Symptoms of porcine stress syndrome and the perfect environment

Needing more information on porcine stress syndrome I started to do more research on types of symptoms that occur with this disorder. Reading several articles from Pork Quality Assurance lead me to details I never knew. When a pig starts to stress it progressively leads to heart shocks leading in death. The process can go very slow or extremely fast. A pig will undergo a 40◦ C increase in temperature instantly. Their skin will become reddish purple and they have a tendency to squeal very loudly. It is common to have shaking in the face and for them to collapse without any movement, as they start to stiffen. All these symptoms strongly depend on the type of environment their in. Reading this article showed me how important it is to keep all swine in the least stress situation possible.

            What is the best environment for a pig and is it really important. From raising pigs I know how different a pig can react in different environments. When a pig is little it adapts to a certain environment ranging from the mud to an air conditioned building. When you take a pig a put them in somewhere totally different of coarse, their going to stress. I think that they should be provided with the best environment possible to keep from having deaths. I also believe that a pig shouldnt have to be taken out of the enviroment there used to.      

Should all swine containing porcine stress syndrome be provided with higher quality facilities before being slaughtered?

           Coming from a small town I grew up raising and breeding market hogs. We strive for the best quality that the market is looking for. Swine containing porcine stress syndrome are starting to over populate the swine industry, providing us with better meat and producing the idea market hog. Having the quality that the swine industry needs is very important because it gives people the opportunity to higher quality meat, at a cheaper price.

            So you’re probably asking yourself what is porcine stress syndrome? PSS is an inherited genetic disorder found only in swine. The disorder is part of their stress gene causing swine several issues if not taken care of correctly. If a pig is stress positive, which means they have porcine stress syndrome, several health issues are at risk for these animals. A pig containing PSS has a higher risk for being stressed easily. When a pig starts to stress several symptoms will occur, usually causing death. Not all pigs will die if they start to stress but it does have a tremendous impact on the meat they produce.

            Having most the meat industry populated with the porcine stress syndrome, Shouldn’t this issue be taken seriously? There are thousands of pigs that die from this disorder everyday. Without these thousands of pigs it leaves thousands of people without quality meat. Pigs with PSS are dying because they are being poorly taken care of.

            Should all swine containing porcine stress syndrome be provided with higher quality facilities before being slaughtered? This question means a lot to me and should matter to others as it is a very important topic. Being around pigs with this disorder I know what it takes to maintain the perfect environment. When pigs go from the perfect environment and get thrown into a pen with hundreds of pigs the stress is going to hit instantly. As said before the swine industry is becoming over populated with pigs containing porcine stress syndrome. If several are being killed caused by stressed situations in slaughter houses, where will we get our pork?