Problems existing in China's Fox Industry and some suggestions

In the past 20 years, the fox industry in China has made great progress, but through a systematic investigation on the current situation of fox farmers in the past 10 years, we have found some noticeable problems affecting reproduction and fur quality. The details are reported as follows.

1 feeding and feed

At present, fox farms (households) all over the country are raised in single cages in hospitals; full-price feed is used to add corn flour, sea fish, freshwater fish, beef liver, various meat leftovers, and a small amount of other ingredients to cook mature porridge, and young foxes are fed three times a day. Adult foxes are fed twice a day.

Compared with Finland, which has developed fox farming in the world, the composition of fox feed raised by individuals, collectives and small consortia in China is 30% to 40% lower in protein, 30% to 40% lower in fat, and 20% to 40% higher in carbohydrates. At present, the low proportion of animal feed is a common problem in the fox industry in China, which is also the main reason why the fox is not as good as the developed countries. Therefore, it is recommended that the feed diet should be based on the daily energy and digestible protein per animal, or the percentage of crude protein per kilogram of feed, so as to meet the protein needs of animals. Dietary digestible animal protein should not be less than 90% of the total protein.

2 reproduction

At the beginning of the fox breeders do not have estrus identification experience, only rely on frequent estrus, lack of the necessary scientific means, the female fox is in estrus, and can not see the best breeding time.

Through the investigation and statistical data of 30 fox farms (households), the empty rate of this mating is more than 20%, and the empty rate of artificial insemination is about 15%. This mating method adopts the method of repeated mating of multiple males, and the high-frequency mating not only results in low utilization rate of male foxes and waste of a lot of manpower and time, but also the pedigree is not clear. the serial use of male foxes by breeders caused female foxes to be infected with Gardnerella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which easily led to the spread of reproductive system diseases. Female foxes were in oestrus late that year, and although female foxes performed well in oestrus, they could not find males who could breed, because male foxes were in estrus for only 60 to 70 days, and the oestrus mating rate of female foxes accounted for only 93% in that year. Male foxes can not be used reasonably, some allow male foxes to mate once a day, and some even mate twice a day. Male foxes can not get proper rest, and frequent use leads to the decline of semen quality of male foxes. When its semen carries on the microscopic examination, can discover the sperm density is small, the deformity, such sperm cannot be used, even if achieves the mating, also cannot conceive. In addition, most male foxes cannot participate in mating, and the utilization rate of artificial insemination is only 70%, resulting in a waste of resources.

In the production of foxes, there is a big gap in the reproduction rate of foxes in different places, which has a lot to do with the low level of preparation and breeding (protein). In addition, improper management and poor feeding techniques will affect the breeding and conception rate.

2.1 feeding and management of female foxes during mating period

In the investigation, it is found that there are many problems in the feeding and management of female foxes during the mating period. First, it is raised under lower nutritional conditions. The litter size of blue foxes is very high, and most female foxes give birth to 1013 foxes. If the utilization rate of protein feed is low, the growth and development of young foxes will be affected. That is, when the female fox is matched with the species, the protein feed can not reach the target, and some female foxes see that the belly is less than 30 days, and the fetus is absorbed. Second, the mother fox is not fed well. Nutrition index can not reach the standard, female fox ovarian dysplasia, estrus symptoms are not obvious, even if matched with species, will not be conceived.

2.2 feeding and management of female foxes during pregnancy

During pregnancy, female foxes should not only maintain their own metabolism, but also meet the nutritional needs of fetal growth and development. 60% of the fox farmers do not feed the female fox at full price, and the female fox has been unable to supplement animal feed such as small miscellaneous fish for a long time, resulting in a serious lack of protein feed and delaying the estrus of the female fox. even with breeding, miscarriage, stillbirth or fetus will occur 35 days later.

2.3 breeding

Every year, each fox farm has to keep some reserve female foxes for breeding, but the blood relationship has not been adjusted well. It is understood that at present, 15% of the fox farms (households) still have the problem of fox inbreeding. In recent years, farmers from all over the country interbreed with each other, and some of the male and female foxes purchased came from the same field, leading to inbreeding. For the mother animal of artificial insemination, the farm does not remember the official name of the breeding, and the artificial insemination station does not ask the mother's parents where they come from. Therefore, the pedigree is not clear, and inbreeding is inevitable. The consequence is that the individual size of the fox becomes smaller year by year, the survival rate of the young fox is low, the disease resistance decreases, and the growth is slow.

2.4 keeping alive after giving birth and the feeding and management of foxes

After mating, female blue foxes usually give birth in 52 to 54 days. At present, most blue foxes give birth to an average of 11 cubs per litter and survive 9.5, while silver foxes give birth to an average of 5.5 cubs and survive 4. Some farms (households) feeding management is poor, such as birth box cleaning, disinfection is not in place, the female fox is easy to occur about a week after delivery, and even cause the death of some young foxes.

3Prevention and treatment of diseases

Canine distemper occurred in some fox farms in China from 1989 to 1992, and the mortality rate of foxes was more than 80%. At present, many fox farmers have realized the importance of using vaccines, but more than 15% of fox farmers still do not attach importance to the use of vaccines. Some farmers have not taken effective treatment measures for malignant infectious diseases, resulting in the rapid development of common fatal diseases, especially abdominal distension and hematochezia, resulting in the death of foxes. Especially in the nesting period of young foxes, other diseases such as neurological symptoms and deaths of unknown causes often occur.

4 Technical training

In recent years, some people have just learned the artificial insemination of foxes and do artificial insemination to foxes. The technology is not excellent, the identification of sperm is not good, and some immature sperm inseminate female foxes, resulting in great losses to farmers. There are also some people who are not proficient in artificial insemination and use a wide mouth cup to collect semen from the back of the male fox's penis to the bottom of the buttocks, so that the effect of semen collection is not good, and the sperm density is small and the quality is poor. it will also make dust, sebum, hair and other dirt from the fox's buttocks and abdomen fall into the semen collection cup, and inseminate the female fox with this unhygienic semen, the effect is very poor, and some are infected with suppuration in less than 30 days. Make the female fox suffer from endometritis and miscarriage, the conception rate is low. The correct way to collect semen is to collect semen in time and put the cup on the penis so that the dirt will not fall into the cup. Each male fox can collect semen in 40 seconds and 50 seconds. This method has the advantages of large quantity, high density and good quality. Correct semen collection, each time the amount of semen collection is about 1mL, containing the number of effective sperm 8 ~ 1.2 billion.

5 some suggestions

The national breeding of superior pure breeding male and female foxes accounts for 20% of the total breeding, improved breeding foxes account for 60%, and real estate foxes account for 20%. If the domestic fox farmers do not strengthen the full-price feed feeding of foxes, their skin will not reach the top grade. Therefore, in the process of feeding, the feed containing sulfur amino acids must be supplied during the growing period of winter hair, and the foxes implanted with melatonin must also be provided with feed during the growing period of winter hair in order to receive the effect of implantation. At present, 80% of the fox farmers have not participated in the systematic study of the training course. It is suggested that local fox farming associations should hold technical training courses regularly and invite experienced experts to teach them, so as to improve their scientific level of raising foxes.

Establish and improve the organization of fox raising association. Through the fox raising association, we can organize and build an information network, provide market trends, technical information and formulate various technical standards in a timely manner, so as to enhance the cohesion of fox farmers. Most of the fur breeding industry in China is family decentralized breeding, with small scale, low technical content, poor anti-risk ability and low fur quality. In the future, the fox industry in China should start with the production links such as feeding management and deep processing of products, so as to improve the breeding environment of foxes and ensure the quality of fur. The well-developed breed breeding can realize the transformation of the fox industry from quantity type to benefit type, improve the fur quality and promote the development of fox industry.