A colour code that gives early warning of enteritis

Sunday, April 3, 2011

North German researchers have developed a key with 12 different shades for weaner feces. Used in conjunction with another key comparing manure consistency, the new system offers immediate warning of approaching disease.

by NORMAN DUNN

It took researchers from Kiel University and the nearby Futterkamp agricultural training and research unit five breeding cycles from the Futterkamp sow herd and a total of 480 piglets to develop a colour code for piglet feces and a feces-consistency key for piglets.

The concept, the subject of a graduate paper by student Stella Schnor, was to match colour and consistency with the piglet's intestinal health and, through this, identify the signs that a gut problem was on the way. It's a simple system which, after some years of work, has now been synthesized into a pocket "fan" comprising a range of 12 colours from rich brown to a wicked-looking light yellow. The accompanying feces consistency code is a leaflet with photos and descriptions covering stages numbered from 1 to 5 from "hard" to "watery."

During development of the colour code system and its final successful testing, weaners were penned in batches of 12 at day 26 (average liveweight 8.5 kilograms) with a daily inspection of dung before the morning feeding. There turned out to be ample opportunity to test the theory during the experiment because the herd was hit by an E. coli infection right through the period and every batch of piglets went down with gut problems and resultant diarrhea.

It was found early-on that "7" on the colour fan for older weaners and a "3" on the feces consistency scale meant that diarrhea was on its way in the pen in question. An additional sign of rapidly advancing enteritis, according to the researchers, was a marked increase in manure smearing on the pen walls.

When the warnings were heeded and immediate antibiotic injections administered, serious diarrhea was in every case prevented and the feces color and consistency rapidly returned to what was regarded by the researchers as physiologically "safe."

Immediate online appraisal of boar performance
A top Austrian swine AI station has introduced online registration of faults in newborn piglets so that there's immediate notification of negative genetic influence by individual boars. The farmers insert general details of the litter at birth under the appropriate AI boar in the AI station website. Also noted are so-called litter anomalies, such as piglets with ruptures, retained testicles and any hermaphrodites.

AI station manager Dr. Peter Knapp of the Upper Austria Swine Breeding Association wants to encourage piglet producers to join the project so that really up-to-date information is always available for the boars kept by the station. He cautions that the results are not significant until the details from at least 30 litters are listed under respective boars. But already the customers of this AI station have proved they're interested in the project with lists of new results being keyed-in every day.

The Upper Austria AI station runs Yorkshire, Landrace and stress-free genotype Pietrain boars. Additionally, a line of boars from Austria's own Yorkshire x Landrace F1 hybrids is available. The mothers of terminal boars from these lines have been returning up to 17.5 born-alive piglets per farrowing, according to Dr Knapp.

Hog producers discover the virtues of potato starch
The end of 2010 saw potato starch hitting the European hog headlines as different experts recommended it for reducing boar taint, for stopping diarrhea with piglets and as the ideal bedding additive in the farrowing pen creep area.

At a swine producer congress in Berlin, Dr. Sara Batcher from Hanover Veterinary University highlighted the role of potato starch in making pork from uncastrated swine less likely to have boar taint. One of the most important contributors to so-called boar taint is skatole, a substance mainly produced in the large intestine of boars and stored in fat. Dr. Batcher told the congress that skatole production is significantly reduced when there's enough intestine-stable carbohydrate in rations, one of the best suppliers of this substance being potato starch.

Research results quoted indicated that feeding the starch over the three weeks prior to slaughter was normally sufficient for lowering skatole presence in boar fat to an acceptable level.

Further north, the animal health company Nordic Stald Kemi in Denmark has also launched a potato starch product, "Fiber-Hyg," which is claimed to reduce diarrhea in very young pigs when ingested as part of a pre-starter ration. The product has a high fibre content which, says Jacob Madsen of Stald Kemi, is responsible for stabilizing the gut of piglets and helping prevent intestinal upsets. And he had yet another health advantage for potato starch. Simply scattered lightly on the floor of the creep area, the product is so absorbent that it ensures very dry – and therefore warm – piglet quarters.

Litter splitting gets another boost
The concept of litter splitting is attracting a lot of interest from swine producers in Europe. Splitting means all piglets are retained with the mother sow with the litter separated into two groups for suckling separately. In theory, all piglets then get a fair go at the milk supply. More importantly, the complications and hard work of breaking up and fostering large litters are avoided. 

Litter splitting was introduced by Dutch equipment maker MS Schippers last fall and immediately reported in Better Pork (see "Eye on Europe," December 2010).

At that time, the company was still working on an electronic system for keeping the two piglet groups separate by alternately shutting them in their respective creeps after suckling.

Now, Denmark's company Veng System has launched a simpler solution for splitting. The Veng VE925 "Splitammer" – still out on test on selected Danish commercial farms – features a moveable creep "box" with electronically controlled door.

Charlotte Skjold works with Veng System and has followed the development of the concept since it was suggested last year by two pig farmers who contacted the company with their litter-splitting idea.

"When the sow is farrowing, or shortly afterwards, this extra creep box is placed in the pen," she explains. "After the largest piglets in the litter have had their first suck, we advise that they be placed in the movable creep, the door closed and the door system set by timer so that it opens automatically later on. During this time, the smaller members of the litter get an undisturbed period at the milk bar and their share of the colostrum."

The system hasn't been launched commercially yet, but it has already been recommended by Danish vets who have seen it tested, says Skjold. "The beauty of this system is that it is usually only needed on the first day. The one undisturbed suckling session at the beginning gives the smaller pigs in the litter a flying start and the strength to compete for their share at the udder afterwards."

In fact, so far Veng advises that only two or three of the mobile boxes for litter splitting would be sufficient for a herd of 100 sows.

The timing system controlling the door opening is an important aspect, according to Charlotte Skjold. It means that the stockperson can get on with other tasks without having to remember to let the segregated piglets out.

Blood plasma boosts piglet growth
A good argument for using dried porcine blood serum in piglet rations is the spectacular boost it gives to liveweight gain in the first 10 days, especially when used with additional zinc. Danish trial results from the country's Pig Research Centre show that daily liveweight gain (dlwg) was increased by 38 per cent from 137 to 190 grams in 10 days from weaning at an average seven kilograms when soymeal, fish meal and part of the skim milk powder component were replaced by dried blood serum. Where 2,500 parts per million of zinc were added to the rations, the dlwg advantage was a massive 94 per cent, giving a final average of 266 grams per day up to day 10 after weaning.

Dried plasma from hog blood was added at five per cent of ration and the zinc component was supplied at three kilograms of zinc oxide per ton of feed.

Feed conversion was also improved. Piglets on the control diet during the first 10 days after weaning managed only 2.61:1 and those on the blood plasma ration achieved 2.05:1. The piglets with both plasma and zinc improved their conversion to 1.63:1.

When the trial diets were fed to the same groups post-weaning from seven to 30 kilograms liveweight, the average weight gains for control, blood plasma and plasma+zinc groups were 454 grams, 468 grams and 501 grams respectively.

Plenty of claims have been made over the years that dried blood plasma in the diet of young pigs also improves general health by providing what appears to be higher resistance to disease. The Danish researchers did not test for this, but they did score for cases of diarrhea in the different groups and, here, the pigs on plasma had significantly fewer cases than the animals in control.

This only applied in the first 10 days, though. The number of treated cases in each group was around the same by the time an average liveweight of 30 kilograms had been reached.

Being with mother encourages piglets to feed
Let piglets see their mother feeding at the trough and they will start eating, too. Imitation is part of growing up for young pigs, says Marije Oostindjer, a research scientist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. And this could be important in encouraging early growth.

Oostindjer, who works in the university's Institute of Animal Sciences, found that piglets which were offered different kinds of solid feed while still suckling would start eating the feed within 15 seconds if they were in the presence of their mother. When they were alone in a pen and a strange feed was offered, it might take 20 minutes before they started feeding.

This researcher also found that piglets in the farrowing pen are more adventurous in their eating habits, and seem to eat more if they have play materials, such as turf, wood shavings or hanging chains.

But so far it seems that the mother sow is the most influential factor in encouraging young piglets to start eating solid feeds. Marije Oostindjer points out that this pattern can be seen very clearly where wild piglets go foraging with their mother in woodland. Even only a week after birth, they will immediately copy their mother if she starts to eat an acorn.

Could the design of farrowing pens be slightly altered in future so that piglets get a good view of their mother feeding at her trough so that they can imitate and start on solid foods faster? This is something the Wageningen team is working on at the moment. BP