Farrowing culling and therapeutic injections rates in litters from sows treated with Metacam

Farrowing is a critical period for the sow in which painful, inflammatory and infectious processes along with other systemic events cause postpartum stress and may trigger Postpartum Dysgalactia Syndrome (PPDS) which manifests itself either in clinical or subclinical presentation, both with negative impact on the sow and its litter regarding the development of suckling pigs. The objective of this study was to determine under field conditions the effect of meloxicam in litters from sows of a farm with subclinical PPDS.

The study took place on a multi-site intensive farm with a total number of 265 sows and 3077 piglets. Sows were divided into 2 experimental groups, Group A (n=127 sows) was treated with meloxicam 5 ml IM and Group B (n=138 sows) was injected with saline solution 5 ml IM to serve as control group. One hour after farrowing each piglet was identified with numbered ear tags and cross fostering was restricted to first 24 hours within litters from the same treatment group. The number of culled animals was documented alongside the number of therapeutic injectable medications on an individual level. The experimental unit was the litter, chi-square test was used to assess differences of culled animals and a significance test for independent proportions was used to assess the number of therapeutic injectable medications between groups.

Piglets in the control group had a greater culling rate than in the meloxicam group. Control group had 34 culls out of 1573 animals and meloxicam group had 18 culls out of a total of 1504 animals. This difference was statistically significant (p< 0,05).

Overall, the number of therapeutic injections applied in relation to the total number of piglets per group was 20% for the meloxicam group and 25% for the control group. 43 concomitant therapeutic injections where given in the meloxicam group to control locomotory problems, versus 45 injections in the control group. In terms of diarrhea, 261 therapeutic injection where given in the meloxicam group versus 348 injections in the control group, this difference was statistically significant (p< 0,05).

The litters from sows treated with meloxicam performed better in culling rate and therapeutic injections rate from birth to weaning (21 days average). The differences found on both variables could be related to a sow with less pain and inflammation after farrow resulting in a greater availability of milk and colostrum for the piglets during the critical starting process of lactation. These results are in line with previous research and further confirm the value of controlling lactation disorders during the first critical hours for piglets colostrum and milk intake.

Disclosure of Interest: C. Gutiérrez Conflict with: Boehringer Ingelheim, D. Guiñez: None Declared, V. Grosse-Liesner: None Declared, A. Ruiz: None Declared, C. Roudergue Conflict with: Boehringer Ingelheim.