Why adequate water quality and quantity is vital for pigs

A water system that is fit for purpose and can provide the correct quality and quantity of water is vital to maintain pig health, welfare and performance.

Mark Jagger, assistant grower farms manager at Pilgrim’s Europe, BQP, focuses closely on managing water on the company’s pig units and urges all producers to take water seriously.

“As an industry, we pay nutritionists to ensure we have the finest feed but often overlook the quality and taste of the water,” he says.

“The water offered to pigs should be fit for human consumption.

“With 80% of the body of a newborn piglet composed of water, and 55% of a finisher pig, easy and fast access to fresh drinking water is essential to prevent dehydration, which can result in reduced feed intake and poorer pig performance.

“Adequate water provision is central to animal welfare and a legal requirement.”

System and hygiene issues

Common issues include the age of farm water systems, header tanks not being cleaned or pipes being too small to deliver enough water.

This is especially the case at peak demand times such as the hottest times of day and when animals are near slaughter age.

“Problems could simply be because the need for increased flow was overlooked as additions to buildings were made,” Mark suggests.

Dirty water lines can also reduce flow and even lead to blocked filters or pipes.

To rectify this, Mark says when the building is empty, producers should terminally dose the entire water system with a hyper-saturated disinfectant solution (following the manufacturer’s instructions).

This will clean the water lines and kill any bacteria hiding in them. 

“It’s a very easy fix to incorporate into any system,” he says.

If units are using borehole water, it can cause iron deposits in water lines, in some cases leading to infections from high total viable counts (TVCs) and E coli counts in the water.

Water heavily contaminated with iron also leads to poor intake because of the taste.

Health and performance

Inadequate water intakes and dehydration lead to performance issues including reduced feed intake, lower daily liveweight gain, poorer feed conversion, reduced milk production in sows and lower weaning weights.

Poor-quality and unpalatable water will also contribute to these and lead to reduced voluntary intake and dehydration.

© MAG/Judith Tooth

Most commonly, it causes scours in newly weaned pigs. Scours can increase mortality and medication costs and reduce the uniformity of the batch.

Key steps

Practical steps to take to ensure the right quantity and quality of water include:  

Ensuring the water lines can deliver the flow rate required for the shed.

For example, a finisher pig at slaughter age requires 0.9 litres/hour in their peak drinking period – typically mid-afternoon.

A building holding 1,000 pigs must therefore deliver 900 litres/hour, or 15 litres/min flowing at the end of the water line when broken open (not out of the drinking nipple) (see table below).

Testing water lines in two places:

• Where the water comes into the line (at the bottom of the header tank or prior to the dosing machine)
• At the end of the line, to check water quality at the point where the pigs drink it.

Water should be tested for E coli and TVC.

“Mains water should contain no E coli, and TVCs should be less than 1,000 cpu [colony forming units]/ml at 22C and at 37C. We aim for zero E coli in all pig units.

“If any problems are found, an action plan is put in place to rectify the problem,” says Mark.

Carrying out water quality tests only when not using products such as vaccines, medication, sanitiser or organic acid, as these will alter results.

Pilgrim’s Europe takes water samples four weeks into the batch to test for quality.

“We do not take them at the start because we terminally shock-clean the lines prior to pigs entering the farm,” he says.

“By four weeks in, the pigs will have had most products withdrawn from the lines.”

To ensure continued water quality, the company provides a water sanitiser, constantly dosed into the pigs’ water at an extremely low rate throughout each batch.

Borehole supplies

Both well/borehole and mains supplies should provide the cleanest water possible.

It is well worth understanding the physical and chemical composition of farm water, especially mineral content and pH.

“The chances are that UK borehole water will have iron present, which will increase the chances of carrying E coli and increased TVC,” says Mark.

“Iron also suppresses the efficacy of any medication you may need to use.

“Water supplied from boreholes should be tested for E coli and TVC at least once a year, and I would recommend fitting a filter for iron, which is easily sourced and easy to install.”

Early health warning

Routinely monitoring pigs’ water intake, as is commonplace in the poultry sector, often gives an early warning of any health problems 24 to 48 hours before physical signs are seen in the pigs.

Pilgrim’s Europe monitors water intake on all farms though an online portal and a daily text message to the farmer and the company fields person.

This person will be notified if there is a drastic reduction or increase in water consumption patterns.

“We look for growing pigs to increase water intake until week 15 of the batch, peaking somewhere around 8-9 litres per day, depending on genetics and herd health,” says Mark.

The company uses a doser on each pig unit, costing about £450, which has flow sensors that monitor consumption and is sized to the farm.

A TX box to send text alerts (about £390 plus mobile SIM) completes the system. The doser can deliver at rates ranging from 33:1 to 25,000:1 (litres).

If the water is heavily contaminated with iron, a filter is installed at a cost of £2,740.

During tests, this has reduced contamination from 2,500 microgram (mcg) of iron/litre to 40mcg.

The farmer must spend 10 minutes a week back-filtering the iron filter with a rake and replace the sand in the filter once during each batch of pigs.

“Where we have installed these and implemented all the cleaning and testing routines, we have seen a reduction in antibiotics usage through a reduction in scour-related illness.

Growth rates have also improved with greater uptake of water, leading to an increased feed intake,” he says.