Production losses of parasitisms in swine Literature review

Summary The author reviews the production impact of parasitisms and coccidiosis in swine as the internal and external parasites might result in considerable economic losses. Even today the sarcoptic mange is still quite often, but along with the mites other external parasites, such as lice, flies, fleas and ticks, could also have detrimental impact on production in either a direct or indirect way. The mange reduces the live weight gain (LWG) by 11% (1-29%) and deteriorates the feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 6% (2-10%) for fattening pigs on average. The house flies (Musca domestica) and stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) can cause 1.2-2.4% decrease in the LWG compared to pens with effective fly control. Some internal parasites, such as Ascaris suum, Trichuris suis and Oesophagostomum species, can also be found worldwide, including Hungary. In most cases the infestation has no clinical sings, thus remains unrecognizable, but the internal parasites deteriorate the production parameters in almost every production period, causing significant productions losses. The Ascaris suum infection compared to an uninfected herd decreases the LWG by 2-9%, and decreases the FCR by 5-13% for fatteners, the trichuriosis by 6-35% and 3-33%, the strongylosis by 10-29% and 6-44%, the stephanurosis by 25-69% and 3-24%, the hyostrongylosis by an average of 18% and 8%, respectively, and the oesophagostomosis by 6-13% each. In the slaughterhouse the condemnation of liver with "milk spots" due to ascariosis might also cause severe economic losses. For suckling pigs the effective prophylaxis against coccidiosis is of fundamental importance in order to prevent the reduced growth rate, and both the pre- and post-weaning digestive disorders due to secondary infections causing deteriorative performance, consequently financial costs. After a proper metaphylaxis the number of suckling piglets having diarrhoea can be diminished by 83-98%, that of mortalities by 53-63%, the curative antibiotics cost for digestive disorders by 85-90%, respectively, and LWG and FCR can also greatly improve in both the growing and fattening phase