On-demand: webinar on gut health in young piglets

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Diarrhoea in neonatal piglets

Dr Linda Peeters, DVM, swine veterinarian at GD Animal Health, detailed problems with diarrhoea in piglets and the diagnostic approach to resolve it. In fact, the audience was asked what their diagnostic approach would be when they spotted diarrhoea in young pigs. The majority of the audience said they would collect individual or pooled faecal samples for bacteriology or PCR testing.

Concluding Dr Peeters said, “Once a diagnosis is made, we can look at treatment and prevention methods for neonatal diarrhoea to include symptomatic therapy, and also look at prevention methods such as biosecurity and colostrum management.”

Piglet performance and the role of the sow

The next speaker was Dr Sofia Rengman, global technical manager at Perstorp, who discussed the topic ‘piglet performance starts with the sow.’

Rengman highlighted how and why the body condition of the sow was important to the piglet development. She said, “Although genetic selection has increased piglet litter sizes over the past 30 years, the number of stillborn piglets and piglets lost during lactation phase also increased. The increased number of piglets born per litter is only of economic benefit if they reach weaning age and if the sow and weaners remain in good health.”

In finalising, Dr Rengman said sow body condition is a key factor for optimal reproductive performance and to support large piglet litters.

Coccidiosis in young pigs and how to control it

The last speaker was Dr Daniël Šperling, DVM, swine corporate technical manager at Ceva Santé Animale, who looked at coccidiosis and Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA). Dr Šperling highlighted that coccidiosis was an infection of the small intestine and affected the performance of the young pig. He said it was one of the most costly and prevalent diseases in pig production.

He said, “Current controls based on oral treatment seems to be less effective, especially if the timing is not perfect. We believe diagnostics is key and frequent diagnostics of the farm is really important to understand what happened.”

Misset International Webinar Week

In total, publishing house Misset presented a series of 10 webinars during the Webinar Week, which lasted from 16 through 20 November 2020. Apart from 4 webinars on pigs, there were also webinars on feed, dairy and poultry production. All webinars can be reviewed through the link below.

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