improving traditional pig keeping system

[Jacky Foo]

Source: http://www.iobbnet.org/drupal/node/view/962/3220#comment-3220

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improving traditional pig keeping system
Submitted by Jacky Foo on Sun, 06/05/2007 - 12:27.
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Jackson wrote in his paper:
>Because animal diseases are a major problem, several
>adaptations to the traditional pig-keeping system were
>designed together with farmers. Observations had shown that
>stray pigs are a serious infection hazard and farmers are now
>encouraged to build a fence around the sty to prevent all
>contact between their animals and stray pigs. Many farmers
>are now also keeping their pigs in the sty on a raised
>slatted floor at between 0.7 and 1.5 meter above the
>ground to reduce the contact that the animals have with
>their own droppings.

Maybe Jackson and others could share their experiences on this issue
on the health aspects of a pig (at a best scenario and a worst
scenario)
(a) if allowed to free range
(b) if allowed to free range but within an fenced enclosure
(c) if kept in a pig sty with concrete floor
(d) if kept in a pig sty with raised slatted floor

If there any illness or disease that can be completely avoided by
improving the pig keeping system ?

There is a movement for free-range within a large enclosure ?
Why is this happening ?

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Jacky Foo
http://www.iobbnet.org

[fu lucas]

To me  as a veterinarian who has been on the field for the past six years, the choice of either concrete floor or raised slatted floor in pig production is a function of the availability of local materials.  There is no scientific backing to show that raised slatted floor has an advantage over concrete floor as far as disease control is concerned. Disease prevention is centred around proper hygiene and proper feeding. Suspending the pig sty even makes pigs more prone to air borne diseases.During out breakof dieases  i am  yet to see the advantage of raised slatted floor over concrete floor as mortality in both cases is thesame

Jackson is right when he says stray pigs are a potential source of disease transmission. What about the local farmers who out of ignorance/curiousity move from farm to farm and at the end of the day transmit dieases to their owm farms? What are we doing to change the mentality of the people to know that during an out break of Swine Erysipelas and African Swine fever, infected animals are not to be slaughtered for human consumption?.

Once more a  paradigm shift from the traditonal way of keeping pigs to a modern way centers around mentality change of the local farmers. "Note in vain you build the house if you do not first of all build the farmer."

Jacky Foo <jack...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[jackkson ntapi]

Dear all

Although the e-seminar has ended i will still be glad to provide additional information on issues raised during the seminar when i am opportuned. It is on this light that i want to make some coments on a point raised by a participant.

Source: http://www.iobbnet.org/drupal/node/view/962/3220#comment-3220

The participant wrote:

+++++++++++++

Maybe Jackson and others could share their experiences on this issue
on the health aspects of a pig (at a best scenario and a worst
scenario)
(a) if allowed to free range
(b) if allowed to free range but within an fenced enclosure
(c) if kept in a pig sty with concrete floor
(d) if kept in a pig sty with raised slatted floor

If there any illness or disease that can be completely avoided by
improving the pig keeping system ?

There is a movement for free-range within a large enclosure ?
Why is this happening ?

+++++++++++++++++++

 

On going through the seminar discussions i noticed i failed to make comments on the above issue.

In comparing a free range and a sedentary system, keeping animals in permanent enclosures have contributed emormousely in reducing the incidence of certain diseases especially zoonotic diseases in the pig and human population. An example that has been investigated in the western highlands of Cameroon is the Cysticercosis/Taeniosis which experienced a drastic drop in prevalence rate as smallholder farmers drifted from the free range to sedentary systems of pig rearing.

The idea of eliminating a disease in any production system does not depend on the housing system alone, although housing can go a far way to limit the contact of pigs with disease causing agents. In the raised wooden floor system adopted in Bamendjo; the idea was to enable small farmers use easilly affordable and available material in construction and to reduce risk of contact of their animals with stray animals especially for those who could not afford a viable fence at the beginning of the project.

From my personal experience, isolating a pig farm is important in disease control, as the population of pig farmers increases in an area the risk of diseases also increases. In places like Koutaba where pig farmers are few, the occurence of certain diseases is very rare, a Government run breeding center installed in the Koutaba area in the 70s went for more than 20 years without an outbreak of African Swine Fever. The floor in the farm is cemented and washed regularly, but the secret of its sanity is its isolation (about 20 km from residential areas).

Jackson Ntapi Nk. 

 

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