PIG DISEASES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1938, Page 3

PIG DISEASES

MINIMISING THE DANGERS. TREATMENT AND PREVENTION. In the current issue of the quarterly journal issued by the Yorkshire Council for Agricultural Education and Department of Agriculture of the University of Leeds (Britain), some of the common diseases of pigs are discussed, and advice is given on their treatment and prevention. Dealing with rickets in young pigs, it is pointed out that'the disease is essentially a deficiency disease due to a shortage of Calcium and/or Vitamin D in the ipod of young pigs. The symptoms are a general unthriftiness, stiffness, swollen joints, dirty discoloured skin, a general backwardness in condition and eventually deformed or bent bones, particularly of the limbs. Where rickets occurs in sucking pigs, it is probable that the sow’s milk is deficient either in calcium or in vitamin D or both. Vitamin D exercises an influence on the assimilation of the minerals, so that even if sufficient minerals are present, a shortage of vitamin D will result in an insufficiency of minerals being assimilated. A shortage of calcium may be corrected by adding a small quantity of a mineral mixture to the ration of bleeding sows and young pigs. A deficiency of vitamin D may be corrected by giving a little cod liver oil in the ration. Sunlight also influences the amount of vitamin D present in the animal body, and consequently rickets is not so likely to occur in pigs which are out of doors during the daytime. Incidentally, cod liver oil also contains vitamin A which is intimately concerned with the health and development of young animals.