Cause Analysis and Prevention of Pig tail biting

In the process of large-scale and intensive@#@227@#@production, it is common to see that the breeding and finishing pigs have the bad habit of biting each other. Biting tail of pigs not only increases feed consumption, affects growth, increases management difficulty, but also causes pig injury and bacterial infection in serious cases. What causes pigs to bite their tails? It is concluded that this is related to:

(1) Management factors: (1) insufficient feeding, insufficient feed level, unreasonable design of feed trough, etc., resulting in insufficient food for pigs;(2) poor water quality, insufficient or limited drinking water;(3) poor ventilation, dirty air, too low or too high temperature, too heavy humidity;(3) pig rotation and excessive density, obvious difference in pig size;(5) vaccination, noise, frequent or sudden change of feed;(6) pigs with incomplete castration in pig pens.

(2) Disease factors: (1) exudative dermatitis, especially obvious when mixed groups and columns;(2) parasitic infection;(3) bite of blood-sucking insects (such as mosquitoes, flies, etc.).

(3) Nutritional factors: (1) feeding pigs with inferior or deteriorated raw materials;(2) malnutrition caused by low nutrient feeds;(3) feeds with low salt content, low protein content or unbalanced calcium and phosphorus.

(4) Prevention and control measures: (1) The most effective and thorough method is to cut off the tail. Piglet after birth to timely tail, cut teeth. Tail only 2 cm or so, cut off the site to avoid infection, using uneven incision can prevent a lot of bleeding. (2)Pigs began to bite their tails, indicating that the environmental conditions in the pigsty were very poor. Different measures can be taken for the above management reasons: pigs in each pen should be of equal size, strength, male and female; there should be no uncastrated or incompletely castrated pigs in the same pen; pigs should be hungry when they are in the pen, and feeding should be carried out immediately after the pen is closed; it is necessary to prevent and control internal and external parasites of pigs in time; in summer, it is especially necessary to strengthen the prevention of mosquitoes and flies. (3)Strengthen the prevention and control of pig diseases. When pigs with biting tails appear, such pigs have fierce features and should be isolated immediately. (4)Use high quality nutritionally balanced feed. In exceptional circumstances, salt use can be increased to 0.9 per cent in the short term if water is freely available. (5)In foreign countries, some pig farms put toys in the pen for pigs to play with. These toys are generally made of rubber, plastic, wood, stones and other materials.