Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Giessen, Frankfurter Strasse 112, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
UEG Hohenlohe-Franken, Kraussenklinge 1, 97996 Adolzhausen-Niederstetten, Germany.
Animal. 2019 Sep;13(9):2007-2017. doi: 10.1017/S1751731118003403. Epub 2019 Jan 8.
The current study describes the results obtained from clinical examination of over 4700 suckling piglets from 19 individual herds in Germany. In this cohort the prevalence of inflammation and necrosis in the tails, ears, claw coronary bands, heels and teats was determined using a pre-defined scoring system. Results show that already in the 1st days of life, piglets were affected by inflammation and necrosis of the heels (80%), claw coronary bands (50%) and tail base (20%). The praevalences of these alterations in piglets were influenced by genetics (P <0.001) and age, decreasing gradually in the 2nd week of life (P <0.001). Moreover, a correlation between tail length after tail docking and the prevalence of tail necrosis (P⩽0.04) was found. Tail and ear biting as a behavioural trait was not detected during this study. The early onset, appearance and multiple locations of clinical signs of inflammation and the positive correlation with the genetic background of the piglets may suggest an impairment of the innate immune system by infectious and non-infectious agents. This is in contrast to previously described behavioural abnormalities seen in fattening pigs. Considering the obvious reduction of animal welfare due to the described lesions, there is a need to create awareness among pig farmers and to understand the multifactorial causality involved in this inflammation and necrosis syndrome in piglets.
本研究描述了对来自德国 19 个不同猪群的 4700 多头哺乳仔猪进行临床检查的结果。在该队列中，使用预先定义的评分系统确定了尾巴、耳朵、爪冠状带、蹄踵和乳头的炎症和坏死的流行情况。结果表明，仔猪在生命的第 1 天就已经受到蹄踵（80%）、爪冠状带（50%）和尾巴基部（20%）的炎症和坏死的影响。这些仔猪变化的流行率受到遗传因素（P<0.001）和年龄的影响，在生命的第 2 周逐渐降低（P<0.001）。此外，还发现断尾后尾巴长度与尾巴坏死的流行率之间存在相关性（P⩽0.04）。在本研究中未发现尾巴和耳朵咬噬的行为特征。炎症的早期发作、出现和多种临床症状的位置以及与仔猪遗传背景的正相关可能表明感染和非感染性因素损害了先天免疫系统。这与之前在育肥猪中描述的行为异常形成对比。鉴于所描述的病变明显降低了动物福利，因此有必要提高养猪户的认识，并了解仔猪这种炎症和坏死综合征所涉及的多因素因果关系。
