An Associate Veterinarian with Demeter Veterinary Services says keeping newly born piglets warm and ensuring they get a good dose of colostrum quickly are the key factors that will influence their survivability.
"Early Pig Care, the Piglet: Off To The Races" was among the topics discussed as part of the 2018 London Swine Conference.
Dr. Ryan Tenbergen, an Associate Veterinarian with Demeter Veterinary Services, says piglets are born with low energy reserves, they don't have any immune protection so everything they need comes from mom so it's very important to give these piglets everything they need in their early life and that starts with colostrum intake.
Dr. Ryan Tenbergen-Demeter Veterinary Services:
That is so important to that new born piglet.
It gives them the energy they need, it gives them the protection from disease they need, it gives them the growth factors and things they need for maturation of their body systems.
Colostrum, like any other species, that's the first milk produced by the mammary gland.
What's different about that is it's much higher in things like energy, it has the immune cells that newborn animals or humans need so it' very important that they get that right away and they are able to absorb that.
In pigs actually, the piglet only has a limited time that it can absorb those things.
Source : Farmscape