TY - JOUR
T1 - Preweaning mortality in loose-housed lactating sows
T2 - Behavioral and performance differences between sows who crush or do not crush piglets
AU - Johnson, Anna Kerr
AU - Morrow, Julie Lynn
AU - Dailey, Jeffery William
AU - McGlone, John James
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by USDA-Fund for Rural America, USDA-ARS, Consolidated Nutrition and Texas Tech Animal Science Research Funds. The authors thank J. Smith and A. Lewis for animal care and technical assistance.
PY - 2007/6
Y1 - 2007/6
N2 - The majority of piglet deaths occur within the first 72 h after parturition, with crushing by the sow as the most common cause of preweaning mortality. The aim of this study was to compare the behavior and performance of sows that killed piglets (CR) to those that did not (NC) inside a farrowing hut within the first 72 h after parturition. A total of 336 sows and their litters were used for comparisons. CR sows had more (P < 0.01) piglets born/litter and born alive/litter than NC sows. Mortality was higher (P < 0.01) for CR sows, with most piglet mortality in the first 72 h and there was a trend (P = 0.06) for CR sows to wean fewer piglets/litter than NC sows (7.8 ± 0.20 versus 8.4 ± 0.26), respectively. Behaviors were collected by time-lapse video on 20 sows, 10 from each group. Four sow postures: walking, standing, sitting and lying; four sow behaviors: pawing, rooting, nursing interval and nursing duration; and one sow location: out of hut were recorded. NC sows had a longer (P = 0.03) parturition compared to CR sows. Time (min) spent outside the farrowing hut did not differ between groups over the first 2 days, but on day 3 NC sows spent more (P = 0.01) time outside of the farrowing hut (20.2 ± 4.7) compared to CR sows (40.4 ± 4.8). NC sows spent more time pawing (P < 0.01) than CR sows (5.2 ± 0.41 min versus 1.7 ± 0.38 min) but no differences were found for all other behaviors (P > 0.05). There were no (P > 0.05) group differences for sow lying postures. One hour prior to piglet mortality 62.5% of CR sows moved from lying sternal to lying lateral, 25% moved from lying lateral to lying sternal and 12.5% of CR sows went from standing to lying lateral. In conclusion, CR sows spent more time inside the farrowing hut on day 3, spent more time lying on their sternum prior to crushing a piglet and the behavioral sequence associated with crushing piglets was a shift in lying postures rather than a transition from sitting or standing to lying.
AB - The majority of piglet deaths occur within the first 72 h after parturition, with crushing by the sow as the most common cause of preweaning mortality. The aim of this study was to compare the behavior and performance of sows that killed piglets (CR) to those that did not (NC) inside a farrowing hut within the first 72 h after parturition. A total of 336 sows and their litters were used for comparisons. CR sows had more (P < 0.01) piglets born/litter and born alive/litter than NC sows. Mortality was higher (P < 0.01) for CR sows, with most piglet mortality in the first 72 h and there was a trend (P = 0.06) for CR sows to wean fewer piglets/litter than NC sows (7.8 ± 0.20 versus 8.4 ± 0.26), respectively. Behaviors were collected by time-lapse video on 20 sows, 10 from each group. Four sow postures: walking, standing, sitting and lying; four sow behaviors: pawing, rooting, nursing interval and nursing duration; and one sow location: out of hut were recorded. NC sows had a longer (P = 0.03) parturition compared to CR sows. Time (min) spent outside the farrowing hut did not differ between groups over the first 2 days, but on day 3 NC sows spent more (P = 0.01) time outside of the farrowing hut (20.2 ± 4.7) compared to CR sows (40.4 ± 4.8). NC sows spent more time pawing (P < 0.01) than CR sows (5.2 ± 0.41 min versus 1.7 ± 0.38 min) but no differences were found for all other behaviors (P > 0.05). There were no (P > 0.05) group differences for sow lying postures. One hour prior to piglet mortality 62.5% of CR sows moved from lying sternal to lying lateral, 25% moved from lying lateral to lying sternal and 12.5% of CR sows went from standing to lying lateral. In conclusion, CR sows spent more time inside the farrowing hut on day 3, spent more time lying on their sternum prior to crushing a piglet and the behavioral sequence associated with crushing piglets was a shift in lying postures rather than a transition from sitting or standing to lying.
KW - Behavior
KW - Farrowing house
KW - Mortality
KW - Outdoor
KW - Sow
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34247511180&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.applanim.2006.06.001
DO - 10.1016/j.applanim.2006.06.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34247511180
SN - 0168-1591
VL - 105
SP - 59
EP - 74
JO - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
JF - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
IS - 1-3
ER -