Pre-weaning mortality

Farrowing House mortality - Target levels.

	7.5%
Congential Defects	0.5%
Overlying	2.5%
Starvation	1.0%
Enteritis	1.5%
Unviable piglets	1.0%
Miscellaneous	1.0%

Over 50% of piglet deaths occur within the first 2-3 days of life and many of the later deaths are triggered by events in the first few hours of life.
Mortality due to starvation and overlying account for 75% of preweaning deaths.
Piglet mortality is due more to environment, management and nutrition of the newborn pig than disease.

The normal healthy newborn piglet has three basic requirements if it is to survive and thrive

Adequate and regular nutrition
A warm draught free environment so as to conserve its energy reserves
Safety from overlying by the sow

The Farrowing Pen

Position farrowing crates at least 40 cms from pen divisions. Farrowing crates positioned too close to the partition can result in increased mortality due to overlying and starvation.
Ensure nipple drinkers are positioned at the correct height. Nipple drinkers fixed too high can result in the spillage of water onto the farrowing pen floor. Wet floors provide an ideal environment for the survival of organisms which could cause sow mastitis or scour in pigs.
The farrowing crate should be designed so that the sow has to lie down on her belly first before rolling over onto either side.
On slatted floors provide a plentiful supply of suitable bedding material (e.g. shredded paper) under the udder of the sow and across to each side creep in the first 24 hours after farrowing to protect against chilling and help reduce losses from overlying.

Care of small weak pigs

Provide them with perfect comfort.
Assist weak pigs to suckle as soon after birth as possible while milk is constantly available on the sow. If milk cannot be expressed from teats previously collected sow colostrum or tinned evaporated milk can be run down a teat as small weak piglets are held to it.
Encourage them to accept teats neglected by litter mates so as to minimize competition.
Equalize birthweights within litters by cross fostering very soon after birth.
For the small pigs choose a docile sow which has readily accessible, easily ‘grippable’ teat
Ensure in fostering that the number of piglets on a sow does not exceed her rearing capacity (number of functional teats being exposed while the sow is in the suckling position).
If the sow is short of milk, provide suitable piglet milk replacer on a ‘little and often’ basis.

Supplementary heat at farrowing

An infra red bulb should be suspended at the rear of the sow during farrowing. The bulb should then be moved forward to the creep area so the piglets are encouraged to lie beneath the lamp away from the sows udder. The heat can be removed when the pigs are trained to use the heat pad.

Remember

Piglets require a temperature of 340C at the place of birth and in each side creep if they are not to suffer a body temperature drop after birth. Providing good quality dry bedding for the first 24 hours of life raises the temperature by 8oC as the bedding prevents the pig from losing heat to the solid or slatted floor beneath.

Sow Age

Old sows tend to suckle poorly, have an inferior mothering ability and produce piglets of varying weights at birth so that pre-weaning mortality is higher. Cull routinely at 6th or 7th litter based on unit records of sow performance by age.

Fostering is a useful tool to help overcome the causes of starvation.

Fostering

Fostering is one of the most useful tools at the disposal of the stockman to overcome many of the causes of starvation in piglets.

Ten tips towards more successful fostering:

1. Prepare piglets for fostering

Before fostering, ensure piglets to be fostered have had an adequate opportunity for about 1 hour to obtain colostrum from their own dam. This is particularly important when larger newly born piglets are to be fostered to sows which have farrowed 1-3 days previously.

2. Foster promptly

Once adequate colostrum intake from their own dam has been ensured then foster promptly.

3. Be kinder to smaller, weaker piglets

Fostering strategy should be based on what is in the best interest of the weaker piglets in a litter.

If the stockman thinks that weaker piglets will be better off by leaving them on their own dam then he should foster off the stronger ones.

If weaker piglets will be better off by fostering them to a suitable newly farrowed sow with a small litter of small piglets then this should be done.

4. Excess rearing capacity when deciding on fostering

Decisions on fostering must take into account the rearing capacity of sows. This refers to the number of functional teats and the number of these exposed to piglets when she is in the nursing position.

5. Even up birthweights within litters by cross fostering

In larger herds or where batch farrowing is practised, it is an excellent practice to even up birthweights within litters by cross-fostering as soon after farrowing as possible, always ensuring that the smaller piglets go to a docile dam with fairly slender teats of medium length and at the right height for suckling by small piglets when the sow is in the nursing position.

6. Use suckling behaviour to guide fostering of older piglets

In the case of overnight farrowing when litters may be 12 hours or more before fostering is considered, choice of piglets for fostering should be based on observed suckling behaviour. Piglets which do not have a settled teat are the most obvious candidates for fostering. On the other hand, a small piglet in a litter of large piglets which has a stable suckling position and is suckling successfully is best left where it is for the time being.

7. Coping with a surplus of newborn piglets

Finding scope for fostering becomes a problem in a batch of farrowing sows all of which have surplus piglets or in cases of agalactia (absence or shortage of milk). The best solution to this problem is to foster the largest of these newborn on to a docile good milking sow which has farrowed about one week previously. In turn the one week old litter of this sow can be fostered on to a docile and milky sow weaned at the normal stage. Some skilful operators are quite prepared to foster surplus strong newborn pigs directly on to a sow weaned around the 3 week stage. It is a good idea in this case to leave one or two of the smallest of her own pigs on her for a few hours to help the new litter get established. She should end up with one or two pigs less than she reared in her first litter to give the new piglets some degree of choice of functional teats.

8. Colostrum sharing soon after birth

If a stockman finds a very large litter of, say, 17 newly farrowed pigs when starting work in the morning and he cannot get round to fostering at once since one or two other sows have just started to farrow, he should meantime attend to colostrum sharing with the large litter. If the litter has dried off, he must assume that the larger piglets have already had a good share of colostrum and that the smaller piglets within such a large litter have had very little, if any. Therefore the 9 or 10 largest piglets should be shut away for about 2 hours in a well bedded and heated area and preferential access to the udder given to the 7 or 8 smallest piglets. After 2 hours on their own they will have found their way to the teats, obtained a good suckle of colostrum, they will be less liable to hypothermia and will have developed confidence in their own ability to compete effectively at the udder. They will be entirely different pigs to what they would have been if left competing with all their larger littermates for that 2 hour period.

9. Cater for ill-thriving piglets in older litters

Individual piglets which are ill-thriving in older litters because of malnutrition rather than disease can be fostered to newly farrowed sows. It is important that they are well matched in size and strength with their new litter-mates.

10.Unused mammary glands take three days to dry off

It takes about three days after farrowing for unused teat glands to dry off. Thus, surplus newly born piglets can be successfully fostered on to a sow with spare rearing capacity which has farrowed up to three days previously. In this case it is usually preferable to foster off the stronger piglets, leaving the smaller ones on their own dam.

Temperature requirements in the Farrowing House

	Degrees C
Lactating sow	15-20
Newborn piglet	34
Newborn litter huddled	24-34

The newborn piglet is able to withstand a lower environmental temperature when it huddles with its litter mates. This reduces the lower critical temperature (LCT) to 25°C. Moderate draughts (0.2 m/sec) increases the LCT by 4°C. Wet floors increase the LCT by 5-10°C. Liberal bedding reduces the LCT by 5-10°C. The combination of a moderate draught and wet floors can increase the LCT by 9-14°C. Conditions at the rear of the sow during farrowing are often wet and draughty (on slats).

The temperature requirements of the lactating sow differ greatly from that of the piglets. Excessive farrowing house temperatures depress sow appetite, with subsequent weight loss in lactation and reduced suckling ability.

If the piglet’s temperature requirements are not satisfied in the immediate post farrowing period, a lowering of body temperature takes place and this chilling results in lethargy and reduced competitiveness at suckling which leads to reduced colostrum intake, starvation and overlying. If it survives it is more liable to disease problems such as scouring because of a lower colostrum intake.

Split suckling

This is useful particularly where sufficient sows have not farrowed in order to allow cross fostering and balancing of pigs for weight at birth. It can also be useful where large litters are present in order to ensure that all piglets receive an adequate supply of colostrum and milk. It involves transferring the heavier piglets to an enclosed section of the creep area and then following an injection of 5 iu of oxytocin to the sow, the smaller pigs are supervised and assisted at suckling. This procedure can be repeated at regular intervals