Piglet Survival: One of the Keys to Profitability (Part-2)

In this paper we will look at some of the research that has been done on Piglet Survival, in hopes of finding some results that can be used on the average commercial breeding unit.  The first part of this series looked at some of my personal experiences in (A)  Farrowing Out Sows(B)  Treating Mastitis  (C)  Cross-fostering Piglets (D)  Using Nurse Sows and (E)  Piglet and Sow Environment.  Part-2, of Piglet Survival: One of the Keys to Profitability, will look at the Survivability of the piglet itself. 

With the advent of the statistical model call BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction), breeding companies were able to select more effectively for lowly heritable traits like Pigs Born Alive. (1)  Unfortunately, as breeding companies selected for larger litters born, the number of piglet deaths, and the number of stillborn piglets went up, and the average birth weight of the piglets went down. (2)  The good news is that we can select for a reduction of the range of Birth weights between the lightest piglet born and the heaviest piglet born. (3)  Selecting for Piglets Alive at Day 5 will increase the survivability of nursing piglets. (4)  And finally , there is more good news, especially for the smaller producer, in that if we are willing to spend a few more labor hours in the Farrowing Barn, we can greatly increase our pigs weaned by simple cross-fostering. 

I used to make simple maps of each Farrowing House, showing all of its crates.  As sows farrowed I wrote down how many piglets were born alive.  I sorted piglets to an average litter of ten.  Better sows could get eleven piglets if needed, and poorer mothers got less than ten.  The sow card, with statistics (like those on PigCHAMP), on each individual sow will help you know which sows to load-up, and which sows to short-change.

There is a positive correlation between the Number of Pigs Born in a Litter (TNB), and Piglet Mortality. (2)  Average Pre-Weaning Losses in many countries, in 2003, was running 7.4% Stillborn and 12.8% Pre-Weaning Mortality, which amounts to a 79.8% Survival Rate.  The Heritability of Piglet Survival was measured at only 0.02 per piglet, but if I understand it correctly, the effect is additive per parent.  Thus a sow weaning 10 piglets, at 0.02 each, would have a 0.20 value for selection pressure.  Knol states that selection for leaness negatively affects piglet survival.(2)  He also states that the correlation between fatness and piglet survival is positive at 0.50!

Research was done on Danish pigs to find if Day 5 Survival would help to select more accurately for Piglet Survival.  Su, Lund and Sorenson found an almost complete correlation between Number Alive at Day 5 (N5D) and Number Weaned at 3 Weeks (N3W).  This correlation was a staggering 0.995. with 1.0 being a perfect correlation!  Needless to say,  Denmark now selects for Pigs Born Alive at Day 5, instead of Day 1!  The report by Su et. al. also reported that cross-fostering had a small, but positive effect on piglet survival to Day 5! 

Kramer and Kirkwood, from Michigan State University, state the importance of a piglet getting adequate colostrum before it is cross-fostered out. (5)  You basically have a 12 hour window to get colostrum from the original dam to her piglets.  Though there is still some absorption of Immunoglobulins from 12 to 24 hours of age. (6,7,9)  It has also been said that a piglet’s own biological mother has the colostrum most suited for her own piglets.(7)

Finally, Inducing Farrowing can allow you the opportunity to attend more farrowings and to reduce the number of stillborns that you have. (8)

To sum it up, we can improve Piglet Survival by (A)  selecting for Piglets Born Alive at Day 5, (B)  We can make sure piglets get colostrum from their own dam before we cross-foster them, and (C)  We can Synchronize Farrowings and attend as many farrowings as possible to help out with difficult farrowings, this reducing the number of stillborns. (8) 

(1)    Baas, T.J.  Spring 2013, Class notes for An S 280X  Basic Swine Production Module 9, pg.3

(2)   Knol, Egbert F.  “Quantitative Selection for Piglet Survival as a Safe Way to Reduce the Cost of Weaners”  2003 Advances in Pork Production Vol. 14 pgs. 59-65.

(3)   Hermesh, S., B.G. Luxford and H.U. Graser “Genetic Parameters for Piglet Mortality, Within Liter Variation of Birth Weight, Litter Size and Litter Birth Weight”.  Proc. Assoc. Advmt. Amim. Breed. Genet. Vol. 14

(4)   Su, G., M.S .Lund and D. Sorenson “Selection for litter size at day five to improve litter size at weaning and piglet survival rate”.  March 05, 2007 Journal of Animal Science Vol. 85 no.6 1385-1392.

(5)   Kramer, Scott A., and Roy N. Kirkwood “Time-to Suckle in Cross-Fostered Piglets?” Pork Quarterly from MSU July 06, 2011.

(6)   Cabrera R., X. Lin, M. Ashwell, A. Moeser and J. Odle “Early Postnatal Kinesetic of Colostral Immuoglobulin G Absorption in Fed and Fasted Piglets and Developmental Expression of the Intestinal Immunoglobulin G. Receptor” Abstract pgs. 1+2, J. ANIM. SCI January 2013 vol. no. 1 pgs. 211-218.

(7)   King’ori, A.M. “The Pre-Weaning Piglet:  Colostrum and Milk Uptake: A Review” J Anim Prod Adv 2012 2(6): 277-283 pg. 277-8

(8)   Thompson, Paul Walker “Personal Experiences  1993-1997”.

(9)   Hypor A Hendrix Genetics Company (2009)  WC#7 “ Increasing Piglet Survival to Weaning” copyright 2009 Hypor.