The Delicate Pig

Pig raising is no cinch. But hosts of U.S. citizens now want to raise pigs, and crowds of amateurs are trying it. Thirty to 40% of U.S. pigs die before they are old enough to kill. To save more U.S. pigs for the knife, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association gave pointers to all.

Keeping Hogs Healthy. New breeding stock or feeder pigs (weaned pigs, ready for fattening) should be bought from disease-free herds. New animals should be quarantined from home-farm animals for two or three weeks. "Every swine breeder should raise his own feeder pigs if possible [as] some feeder-weight pigs found at public sales yards were sent there because they were not 'doing well.' "

Underfeeding sows (a common practice in the last part of pregnancy) may result in piglets which die of "baby pig disease" (shortage of blood sugar) or scours. And many farmers forget that "a sow must be fed for milk production to insure strong, thrifty pigs." Her diet must include protein, minerals, vitamins. To provide the farrow with enough copper and iron, a preparation may be placed on the sow's udder, or clean, parasite-free sod or soil placed in the pen.

"Only one-third of the farmers in the country," said the Journal, "follow good practices in the feeding and housing of swine. . . . Lack of sanitation is, directly or indirectly, responsible for a great percentage of the death losses. . . . Contrary to some opinions, the pig is an animal which thrives best when its quarters are clean, dry and comfortable. Dust, drafts, dampness and dirt (filth) are the four 'dangerous Ds.' "

Nursing Sick Pigs. Best help in preventing hog worms is good pasture rotated so that young pigs (most susceptible to worms) are put on parasite-free soil. Lice, which may cause restlessness and lack of appetite, can be killed by oily dips. Lime and sulfur solution controls mange. In each case, the whole pig must be dipped. Usual system is to make him swim through a dip 40 or more inches deep, duck his head somewhere en route.

Amateur hog raisers may lose some enthusiasm when they find they may have to nurse hogs through a "list of diseases so lengthy that only a few high points . . . can be mentioned." Examples:

> Hog cholera is the most destructive. Symptoms are fever, loss of appetite, weakness (hog looks "lost in thought"), thirst. No cure is known, and pigs usually die within ten days. But cholera can be prevented by inoculating young pigs with anti-hog-cholera serum supplemented with a dose of the virus. Farmers should not put off immunization until cholera is reported near by: then it is too late.

> Infectious enteritis, a not necessarily fatal intestinal disease, is characterized by fever, emaciation, diarrhea (but not always). Sanitation and isolation are the methods of control. There is no specific treatment, but feeding oats soaked with salt water sometimes gives good results.

> Swine erysipelas causes unusually high temperatures (normal for swine: 103DEG-104DEG F.), stiff gait, enlarged joints, red spots on skin, sudden death. If caught early, anti-swine erysipelas serum may help.

> Half of U.S. human cases of undulant fever comes from pigs, although swine are infected with Brucella abortus (the organism causing undulant fever in man and infectious abortion in animals) less often than cattle. Infected hogs should be removed from the herd.

> Swine influenza is much like the human kind. Agriculture Department and Rockefeller investigators have proved it is closely related to the human infection. Sick hogs should be quarantined. "Warm, dry, draft-free and dust-free quarters are essential. . . . Volatile inhalants [nose sprays] may be sprayed in the pen. Proper sanitary measures and good nursing are imperative."

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