound and well placed feet and legs. Animals with medium short feet and short upright pasterns are preferable;
• Make it a point to select the biggest animals within a litter;
• Female breeders should come from a litter of eight or more good-sized piglets with high survivability;
• Do not keep the gilts that come from sows in which agalactia (failure to secrete milk) have been observed;
• Select vigorous and hardy pigs from a healthy litter in a herd raised under good swine sanitation. Do not keep gilts or boars from litters that have physical abnormalities. This may be inherited

Most of the factors discussed in connection with a selection of gilt or sow also apply in the selection of a boar. However the following pointers should also be considered:

• Masculinity, both in appearance and action, should predominate in the make-up of any boar;
• The primary sex organs should be clearly visible and be well-developed. Select only those boars whose testicles are of equal size;
• Select however, the best is to select a boar which has been proven and tested for boars with traits that can overcome the defects of the herd. Minor defects in the boar may be ignored provided that they are not presenting among the sows;

Feeds and Feeding Practices

• If the milk supply of the sow is inadequate to feed her piglets, supplement her with a good creep ration. Use a milk replacer. Choose many available brands.
• Begin feeding a commercial good pre-starter ration when the pigs are about one week of age.
• The ration of the pigs should be changed at different stages of growth but the shift from one ration to another should be done gradually in order not to upset the normal feeding behavior of the pigs. Always allow a transition period of at least one week before making changes.

Care and Health Practices

Common Diseases and Parasites

Hog Cholera or Swine Fever

Pigs gets contaminated through direct contact or by eating uncooked slops or kitchen scraps containing the virus

Signs

• Fever, loss of appetite
• Increased thirst, chills and sometimes vomiting
• Constipation, later followed by diarrhea
• Inflammation of the eye (conjunctivitis) thick discharges causing eyelids to stick together
• Reddish, purple discoloration of skin at ears, abdomen, inner thighs or tai
• Death ensues 4-7 days after onset of signs
• Prolonged duration of illness (chronic form) terminates in pneumonia or hemorrhagic enteritis, or both

Prevention and Control

• Vaccinate all pigs against the disease using a reliable vaccine, weaning at one week before or after weaning; sows and boars, every six months
• Dispose all pigs known to have the disease. Disinfect contaminated pens and premises properly
• Avoid giving uncooked slops or kitchen scraps to pigs which are common sources of infection

Swine Dysentery

Signs

• Loss of appetite
• Fever
• Rough coat and weakness
• Watery feces flecked with mucus or blood

Prevention and Treatment

• Antibiotics in feed for two weeks when disease is prevalent
• Quarantine new arrivals for a week and feed high level antibiotics

Pneumonia-disease Complex

Signs

• Coughing
• Eye and nasal discharge
• Difficult breathing (abdominal nature)
• Chilling
• Muscular cramps
• Sneezing

Pneumonia symptoms are associated with the following conditions:

• Swine Plague – usually a complication of swine flu
• Enzootic Pneumonia – impaired growth and feed conversion rates for long time with frequent attacks of persistent dry cough
• Swine Flu – exposure to stress, particularly cold and inclement weather; poor drafty environment also favors chilling of susceptible pigs
• Athorpic Rhinitis – lateral distortion of nose, excessive sneezing of even week-old piglets

Prevention

• Improve management and emphasize dry, clean, draft-free and well-ventilated housing
• Avoid overcrowding, as most respiratory disease are transmitted by inhalation of infected air particles
• Provide plenty of clean, fresh water, nutritious feed and vitamin-antibiotic feed supplement

Treatment

• There is no specific treatment for swine flu, swine plague and enzootic pneumonia. However, antibiotics like tetracyclines and sulfas may be of benefit. Respiratory stimulants and antiseptics as well as good nursing care speed up recovery
• For Athropic Rhinitis, the following therapeutic approach is recommended

• ? ? Sulfamethazine in feeds
• ? ? Sulfathiazole in water – 1/3 to ½ gram per gallon.

Marketing

Marketing is the last job done on growing finishing pigs. Hogs are marketed when they reach at least 80 kg.

Marketable hogs may be sold to middleman who usually act as buying or selling agents, direct to meat processors without the intervention of a middleman, or in auction markets where the animals are sold to the buyers who offers the highest acceptable price per kilo live-weight or per head.

When a large number of hogs are to be marketed the producer must observe proper shipment and transport handling to minimize losses due to shrinkage, bruises, injuries and possible deaths. Here are some tips:

• When transporting hogs, separate the large animals from small pigs by partition
• Provide loading facilities for easier and proper loading of pigs
• If necessary provide beddings of sand or saw dust. When the weather is hot wet down the beddings before loading to keep the pigs cool and comfortable
• Do not overload nor underload the truck
• Do not excite or over heat hogs. Give the hogs enough rest and leave them undisturbed until they are butchered
• Do nor overfeed hogs before transport to avoid suffocation or vomiting.

Technology Options:

Artificial Insemination in Pigs

A very cheap and practical way to carry out genetic improvement is through the use of artificial insemination (AI). The strength of AI is generally dependent on the genetic superiority of the boar and the possibility of spreading its qualities to more females to produce offsprings of better genetic quality.

The swine AI technology includes boar selection and evaluation; semen collection, evaluation, processing and storage; estrus detection; procedure of insemination; and breeding performance evaluation.

By using AI, one ejaculate can be used to breed 10 sows on the average compared to only one when natural mating is practiced. Other advantages of AI in pigs are the following:

The gilt should have well developed udder with a minimum of six pairs of properly spaced function teats. A sow with poor udder development is likely to have a poor milking capacity;

• minimizes if not totally control the spread of reproductive diseases;
• allows the use of physically handicapped or crippled, yet genetically superior boars that cannot normally perform natural mating;
• avoids possible injuries on either the boar or the sow/gilt that may happen during mating;
• infertile boars are immediately detected;
• allows breeding of females from distant places with less transport costs and inconvenience, and without causing travel-related stress on the boar;
• allows small-scale raisers to keep a few sows without maintaining a boar;
• eliminates the problem of mating boars and sows of different sizes;
• increases the number of sows bred by a boar and the possibility of extending the boars’ productive life; and
• reduces breeding cost.

Pork Research and Technology

DA launches “Pork in a Box”

To increase accessibility and reduce price of hog products in the market the Agriculture Department launches recently the “Pork in a Box” program.

A pork post production system, this “Pork in a Box” project hopes to ensure safety, economy, efficiency and environmental soundness in all aspects of the pork supply chain.

According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap,under this program, instead of transporting live hogs, these will be processed in the point of origin in the Visayas and Mindanao and only carcass and cut products will be transported directly to markets in Metro Manila.

Aside from minimizing transport costs, the program provides access to ready market, and will reduce layers of middlemen that result in add-on-costs in the marketing of hog products.

Aside from cutting post production losses and transport costs, Yap said the program can reduce risk of disease transmission, improve meat quality and safety of pork and pork products

References:

Vitarich Corporation, Mga Gabay sa Pag-aalaga ng Baboy, brochure January 2005.