Health and Care

Pork production can be catastrophically affected if your swine are unhealthy. Knowing how to keep your pigs healthy and recognize the signs of disease is fundamental to the farm profitability and the success of your business. Make good use of Penn State Extension’s resources on swine health, keeping pigs healthy, optimizing feed management and delivery, avoiding mold and mycotoxins in feed. Biosecurity fundamentals are also covered, and help is offered by the Veterinary Extension and Applied Research Team.

Swine Health and Care

There are many factors that can affect the health of your pigs. Successful pork production depends on keeping your animals healthy and free of disease. A good tool for checking productivity is body condition scoring.

As well as understanding different diseases and being able to recognize the various symptoms, it’s important to make sure your swine feed and ingredients are safe. Consider building a Secure Pork Supply plan – it is the first step in risk management for any pork producer.

There is a range of illnesses pigs can suffer from. The risks of contracting some of these illnesses can be increased if there are mycotoxins in the grain being fed to your pigs. The risk increases during years when there has been heavy rainfall.

A common misconception is that it’s OK to feed pigs food waste. There are, however, considerable risks and laws that dictate who can and cannot feed food waste to pigs.

African Swine Fever

Disease prevention is high on the list of priorities for pork producers, and the threat of disease could be domestic or foreign. The introduction of a disease into a herd can threaten the animals’ well-being, ability to grow, and also impact the food supply.

A disease that’s been on the radar of the swine industry for a few years now is African Swine Fever. Also known as ASF, it only affects pigs and has been endemic in African countries for many years. However, outbreaks have occurred in several other parts of the world including China, Central and Eastern Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. To date, there have been no reported cases in the US.

ASF is a severe viral disease of pigs that can spread rapidly through pig herds, which is why biosecurity on your farm is key. The illness can be severe and result in high death rates. Animals can recover but will be carriers of the virus for several months.

Other Common Pig Diseases

African swine fever is not the only disease of which you must be aware. Classical swine fever, for example, is another highly contagious viral disease that affects pigs.

Foot-and-mouth disease, while severe and highly contagious, still remains a worldwide concern. Animals affected with the disease will not die, but they become very weak and unable to produce meat as before.

Keep in mind that If foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), classical swine fever (CSF), or African swine fever (ASF) is found in United States livestock, regulatory officials will limit the movement of animals and animal products to try and control the spread of these very contagious animal diseases.

There are three more bacterial and viral diseases you should understand and protect against. Some of them are PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome), pseudorabies, and PEDV (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus). All these diseases are a risk for pork producers in the US.