Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
10. Housing, management and environment
during farrowing and early lactation
O.A.T. Peltoniemi and C. Oliviero
University of Helsinki, Dept. Production Animal Medicine, Paroninkuja 20, 04920
Saarentaus, Finland;
olli.peltoniemi@helsinki.fi
,
claudio.oliviero@helsinki.fi
Abstract
The determination of successful farrowings includes components of maternal behaviour,
duration of farrowing, piglet mortality and colostrum intake. Duration of farrowing can
be used as a simple measure of whether or not a farrowing can be considered successful.
We suggest a time limit of 300 minutes for a successful farrowing. In addition to its well-
known benefits, human intervention by means of exogenous hormones during parturition
comprises risks which should be considered. Induction of farrowing by prostaglandin
administration may lead to immature piglets being born with congenital complications.
Over use/routine use of oxytocin may reduce placental blood flow and thereby expose
fetuses remaining in the uterus to hypoxia. Pain management of the sow at farrowing is an
issue of high importance for a successful beginning of lactation and whenever abnormal
nursing behaviour is observed, pain should be considered as a potential cause. Feeding
is considered the major factor for reproductive management of the hyperprolific sow
around farrowing. New insights such as adding more fiber to sow diets during pregnancy,
and especially during the period prior to farrowing, may prevent constipation, increase
water intake of the sow around parturition and increase milk intake and performance
of piglets. Use of modern technology in supervision of farrowings may decrease losses
related to large litters. In breeding programs, new components of maternal characteristics,
such as maternal behaviour, ease of parturition, colostrum production, and piglet quality
parameters, may be utilized to further improve success rate of reproductive management
during farrowing and early lactation.
Keywords:
sow, feeding, pain, hormones, constipation
10.1
Introduction
Farrowing is a key event in the production life of a sow and it has a substantial economic
impact on piglet production. Years of breeding selection in pig production have achieved
excellent results in increasing the total number of piglets born per litter. However, there
is evidence of a negative association between litter size and individual piglet birth weight
(Kerr and Cameron, 1995; Roehe, 1999; Sorensen
et al.
, 2000), and of an increase in the
proportion of piglets born dead along with increasing litter size (Sorensen
et al.
, 2000).
Feeding strategies have also aimed at increasing sow milk yield in order to better support
the growth of all the piglets during the pre-weaning phase (Einarsson and Rojkittikhun,
1993). The productive cycle of sows has become faster, with a reduced duration of
