Pre-weaning survival in US herds ranges from 80-90% with the majority of the death loss occurring in the first three days after birth from crushing from the dam. Risk factors for mortality are low body weight, inability to regulate body temperature after birth, and low colostrum intake. The swine industry has adopted several management practices to aid in these areas, such as drying piglets at birth or split suckling. However, in commercial settings, few have shown improvements in colostrum intake or survival to weaning. An additional management practice has been to induce sows to farrow to allow for labor to be present at the time of farrowing to assist sows during farrowing as well as assist piglets in nursing. However, questions have remained about whether inducing sows negatively impacts the piglet by increasing the likelihood of hypoxia or oxygen deprivation during the birthing process. The purpose of the studies in this project were to evaluate the impacts of farrowing induction on piglet blood parameters, colostrum intake and survival as well as evaluate heat lamp management to increase piglet body temperature after birth. These studies found that farrowing induction did not negatively impact the farrowing process or fetal blood oxygenation at birth. Piglets born later in the birth order did have increased signs of hypoxic stress in the blood, but this was seen in naturally farrowing and induced sows. Piglets placed at the udder, regardless of where the heat lamp is located within the farrowing rate, nursed sooner after birth and had increased body temperatures at 30min after birth. However, this did not increase colostrum intake or survival in these piglets. In both studies performed, body weight and colostrum intake were the main drivers of mortality. Therefore, additional work looking at novel methods to increase colostrum intake and increase birth weight in piglets should be investigated.
Publications
Alexandra Fisk, KaLynn Harlow, Abigail Statler, Grace deNeui, Dan Rosener, Stacy Peters, Kara R Stewart, PSII-2 Evaluation of Meloxicam in Sows Post-Farrowing on Sow and Piglet Performance, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 101, Issue Supplement_2, November 2023, Pages 260–261, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad341.296
Kayla M Mills, Larissa K Shirley, Katharine Sharp, Ricardo Garcia, Aridany Suarez-Trujillo, Kara R Stewart, Effects of induction on the farrowing process and piglet blood parameters at the time of farrowing, Translational Animal Science, Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2021, txab032, https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txab032
Katharine G Sharp, Kayla M Mills, Larissa Shirley, Ricardo Garcia, Kara R Stewart, PSVII-21 Impacts of various farrowing induction protocols on attended farrowings, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 98, Issue Supplement_3, November 2020, Page 215, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaa054.373
Aridany Suárez-Trujillo, L Kirsten Senn, Kelsey Teeple, Theresa M Casey, Kara R Stewart, A standardized model to study effects of varying 24-h colostrum dose on postnatal growth and development, Translational Animal Science, Volume 4, Issue 4, October 2020, txaa212, https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaa212
