Steve S. Dritz Kansas State University

Publish Date: March 25, 2010

A successful nursery feeding program contains several components, but the most important are to: 1) match dietary nutrient levels and ingredients with weight and age of the nursery pig; 2) maximize feed intake, because newly weaned pigs are in an extremely energy deficient state and early intake helps maintain a healthy intestine; and 3) appropriately adjust pigs (based on age, weight, health status, etc.) to lower cost diets (usually grain-soybean meal diets) as quickly as possible after weaning to reduce total feed cost. The concepts are relatively simple and can be applied in a variety of situations around the world.

Publish Date: November 3, 2007

Nursery pig enteric disease continues to be prevalent in the modern swine industry. Adapting health improvement technologies such as segregated early weaning and all-in/all-out production schemes have not eliminated enteric disease concerns. Clinical disease is the biological sum of a number of production system inputs. These inputs include presence and dose of pathogen, a genetically susceptible population, diet composition, weight and age of weaned pig, environmental management, presence of confounding pathogens, and general farm management practices (Madec and Josse, 1983; Madec et al, 2000; Vannier et al., 1983). Thus, ensuring the health of nursery pigs depends on managing many interrelated challenges.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

Management of in-feed antimicrobials continues to be a significant area of opportunity to improve production efficiency on many swine operations. Additionally, veterinarians have significant responsibility to swine producers and pork product consumers ensuring that in-feed antimicrobials are used judiciously.

Publish Date: September 1, 2006

Kansas State Swine Research 2005. A total of 360 weanling pigs (initially 14.1 lb and 21 3 d of age, PIC) were used to determine the effects of different rates of waterbased medication on nursery pig growth performance. Pigs were given one of eight experimental treatments: negative control (no antibiotics in the feed or water); positive control with Neo-Terramycin in the feed (140 g/ton Neomycin sulfate, 140 g/ton Oxytetracycline HCl); 38.0, 75.5, or 113.5 mg of Neomycin sulfate per L of water; 100 or 200 g/ton of Neomycin sulfate in the feed; and Neo-Terramycin in the feed and 75.5 mg of Neomycin per L of water. Overall (d 0 to 24 after weaning), pigs provided Neomycin sulfate in the water, pigs fed diets containing Neomycin sulfate, and pigs fed the positive control diet had greater ADG (P<0.02) and ADFI (P<0.05) than did pigs provided nonmedicated water and feed. Pigs provided Neomycin sulfate in the water or feed also had improved F/G (P<0.05), compared with the F/G of pigs provided non-medicated feed and water. Pigs provided the combination of the positive control diet and Neomycin sulfate in the water had greater ADFI (P<0.04) and tended to have greater ADG (P<0.09) than did pigs fed the positive control with nonmedicated water or pigs fed the negative control with Neomycin sulfate in the water. Increasing Neomycin sulfate in the water improved ADG (P<0.03) and ADFI (P<0.05). Increasing Neomycin sulfate in the feed improved ADG and ADFI (P<0.01) and improved F/G (P<0.03). There were no differences in growth performance between pigs provided Neomycin sulfate in the water and in the feed. Finally, there were no water medication feed medication interactions for the overall treatment period, but main effects for water and feed medication were significant (P<0.02) for ADG and ADFI.

Publish Date: February 27, 2008

Minimizing Feed Costs for Improved ProfitabilityMinimizing Feed Costs for Improved Profitability