What this is is a test that quickly determines whether a piglet has
received sufficient colostrum during its first few hours of suckling.
This has been an immediate need and it is apparently now solved.
This allows effective intervention to prevent runts.
It also applies across animal husbandry and needs only testing and
fine tuning now the protocol is understood.
Step by step we will perfect husbandry although half the time I
suspect we go backward.
Scientists Use New
Method to Help Reduce Piglet Mortality
by Sandra Avant
Clay Center NB (SPX) Oct 12, 2012
To help increase the
survival of newborn piglets, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
scientists have developed a new method that predicts animals'
mortality and nursing ability.
Physiologist
Jeffrey Vallet and his colleagues at the
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Roman L. Hruska U.S.
Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Neb., call the
measuring technique the "immunocrit," which determines
whether preweaning piglets receive adequate colostrum from the
sow.
ARS
is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this
research supports the USDA priority of promoting
international foodsecurity.
Preweaning mortality
costs the U.S. swine industry an estimated $1.6 billion each year,
and one of the contributing factors is deficient colostrum intake by
piglets.
The colostrum produced
by a sow after giving birth contains immunoglobulins, or antibodies,
which help build immunity against bacteria, viruses and other foreign
elements. Piglets that fail to nurse and receive enough colostrum
from their mother within the first 24 hours after birth usually die.
The
immunocrit measures newborn piglet serum immunoglobulin in blood
samples. These measurements indicate piglets' mortality and nursing
ability, according to Vallet, research leader of
USMARC's Reproduction Unit. Immunocrit results also show that the
average measurement of piglets in a litter reflects the sow's ability
to produce colostrum.
In addition,
scientists have found a connection between immunocrit measurements,
piglets' weight and mortality. Pigs that weighed more were more
likely to survive the challenge of not getting colostrum within the
critical timeframe, as opposed to those that weighed less.
Because test results
are obtained so quickly, it is possible to identify compromised
piglets while they're still alive, according to Vallet. The
immunocrit recognizes piglets within a litter that have not eaten or
had the chance to nurse. This provides an opportunity to save at-risk
piglets by using intervention strategies.
The
new technique, which also works with cattle, can be used by swine
producers to test management practices such as split
suckling, according to Vallet.
A labor-intensive
method, split suckling is designed to improve colostrum intake for
piglets born last by giving them uninhibited access to the sow.
Using the immunocrit,
blood samples can be taken 24 hours after the split suckling
procedure to determine if colostrum intake has increased in these
piglets.
No comments:
Post a Comment