THE MOST IMPORTANT HELMINTHS INFECTION OF PIGS IN EXTENSIVE BREEDING

Parasitic infections are constant companions of pig production, regardless of the method of breeding. They are equally found in farm and extensive rearing in all production and age categories of animals.Extensive pig breeding has a long tradition. Although this kind of behavior provides pigs with a much more comfortable life than farming (after all, organic production was developed on its principle), it also has many negative consequences for their health. Pigs are exposed to the risk of outbreaks of infectious and parasitic diseases that can cause large losses in production. Extensive and semi-extensive breeding means that pigs have direct contact with a multitude of transitional hosts of parasites, they are in contact with wild swine, and there is also frequent contamination of the area where they are discharged with the excrement of wild animals. Parasitic infections, along with other infectious diseases, are extremely common in this way of breeding. Infection is most often with biohelminths (Metastrongylus sp, causative agents of verminous gastritis, Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus) and zoonotic parasites to which pigs are transitional (Trichinella spiralis, Taenia solium, Ascaris ssum) or parent hosts (Alaria alata). There are also species that are equally present in extensive and farm farming, such as e.g. Trichuris suis, Oesophagostomum sp. or Strongyloideus ransomi.