Good management routines around farrowing are essential for piglet survival in loose-housed sow herds

Piglet mortality, mainly within the first 4 days after farrowing, is still an important welfare issue and an economical challenge. Variation in piglet mortality between herds with similar genetic material and physical environment indicates that the herd`s management is a crucial factor. The objective of this survey was to assess the importance of different management routines around the time of farrowing and other farm qualities for piglet survival in loose-housed herds.

This field survey included 52 farms with hybrid sows of LY (Norsvin Landrace X Swedish Yorkshire). The farms were visited and farmers answered a questionnaire about their management practices. The outcome was the average herd pre-weaning mortality in the years 2012-2013. To include as many management factors as possible into the multivariable linear regression model, we generated a new variable based on 4 management routines; 3 routines at farrowing (presence at 80-100% of the farrowings, drying newborn piglets, split suckling), and one regarding farmers` contact with the sows. This variable was called “Management type” (M), and were divided into 4 categories with increasing effort; M1 herds (53.8%) without any of the 4 routines, but with others, M2 (21.2%) had contact with sows > 2 times per day, M3 (17.3%) performed the 3 routines at farrowing, and M4 (7.7%) combined the contact and the 3 routines.

Mean herd piglet mortality was 16.9±0.6% (5.5-28.3). The respective piglet mortality values for M1, M2, M3 and M4 herds were 18.6%, 15.6%, 15.1%, and 13.6%. When running the model and controlling for important confounders, the increasing management effort from M1-M4 was associated with lower piglet mortality (P< 0.05).

We found piglet mortality to be multifactorial, as many management factors together lead to reduced mortality. Results in this study indicates that a high degree of farmer`s presence during farrowing, together with drying newborn piglets, split suckling and frequent contact with the sows, were important for reduced piglet mortality. Presence at farrowing makes the farmer able to discover individuals in need of attention, drying newborn piglets prevents them to become chilled, and split suckling secures colostrum to the smallest piglets in a litter. Frequent contact will probably reduce the sow`s level of fear and stress at farrowing, and is therefore positive for piglet survival. Overall, this study suggests that farmers with high management effort in the crucial period around farrowing, are credited for this work by getting a higher piglet survival.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared.