Increasing piglet survival through an improved farrowing management protocol

Abstract

The profitability of swine production units is significantly decreased by the high rate of mortality which occurs during parturition or shortly thereafter. This study compared the survival rates of pigs subjected to different farrowing management protocols. Sixty litters of crossbred piglets (York × Landrace) were randomly assigned to one of two protocols for management at farrowing. The first, unattended or control group, corresponded to the traditional commercial farrowing practice used on most hog farms today which provides for no attention during farrowing. The second protocol consisted of attending the farrowing and executing a sequence of procedures to the newborn animals. Mortality rates and their causes, weight gains, and haematocrit levels were recorded for the first 3 wk of life. Total preweaning mortality was 18.2 and 10.1% for the control and attended groups, respectively. The main impact of the treatment was the reduction of the animals that otherwise would have been classified as stillbirths. The stillbirth rate decreased from 6.8 to 1.6% while the mortality rate during the first day decreased from 5.2% in the unattended litters to 2.2% in the attended litters, respectively. At weaning the weight of the attended piglets was higher (P < 0.05) than those of the unattended animals. The overall weight gain was higher in the attended litters when compared with those of the control litters (3.99 ± 0.08 and 3.68 ± 0.06 kg, respectively). Processing each pig takes about 2 min, but waiting for the next pig requires approximately 15 min per piglet. The reduction in mortality of 44% (equivalent to about one piglet per litter) plus the benefit of enhanced performance in the attended group could justify the implementation of a farrowing protocol which involves adding the extra labour at farrowing time, especially if several sows are attended by the same attendant.