Farmers should ensure that all newly born piglets in a litter get some of their sow\u2019s first-milk, called colostrum, within the first 24 hours after birth. This ensures that the piglets receive protective antibodies to fight off diseases and is particularly important for weaker ones that may
\nnot otherwise get a chance to suckle. \u201cYou always have some piglets that are so strong that they get more than they need,\u201d explains Associate Prof. Min Fan at the University of Guelph\u2019s Department of
\nAnimal and Poultry Science. \u201cThey\u2019re always suckling and then some of the weak ones don\u2019t get a chance.\u201d During the first three weeks of life, piglets\u2019 intestinal tracts are immature. Their intestinal tract is the biggest immune response system in their bodies. But, with an immature system,
\ntheir intestinal tissue cells aren\u2019t ready to produce a lot of protective immune cells and antibodies.
\n\u201cThey are very vulnerable to infection,\u201d says Fan, who has been studying piglets\u2019 intestinal tract development. Piglets don\u2019t receive any protective immunoglobulin against diseases from their sows during gestation. (Immunoglobulins are plasma proteins that immune cells produce to fight against infectious diseases.) But, during the one or two days after birth, by drinking the colostrum, they
\nget a \u201cpassive immunity\u201d to fight against infectious disease and toxins from infectious bacteria. This passive immunity stays in the piglets\u2019 bodies for two or more weeks. Two days after farrowing or birth, the sow\u2019s colostrum production stops. By then, a piglet\u2019s intestinal tract has changed
\nand it can\u2019t absorb immunoglobulin to obtain the passive immunity from the sow. Starting suckling piglets on a creep diet helps their intestinal system to develop starch digestive capacity. The creep feed should include some starch ingredients, such as finely processed corn meal, Fan says.
\nHe recommends starting creep feed as early as possible. These diets are expensive, but the piglets don\u2019t eat a lot. \u201cAll they need is a little bit of it to induce gut adaptation,\u201d Fan adds. \u201cMaybe a simple way a farmer can do it is to add some finely ground corn meal or corn starch.\u201d
\nThese starchy carbohydrates help induce the piglets\u2019 starch-digestion enzymes. It also assists the enzyme system in developing more quickly. And feeding creep feed helps piglets adapt to solid diets when they\u2019re weaned. Farmers usually use antibiotics to curb pathogenic bacteria existence and growth. But, with the growing concerns about anti-microbial resistance, this approach has been
\nchallenged. \u201cAlternative ways are being explored,\u201d Fan says. There are other strategies farmers can use, such as using lactic acid, prebiotics and probiotics to prevent the development of pathogenic bacteria in piglets during the transition from suckling sow\u2019s milk to weaning diets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Farmers should ensure that all newly born piglets in a litter get some of their sow\u2019s first-milk, called colostrum, within the first 24 hours after birth. This ensures that the piglets receive protective antibodies to fight off diseases and is particularly important for weaker ones that may not otherwise get a chance to suckle. \u201cYou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[930],"tags":[1809,5361,8882,2096,640,3694,1456,10033,13816,2863,12251,2858,163,23624,9265,7840,19245,19644,6429,577,1287,357,60,5845,4663,1443,223,5886,103,6904,46,108,23272,102,20007,158,14804,111,6492,6577,3794,6430,26380,2093,2776,818,25225,7258,10859,14,126,89,16262,92,138,4651,4652,6721,17743,27282,23437,20912,104,96,10101,128,8214,20911,4874,1579,6053,3790,77],"class_list":["post-4279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-production","tag-acid","tag-adaptation","tag-al","tag-alternative","tag-animal","tag-antibiotic","tag-antibiotics","tag-arc","tag-ass","tag-birth","tag-born","tag-capacity","tag-colostrum","tag-colostrum-immunity-piglet","tag-creep","tag-creep-feed","tag-cross-foster-colostrum-12-24-hours-pigs","tag-dd","tag-defence","tag-diet","tag-diets","tag-digestion","tag-disease","tag-diseases","tag-don","tag-enzyme","tag-enzymes","tag-farrow","tag-farrowing","tag-fee","tag-feed","tag-feeding","tag-feeding-suckling-pig","tag-gestation","tag-gh","tag-growth","tag-hal","tag-health","tag-help","tag-immune","tag-immune-response","tag-immune-response-system","tag-infec","tag-ingredient","tag-ingredients","tag-litter","tag-micronized-barley-saskatoon","tag-milk","tag-nat","tag-pig","tag-piglet","tag-piglets","tag-pl","tag-plasma","tag-poultry","tag-prebiotic","tag-probiotic","tag-probiotics","tag-prod","tag-production","tag-science","tag-some","tag-sow","tag-sows","tag-start","tag-suckling","tag-suckling-pig","tag-t","tag-tan","tag-test","tag-use","tag-weaned","tag-weaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}