Page 37 of articles about management

Sometimes, when working on the farm, we have to get up close to the sow to check its card in order to know its productive cycle. Or, whilst carrying piglets to be fostered, we ask ourselves, will that sow be a second parity one?

This article shows the different measures taken and the strategy followed to eradicate PEDv in a commercial farm: stabilization, creation of a disinfection bubble, monitoring and verification.

The disadvantage of some boxes is that some piglets are too big and lively and jump off easily.

Traditional culling policies have a threshold number of farrowings after which sows are culled —after weaning. But, what would happen if this policy were to be modified to actually consider the performance of each sow?

Minimizing sow losses in the initial cycles has three positive effects for the economic efficiency of the farm

Great care is needed particularly when handling young pigs above 6kg/3 weeks of age, to avoid causing lasting damage.

A simple, economical and practical trick is to identify the replacement gilts with tags of different colours according to the batch they belong to.

Although the use of vaccination was effective in stabilizing the sows, the results of these case studies emphasized that elimination of PRRSV from the nursery can only be accomplished if vaccination and partial depopulation/ disinfection are supported by strict implementation of all recommended management procedures, including AI/AO.