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Epidemiological studies of pig diseases: 2. Post-weaning diarrhoea and performance in Western Australian pigs
S Z Skirrow1, J R Buddle, A R Mercy
1Animal Industries Division, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia.
Objective:
To determine in Australian pig herds the accuracy of French protocols for risk factor assessment of post-weaning diarrhoea and illthrift.
Procedure:
French protocols for the collection of data on health indicators and risk factors for post-weaning diarrhoea were conducted on 54 batches of weaner pigs from 28 Western Australian pig herds during three years.
Results:
Large variations in post-weaning performance were found. About one-third of the batches were growing at < 200 g/day during the 3 weeks after weaning, and 54% had growth rates of < 250 g/day. Weaning age and weight of at least 30 days and 7.9 kg, respectively, optimised weaner performance. Other risk factors associated with little post-weaning diarrhoea and good weaner performance were high creep feed intakes, relatively little diarrhoea as suckers, and, contrary to expectations, large temperature fluctuations.
Conclusion:
Overall, the 'predictability' of post-weaning problems as assessed by measurement of risk status, was good. However, the model was less accurate at predicting the performance of a single batch of pigs.
