Productivity and parasitic infections of pigs kept under different management systems by smallholder farmers in Mbeya and Mbozi districts, Tanzania
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Date
2015-05-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
An on farm experiment was carried out to assess the
effects of production systems on the performance of local pigs
kept by smallholder farmers. Six villages from Mbeya and
Mbozi districts, Tanzania were purposely selected based on
the prominent pig production systems: free range, semi-
confinement and total confinement. Fifteen pig keeping
households were randomly selected from each village to par-
ticipate in the study. A participatory rural appraisal and struc-
tured questionnaire were used for collecting information from
the households on pig production and reproduction perfor-
mance. In addition, a total of 180 weaner pigs, 2–3 months
old, were purchased and randomly allocated to the 90 partic-
ipating households. The pigs were subjected to three produc-
tion systems: free range (M1), confinement with local diet
(M2) and confinement with a compounded diet and anthel-
mintic treatment (M3). The anthelmintic treatment (piperazine
citrate) was administered at 1 g per kg body weight. Faecal
and blood samples were collected at month three of the exper-
iment to assess the burden of intestinal helminths and sero- prevalence of Taenia solium cysticercosis, respectively. Sows
kept under free range system were reported to have smaller
litter size both at farrowing and at weaning compared to those
kept under confinement. The experiment showed pigs under
M3 had higher (P<0.05) liveweight gains (136 g/day) com-
pared to pigs in M2 (73 g/day) and M1 (68 g/day). In addition,
pigs in M3 had higher body length and heart girth size with the
feed to gain ratio of 8.5. Free range pigs tended to have lower
faecal egg counts for most worm species compared to perma-
nently confined pigs. Sero-prevalence of Taenia solium cysti-
cercosis was 26 %, with village prevalence ranging from 8 to
52 %. Although pigs kept in M3 performed better than the
rest, the compounded feed was too expensive for the farmers
to afford. Locally available feed types combined with vitamin
and mineral supplements may be a more sustainable option.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Confinement, Feeds, Free range, Parasites, Pigs, Taenia solium cysticercosis, Tanzania