Page 49 of articles about management

Thompson’s tip: Hot weather check-ups

10-Jul-2009
Following the recent hot weather, growth rates among growing and finishing pigs can be expected to slow. So stocking densities need particularly attention, says Paul Thompson, veterinary consultant to pig-breeding company, ACMC Ltd.

Getting gilt integration right

02-Jul-2009
With good returns on finished pigs, attractive cull sow prices and a contracting EU pig herd, many producers are building up their breeding herds again, some of which have been run at below optimum capacity for a long time.
circovirosis

Risk and/or triggering factors of porcine circovirus

Between 1995 and 1997, at the beginning of an epizootic called “maladie de l’amagrissement du porcelet” (MAP), it was observed that the farms that were most affected and that had the most losses, generally presented obvious deviations from what we would consider to be a suitable management of the animals and facilities. This is why Dr. François Madec made a list of management practices with the aim of improving the anomalous situation observed.

Pig vision and management/handling

Pigs have a panoramic vision of 310º and binocular vision of 35-50º (Fig. 1). This means that compared to humans, pigs prioritise their lateral monocular vision and this increases their panoramic vision (greater capacity for detecting possible danger, food, other pigs, etc) and decreases their bifocal vision (greater difficulty for calculating distances).