Pork Pantry
Our consumer pages answer all your questions about
pork. Also try our mouth-watering recipes..
SAPPO
About SAPPO
Contact us
Latest news
History
Objectives
Mission and vision
Structure
Why should I join?
Functions
Communication
Promotions
Serological tests
Residue tests
Research
MH gene
Market information
Provincial
organisations
KwaZulu Natal PPO
Western Cape PPA
Free State PPA
Premier
Pork Producers
Pig Study
groups
Limpopo PSG
Magaliesburg PSG
Northern Free State PSG
North West PSG
Gauteng PSG
Other role
players
Pig Vet Society
Pig Breeders' Society
ARC-AII
Meet our input suppliers
Modern weaner housing and management to maximise production
By Dr Pieter Vervoort, Charles Street Veterinary Consultancy
What’s old/What’s new?
Every once in a while a pig producer needs to look at what systems and technologies are being adopted by the industry. Looking at weaners we have seen considerable changes to the housing and management in the last decade or so. If we take a quick look at what is now considered old technology we come up with the following:
Old
• Microclimates — kennels etc.
• No climate control — pigs are subjected to large fluctuation of the environment.
• Simple diets — mainly consisting of milled maize, fishmeal and soya.
• Little control — pigs were housed, fed and watered and expected to perform.
• Hand feeding — simple feed hoppers, filled by hand, were used.
• Litter groups — pigs were housed in litter groups to limit stress.
• Four to five week weaning
• 24 day weaning — continuous-flow systems allowed for 23 to 26 day weaning but with large variations in age.
• Multi age/continuous flow — pigs in weaner houses were housed in pens per age but often different ages were housed in one air-space.
• Antibiotic medication — antibiotics were the norm and were mixed in the feed to prevent “problems” — mainly E. coli related diseases.
Newer technologies were adopted by farmers seeking improved performance of their weaned pigs; more cost efficient production and performance with less variation. The newer technologies adopted were:
New
• Climate control — environment controlled buildings are adopted where temperature and ventilation control is computer driven.
• Automated feeding — this form of feeding minimises waste and is usually used in combination with sophisticated feed dispensing systems.
• Complex diets — a range of more complex ingredients are used to achieve:
- Low Feed Conversion Rate
- High Average Daily Gain
Ingredients include milk or milk-derived products, more refined soya products as well as flavourants, probiotics and organic acids.
• Big groups — are used to facilitate ease of management and lower cost of housing.
• Wean/finish housing — adopted mainly in the USA to decrease costs of moving and cleaning, but also improved productivity due to lowered stress of eliminating relocation of pigs to new buildings.
• (Two) three or four week weaning — strict weaning at 14; 21 or 28 days comes about with strict All-In-All-Out (AIAO) systems.
• AIAO — of the farrowing rooms and weaner housing makes management easier, improves health, but also makes it possible to feed correct diets to each age and weight of pig. It facilitates accurate recording of feed consumed, gain of pigs and more importantly cost of gain.
• Low antibiotic usage — improved conditions lead to lower antibiotic requirements to maintain performance of pigs.
These points have led to great improvements in performance of pigs in the post-weaning period. Heavier, healthier pigs give improved performance in the grower phase following on from this weaner phase.
It is imperative that we look at what to expect in the near future so that we may determine the systems we should adopt to remain relevant for the foreseeable future.
“Newer”
• Less expensive diets — as milk products and high quality protein products become less available and more expensive, the move will be to feed pigs with products and byproducts that do not compete with humans as a source of food. This will necessitate not only revised strategies of feed formulation and feeding but also ways to adapt the pig to make use of these less concentrated feed ingredients.
• “Slower” (initial) growth — maximum growth with low feed conversion strategies will have to change to cost-efficient strategies with a possible deterioration of ADG and FCR. Some trials are now showing that this initial slightly poorer performance has little effect on final marketing weights but positive effects on cost of production.
• Smaller groups — there seems to be a new move to housing pigs in smaller groups of ten to 20 piglets with solid partitioning between pens. This is driven mostly by the possible increase in disease transmission between pigs in larger groups. This trend may continue if diseases affecting pigs are not adequately controlled, or if new diseases develop. Total elimination of disease-causing organisms from a population or good control of these pathogens by vaccination or other means would reverse the trend to larger more easily managed groups.
• Less age (weight) variation — variation is one of the biggest problems facing modern pig farming. This makes it difficult to correctly feed each piglet and increases competition between penmates. Marketing of uniform pigs and achieving maximum profitability of each pig sold becomes very difficult and so decreases the profitability of the entire system.
• Less energy dependent systems — energy is set to remain a scarce (and therefore expensive) resource for modern pig farms. Waste of heating, electrical and feed energy will have to be addressed at each level of the enterprise, this is especially so in the high temperature demand weaning phase. Waste energy will also need to be recovered from the system by means of heat exchange, energy utilisation in waste material or other means.
• Four week weaning — the return to four week weaning (from three week weaning systems or 14 day weaning) may become a trend as feed ingredients for early weaned pigs become less available. Three week weaning will probably be viable where sows can produce adequate milk to wean piglets heavy enough to utilise less nutritious weaning diets.
• AIAO per site — AIAO will become even more important to control diseases but farms will have to produce large enough numbers of pigs with little variation to fill entire buildings at one time. The trend of the poultry industry to populate entire sites (or farms) on an AIAO basis will be a challenge some in the pig industry will take up. The advantages are self explanatory, but new production systems (batch farrowing) or very large sow farms will be required to supply these systems.
• Enzymes/acids etc — the trend to add enzymes, acids, bacterial or yeast cultures or byproducts will continue as a means of reducing the reliance on antibiotics and chemical substances. Pre-digestion of many feedstuffs will become a reality as less biologically available feed ingredients are used in diets to feed pigs.
Maximising production
The question still remains, and will become more pertinent, if we need to maximise production or if we would like to maximise profit. The answer given by most would be to maximise profit; why then the tendency to maximise production? The answer is fairly simple in that to maximise profit we need to know more about the actual financial implications of any decision. It is far easier to measure physical characteristics like weight gain than to try different strategies and ascertain which is the most profitable. This is only possible where all inputs of an entire system are compare to another system and many repetitions are taken into account. AIAO systems are a prerequisite for this.
Figure1 Scenario 1 Scenario 2
FCR
1.6
1.65
Mass @ 42 days 13kg
11.5kg
Mass @ 70 days 31kg
30kg
Feed cost/ton R 3940
R 3556
Feed cost/kg
R 6.30
R 5.87
Feed cost/pig
R 144.90 R 129.14
Difference -R15.76
Would the difference in 70 day mass and the cost difference be adequately compensated for at market weight?
Goals
What are our goals (targets) then for a modern weaner facility?
• FCR
- 1.55 - 1.70
• ADG
- 500g+ per day
• Cost per kg
- Cheaper than grower phase
The above three goals would adequately cover the current situation, but could be outdated in the next few years. The goal should be far simpler (but far more complex to achieve); that the weaner phase should perform at a level where it's contribution to the total cost of production is the smallest contribution possible to the total cost of production of the marketable carcass, without adversely affecting any other phase of the entire system.
Erysipelas in pigs at slaughter
By Dr Edgar Ortmann, Howick Veterinary Clinic
Erysipelas is a peracute, acute, subacute or chronic infectious disease of pigs caused by Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae. The peracute or acute forms manifest as an often fatal septicaemia.
The common name “Diamond Skin Disease” is derived from the subacute form, which is characterised by large, roughly diamond-shaped, slightly raised, well-demarcated, purplish-red patches on the skin. Pigs suffering from the chronic form of the disease are usually unthrifty and may have vegetative valvular endocarditis and/or chronic polyarthritis.
In pigs, erysipelas can result in reduced production due to mortality, unthriftiness and increased condemnations at slaughter.
Erysipelas can occur in pigs kept under a variety of conditions and, unlike most of the currently important diseases of pigs, is not associated with intensification of production. Sporadic outbreaks in pigs occur periodically in South Africa.
Other susceptible species are humans, cattle, sheep, horses, white mice, pigeons, turkeys and several other species of birds, but the disease is probably only important in pigs, sheep and turkeys.
Pigs of all ages may contract the disease. It has been suggested that pigs aged between two months and one year, and pregnant sows, are most susceptible. In a herd, a large number of pigs may be affected by the acute septicaemic disease within a short time, or only occasional sporadic cases may occur.
Most infections are acquired from ingestion of food, soil and faeces contaminated with E. rhusiopathiae. Transmission may also occur via bites of infected flies or by contamination of skin wounds.
Under natural conditions, E. rhurhusiopathiae is readily spread by diseased or subclinically infected carrier pigs. All pigs should be considered potential carriers, as the bacterium may be recovered from the tonsils, gastrointestinal tract, gall bladder or faeces of healthy, immune pigs. Recrudescence of infection may occur when these pigs are stressed, with subsequent spread of infection to other pigs. Other possible sources of thesiosiopathiae is readily spread by diseased or subclinically infected carrier pigs. Other possible sources of the organism are swill, slaughter-house offal, contaminated water and soil, and stable manure. The organism can be spread by slurry to cultivated lands, where it can survive for two to three weeks. Wild birds and rodents have also been incriminated as possible carriers of infection, as they may harbour the bacterium in their gastrointestinal tract.
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae may persist indefinitely in clinically healthy pigs, in pigs that have recovered from the disease, or in pigs suffering from chronic arthritis. However, isolation of organisms from chronic lesions or arthritis and endocarditis may be difficult.
Sudden changes in the weather, such as excessively hot or humid weather conditions, overfeeding (particularly of protein), poor hygiene, handling, transportation, and high population densities may predispose to outbreaks of erysipelas.
It is precisely this type of weather that KwaZulu-Natal has been experiencing in recent months and numerous cases of erysipelas have been recorded on a number of piggeries.
However, sporadic cases are seen at abattoirs from time to time, when pigs are left to stand over for more than 24 hours.
This has sometimes been the case during union strikes, mechanical breakdowns or mixing of pigs a few days before slaughter.
These pigs are probably carrying the bacteria on their tonsils or in the intestines without any symptoms.
Due to the stress of mixing, transportation and lack of feed intake, the disease breaks out within one to seven days, which is the incubation period.
It stands to reason that the source of infection can also be the lairage at abattoirs especially if these facilities are not disinfected between batches.
No pigs should be left to stand over for more than 24 hours at any abattoir because erysipelas is likely to break out under these circumstances.
Producers are therefore warned to ensure that pigs are not stressed unnecessarily before dispatch to the abattoir and to liaise with abattoir personnel with regard to the timeous slaughter of the pigs. Once the producer has delivered the pigs to the abattoir, it is the abattoir’s responsibility to ensure that the pigs are cared for as humanely as possible and not to let them stand over for more than a day. If this should happen, as a result of some unforeseen circumstance, the pigs should be adequately fed and slaughtered as soon as possible. Abattoirs could be held responsible for any losses caused by erysipelas outbreaks if the above conditions are not met.
The accompanying pictures were taken at an abattoir. The producer had seven carcasses condemned after erysipelas was diagnosed at slaughter. The pigs were only slaughtered at the abattoir 3 days after they arrived due to a worker strike.
A new look at
Biosecurity
By Dr Jim Robinson on behalf of the Pig Vet Society
In the year 2000 there was a memorable outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Kwazulu-Natal, memorable for two reasons:
Firstly, it was a new type for South Africa — an exotic virus by definition, and secondly, it brought sharply into focus the necessity for a biosecurity system that was going to protect the national pig herd from unexpected and destructive diseases.
The biosecurity structures needed to be integrated on a national, regional and individual farm level, with clearly understood standard operating procedures (SOPs) and a rapid response capability when required.
The unpredictability of new diseases appearing in this country, — one of the down-sides of the by then well established global village phenomenon — was illustrated when we diagnosed porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS, “blue ear”) in the Western Cape in 2004 and again (a new infection by a separate strain of the same virus) in 2007.
It is a tribute to the combined efforts of the national and the Western Cape Veterinary Services and members of the Pig Veterinary Society and SAPPO, together with the Western Cape Minister of Agriculture and the Provincial Disaster Committee, the army and the police, that both outbreaks were successfully eliminated — an achievement that is rare for this disease.
In 2005 an outbreak of classical swine fever (CSF), also known as hog cholera, was diagnosed in the Eastern Cape, and this led to a protracted and extremely expensive culling campaign involving a similar cooperative effort by all concerned.
The outcome of this campaign seems to have been successful — some reservation remains because of the remaining pockets of feral pigs that may still exist and may still carry the virus.
The stamping out policy that was followed in all these outbreaks was the accepted radical control method of the time. It was both successful and also very expensive inasmuch as the operations themselves were costly, and so was the compensation paid to owners who suffered losses as a result of these “controlled diseases” — so defined in the Animal Health Act.
The total bill has amounted to hundreds of millions of rands and government has decided that, from now, no further compensation will be paid for these or similar diseases. This despite the convincing arguments that failure to contain and eliminate exotic destructive diseases would, and may yet, be very much more expensive to the national agricultural economy than paying compensation in a culling operation.
The government does not have to take advice and act as recommended and the strong likelihood is that in any future controlled disease outbreak the pig industry is on its own.
Whatever needs to be done to control the outbreaks will be done by the government but compensation is not contemplated.
Producers’ responsibilities
The word biosecurity evokes groans and yawns whenever the subject is raised, more especially but not exclusively amongst those who have not had the experience of taking thousands of healthy pigs, some only a few days old, to be shot with a captive bolt, their throats cut and their bloody carcasses piled on to bakkies for disposal in long, deep trenches.
• That this situation will arise again is not to be doubted; it is a matter of when, not if.
• It is also wishful thinking that living and farming inland, far from harbours and airports, is any guarantee against exotic infections.
• Pigs and meat are carried long distances within South Africa to find better markets and we have long, poorly patrolled borders with six neighbouring countries.
• The thousands of small-herd and poor-resource farmers whom SAPPO and others are educating and uplifting often cannot afford the more effective levels of biosecurity, but are increasingly entering the conventional markets.
The hard truth is that the major responsibility and expense for protecting the country’s herds rests with the owners who can expect no subsidies for money spent and no compensation for pigs culled and money lost in the event of a catastrophic disease outbreak.
In most cases the perceived reason for a sound self-protection system is not the fear of something exotic and destructive but rather to protect one’s own herd which may be at a high level of production due to its high health status.
There is a real danger of pig pathogens that are common in many herds coming into high health herds. Such diseases can have serious economic consequences if introduced to the relatively un-challenged and therefore immunologically un-prepared super herd.
Reminder
The following is intended to re-look some aspects of biosecurity in a slightly different way; as Do’s and Don’ts and some challenges to the conventional wisdom concerning what works and what doesn’t.
• We are usually and correctly told that the most likely source of new pig diseases is pigs, followed by people, clothes, feed, vehicles, pests, dogs, wind, rain, birds and dust, in a sort of descending order of controllability.
• Those of us who are not microbiologists often labour under the illusion that disinfectants have instant and almost magical powers to kill anything that we don’t like and can’t see;
• We tend to concentrate on the visible and doable aspects (fences, gates, locks and notices) and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is not the whole story;
• We also need to look at those things we cannot easily control but which may be important to our herd health; some are dealt with below:
DUST, WIND, RAIN
• These natural forces, all of which can carry viruses, bacteria, spores and fungi for kilometres, cannot be kept out of ordinary piggeries that do not have closed rooms and forced ventilation.
Dont: allow every pig movement to become a dusty, noisy stressful rodeo.
Do: control nature on your own piggery if you can:
• Construct brick/cement pathways with sides between buildings for pig movement;
• Plant grass over as much of the piggery area as possible;
• Make sure that drainage routes go to the intended area (ponds, separator) without running from dirty through clean areas.
BIRDS
Why are they there? Usually because there is an invitation. What do they bring?
• Avian tuberculosis, erysipelas, hungry mouths — some birds eat their weight in grain every day
Don’t: Waste feed by leaving it exposed, lying around, on the ground under storage silos or faulty delivery conveyors,
• Pile up compost material close to pig houses,
• Leave bedding outside or not properly roofed to keep dry.
Do: • Tidy up the house keeping,
• See to the repairs and maintenance of the feeding and storage system,
• Bird-proof pig houses if this will not interfere with ventilation.
PESTS
Rats, dogs, flies have no place in a piggery; they are indicators of the level of construction and cleanliness of the system and hence the prevailing level of stockmanship and biosecurity.
Don’t: • Poison the birds that are on our side by using rat poisons that will kill owls eating sick rodents,
• Rely on cats to control rats; they can become the pest and start on piglets when the rats are scarce,
• Invite flies by offering them wet, dung-rich messes to lay eggs and feed maggots,
• Think that a fence is dog- or pig- or thief-proof unless it is constructed to fill the hollows and stony places and cannot be dug under or easily climbed over.
Do: • Spend money where it is going to be effective: a fence is as good as its weakest, lowest, darkest spot,
• Use the specialist pest control services that are available,
• Clear the area around the fence, and plan the road for deliveries and loading to match the fence.
VEHICLES:
Feed trucks, loaders for slaughter pigs, couriers bringing medicines, company reps, officials, vets and advisers all have reason to come on to the farm and all can bring contamination if they visit several properties on the way. There are ways of ensuring that they do not pose a threat.
Don’t: • waste time and money on ineffective measures such as tyre dips and sprays; most vehicles arriving at piggeries have travelled some distance over roads that are hot or wet or dusty and used by other cars and lorries. This, added to the strong centrifugal force on a rotating tyre will usually have a better cleaning effect than anything that happens on the farm.
The worst they can bring is probably firmly stuck to the inside of the bumpers. The bit of wet that can be added at the farm entrance is more likely to dislodge contaminated dust or mud than make it safe.
• Buy feed from sources that are not conscientious about cleaning.
Feed trucks come from millers who know very well, or should, that the consequences of sending feed out in dirty trucks will be catastrophic for farms and their businesses. They also have, and use, effective cleaning equipment for every consignment.
• Make it easy for slaughter pig collectors to come on to the farm unless you know that the vehicle has been properly cleaned and not visited any farm before yours since. Abattoirs have good cleaning systems as a rule.
Do: • Spend the available money on making a road alongside the fence on the outside and placing the feed silos or storage tanks adjacent to the fence on the inside, so that the feed can be augured over the fence without the truck entering the piggery at all;
• Place your loading ramp against the fence so that pigs are loaded on to vehicles that likewise do not come into the piggery;
• Place your office outside the piggery so that all drivers — who are more dangerous from a contaminant point of view than their vehicles — are kept out of the pig area.
CHANGE ROOMS, SHOWERS AND FOOTBATHS:
There are a lot of misconceptions leading to acts of misguided faith concerning the cleaning of people entering the larger, well organised piggery. There are the labourers who work there all day, the artisan who goes in and out fixing and building things, the manager who has to go in and out to supervise and monitor, the owner who pays visits and various less frequent visiting contributors to the success of the enterprise and also to the risks of bringing in disease.
Because people are daily or frequently in the piggery, they are much more important as threats to the resident stock than are pigs, which are infrequent additions, usually planned and prepared for, and hopefully from a known safe source.
Exceptions here are the small herd piggeries sourcing and selling pigs locally for the most part, but sometimes (and this is where the vital necessity for understanding through education comes in) from passing speculators or uninspected herds.
Don’t: • Imagine that by adopting a policy of “shower in, shower out” that you have solved any problems; the facilities have to be bright, clean, private, comfortable, be supplied with plenty of warm water and antiseptic soap and spacious enough to be inviting. They must also be unavoidable and not depend on the conscientiousness of the entrant.
There are too many piggeries where the shower exists, out of the way, next to the toilet, in the office area, with no change room facilities either side of it, and being used to store the disinfectant and other items too big for a shelf.
• Think that unless you have the full monty of dirty and clean change rooms, compulsory shower and shampoo, clean/disposable piggery outer clothing and boots, you cannot go into a piggery without being a threat. A good second best is a change room where street clothes are hung up, preferably in a closed basket or clean locker, and replaced with clean or disposable outer garments that never leave the piggery except to be laundered (unless there is a laundry on site, next to the canteen). This type of facility is less “pt” to abide by and consequently more likely to be followed without reluctance and compulsion.
After all, hospital operating theatre staff don’t usually shower before operating; they scrub hands and arms and put on sterile gowns and head coverings and that seems to do.
• Regard the labour force as different from anyone else going into the piggery; they are in close contact with all the pigs all day, getting themselves and their clothes dirty and usually happy to shower, especially on the way home.
• Put too much faith in footbaths; they are a great power for good if it is realised that disinfectants have limited powers:
They will kill what they are registered to kill but not instantaneously —only flame throwers and concentrated sulphuric acid will do that.
They are handicapped by the presence of any organic material, from pig dung to mud to spilt feed. Cleaning is 90% of disinfection — it is when the boots (or any surface for that matter) look as if they don’t need disinfecting that the disinfectant is able to do its work.
PIGS:
so much is written about pig purchases and treatment and some wishful thinking about quarantining pigs joining a herd that there are only two points to make here:
Don’t: • think that you have a quarantine arrangement on your farm unless the pens are at least 400 metres up-wind from the main piggery and the labourer who looks after the new pigs goes through the same cleaning regime every time he goes there and returns to the main piggery (it is unlikely that a dedicated worker will be used for the quarantine pens).
Do: place more faith in the source of the pigs than in half-serious quarantine arrangements on your own farm; if quarantine is necessary or even desirable, let it be on the supplier’s property with a supervised regimen of vaccination and treatment.
Please take biosecurity seriously, wherever you are — there is too much at stake to be casual.