Ingesting Dead Worms

[luvmypets]

That's just I love our pigs, they are very hardy/resistant. The breeders who had over 20 hogs running loose in the woods said they have never had to worm them.

 

[mysunwolf]

Even hardy breeds can succumb to worms with bad management Sounds like your breeder knew what they were doing.

My sow was the best, she and her piglets never needed worming. That was the Ossabaw Island Hog in her. Only problem with hardy breeds is they tend to be less productive, hence crossing them with more productive breeds.

I'm not sure GOS or Large Black are considered particularly hardy--we've had commercial crosses with much better parasite resistance than these breeds!

 

[Bruce]

Maybe this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascaris_suum

 

[mysunwolf]

Maybe this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascaris_suum

Thank you!! Wow, I never even thought to look on Wikipedia. A lot of great info there. I'm going to assume that she would have needed to ingest the live worm, and not a dead worm, in order to re-infect herself. But I'm also going to have to assume that she probably ingested some poop along with it, where there were most likely (but not definitively) A. suum eggs. So we'll be treating again in 2 weeks for the lice, then 3 weeks after that for the remaining lice and roundworms. Poor piggies.

 

[NH homesteader]

Really? We have a friend who breeds GOS amd another friend who breeds Large Blacks. They've never had issues with parasites.

Poor piggies is right, and poor you! That's a bummer.

 

[Bruce]

It seems that they don't get the worms from ingesting the adults though. It is a lot more complicated.

 

[mysunwolf]

It seems that they don't get the worms from ingesting the adults though. It is a lot more complicated.

Absolutely. But I took the info on life cycle and assumed that if a live adult worm happened to be ingested by a pig, it could produce eggs in the pig's system. That particular piece of info isn't in the article.

Really? We have a friend who breeds GOS amd another friend who breeds Large Blacks. They've never had issues with parasites.

Poor piggies is right, and poor you! That's a bummer.

It always depends on the load, but you're right, I can't speak as to how hardy GOS/LB are vs. not. But my point was that I also know farmers raising Yorkshires that have never had a problem with parasites as well, so I can't really say how hardy GOS/LB are compared to commercial type breeds either. People can raise pigs for decades and not have problems because they started with clean stock and nothing has been introduced. Whereas you can have a small herd and bring in carrier pigs (like these) and all of a sudden you have problems. Same thing with all livestock of course!

I'm not too worried about it, Ivermectin is cheap and the pigs appear to be doing great despite all their issues. Maybe that speaks to the hardiness of the breeds more than anything!

 

[Bruce]

I THINK that the adult worm would be digested so no eggs from it would infect the pig (could certainly be wrong). I THINK they have to be living large in the animal's intestine and produce eggs there.

I need to give the alpacas Ivermectin for Meningeal Worm when the warm weather comes. The primary host is white tail deer (*), the intermediate host is snails/slugs. They climb up on wet grass and are ingested. And since they ARE mobile, they don't have to be near where the deer dropped the larvae when the primary host (mammal) eats them. Thus the deer don't have to ever have been in the field where the "non target primary host" lives. The M Worm doesn't go to the deer's brain but they do to other "non target primary" hosts like camelids.

* which we have, one dropped twins behind the pond INSIDE the old weasley 3' - 4' fence last spring. Got the alpacas in Oct. Not sure if a deer would choose to give birth inside this spring. The top hot wire is at 5', she could leap if she wanted to.