Nematode parasite eggs in pasture soils and pigs on organic farms in Sweden

Abstract

The EU regulation for organic pig production requires outdoor access to promote the animal welfare. This may increase the risk of infection of the common pig parasites, Ascaris suum and Trichuris suis, because their eggs can survive for many years in the soil. The egg contamination of these parasites in outdoor areas with different managements and the faecal egg output from the pigs was investigated on 11 Swedish organic pig farms in 2008. We found eggs of A. suum and, to a minor extent, T. suis in the soil from outdoor areas, which had previously been used for pig rearing and/or for spreading of pig manure. Piglets and their dams were turned out on pastures included in a crop rotation, and these areas had a mean of 2500 A. suum and 40 T. suis eggs per kilogram soil. When the pigs were 12-week-old, the faecal egg counts (FECs) of A. suum were positively correlated with the egg concentration in pasture soils before pig turnout. The areas used by dry sows had a mean of 11,700 A. suum and 220 T. suis eggs per kilogram soil. The highest egg concentrations in the soil were found in areas, frequently used by pigs in the most recent years. To minimise pasture contamination with parasite eggs, it is advised to have a crop rotation system and to inactivate parasite eggs in pig manure before spreading it. Parasite control needs further development to protect suckling piglets from infections due to environmental parasite egg contamination.

Management practices related to the control of gastrointestinal parasites on Swedish pig farms

“…Very few of the participating farms provided outdoor access and the ones that did were either small herds or farms with organic production. It has been reported that access to the outdoors may favour parasite survival and transmission [ 11 , 26 , 54 ].…”

“…Although organic pig farms were investigated in 2008 [ 26 ], no systematic studies on parasite occurrence or parasite control measures in conventional pigs have been carried out in Sweden since the 1980’s [ 8 ]. Since then, conventional pig production systems have changed significantly and now include fewer but larger production sites [ 4 ].…”

Animal Welfare and Production Challenges Associated with Pasture Pig Systems: A Review

“…Some of those pathogens, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Ascaris suum, and Trichuris suis, can survive in soil, water, shelters, and huts of pasture environments [91,100,101], and could represent a significant risk of infection [97]. As a strategy for parasite control in pasture systems, it is important to implement periodic parasitology monitoring of the herd [86,102].…”

“…Certain management strategies have proven effective in reducing parasite infestations in pasture pig operations. Among them: avoiding the use of moist areas with a tendency to become waterlogged, implementing pasture rotation [72,101], decreasing the stocking density, using forage mixtures (including forages with high tannin concentrations), mixed animal species grazing [103], and integrated use of anthelmintics [57].…”

The impact of certain flavourings and preservatives on the survivability of eggs of Ascaris suum and Trichuris suis

“…Two of the commonest helminthiases of swine around the globe are ascariasis and trichuriasis. The pathogens of these parasitic diseases cause economic damage to pig farming (Lindgren et al, 2019;Nwafor et al, 2019;Zheng et al, 2020). Today, most farmers use synthetic broad-spectrum anthelmintic preparations against ascariasis and trichuriasis of pigs, though some of them have notable side effects (Jakobsen et al, 2019;Vandekerckhove et al, 2019).…”