[Hygiene in the rearing of piglets. A study of the effect of hygiene and the bacterial content of drinking-water and feed of baby pigs on a number of health and performance characteristics on pig-breeding farms (author's transl)].
The effect of hygiene on health characteristics and performance was studied on 143 farms. In addition to subjective evaluations, the bacterial counts in the drink-water and feed were adopted as criteria of hygiene. In from 6 to 27 per cent of the cases, variations in bacterial counts were associated with variations in hygiene. Bacterial counts on a single farm varied markedly. Hygiene is to a large extent determined by the attendant. On the farms, including those on which hygiene is adequate, there is a marked increase in the number of bacteria present in the drinking-water and feed of the baby pigs. The state of hygiene of the drinking water and feed is highly unsatisfactory on a large number of farms. Of all litters, 15.08 per cent developed scouring in the first week of life, 21.69 per cent showed scouring during the third week and scouring was observed in 2.24 per cent of the weaned piglets. Correlations between the various aspects hygiene are high. Improvements in farm and drinking-water hygiene are associated with a more rapid growth of the piglets. The incidence of scouring during the third week is lower on those farms on which hygiene is satisfactory. The present study showed that there was no relationship between hygiene and litter size. Early supplementary feeding does not produce any improvement in growth of the piglets. The incidence of scouring in the third week increases and growth decreases as the bacterial count in the drinking-water increases. Clean drinking-water should be available to the animals.