Improving piglet survival in large litters

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Improving piglet survival in large litters

• Flemming Thorup
• DVM, Ph. D.

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Danish Pig Production

• Is lead by a board of pig producers
• Secretariat
• Breeding department (DAN bred)
• Veterinary department
• Dept. for Barn (equipment) and Production
  Systems
• Department for Feeding and Reproduction
• Feeding of weaners and finishers
• Reproduction
• Quality of boar semen
• AI techniques
• Feeding of sows
• Sow longevity
• Female reproduction

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Objects

• On farm investigations
• Large scale balanced comparative studies
• Observational studies
• Report writing
• Presentations
• Advisers, technicians, veterinarians, farmers,
  co-workers
• Information
• Teaching
• Vet. and anim. sci. students, graduation projects
• Handling general problems
• Herd problems

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Improving piglet survival in large litters
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Production herd results 1992-2005
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Development 1992-2005
Year 1992 2005
Total born per litter 11,5 14,6
Still born, per cent 6 11
Piglet mortality, per cent 12 15
Weaned per sow 9,5 11
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Piglet age at death
15 per cent mortality
11 per cent mortality
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Most piglets die during the first 3-5 days

• Not much time to save the piglets
• - or
• Only 3 days of work to save the piglets?

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Causes of mortality, percent of dead
Cause 13 per cent mortality 9 per cent mortality
Crushed 64 65
Sepsis 5 10
Small at birth 6 7
Starvation 11 5
Diarrhea 4 2
Hernia 2 3
Bleeding 0 2
Arthritis 1 2
Splayleg 1 0
Malformation 0 2
Miscellaneous 7 5
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Primary diagnosis for crushed piglets?

Autopsy Number of piglets Number of piglets
Autopsy Herd 1 Herd 2
Coagulum in ventricle 53 21
Empty ventricle 19 19
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Causes of mortality

• Crushed-crushed-crushed and weak
• What comes first?
• Sepsis?

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Mortality with increasing litter size
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Number at birth. Effect on mortality.
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Late born piglets have the highest postnatal
mortality

• Increase from 9-12
• No increase from 12 to 18?
• Late born piglets have to fight more for milk
  (Barnes and Quainoo, IPVS 1982)

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Antibody level and mortalityIg 12 hours after
birth
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Antibody level 12 hours after birth

• Average 45 g/liter
• Large variations between piglets
• 0 at 12 hours death
• 5 to 10 at 12 hours hope for survivial
• 15 to 55 at 12 hours fair chance
• gt 55 will survive
• gt 20 per cent of the piglets

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Distribution of birth weights
12
10
8
Per cent of live born piglets
6
4
2
0
0,3
0,5
0,7
0,9
1,1
1,3
1,5
1,7
1,9
2,1
2,3
2,5
Birth weight, kg
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Weight at birth and mortality
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4,5 per cent 6,0 per cent 2,5 per cent 13,0
per cent
70
60
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Mortality, per cent.
40
30
20
10
0
0,5
0,7
0,9
1,1
1,3
1,5
1,7
1,9
2,1
2,3
Birth weight, kg
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Underweight piglets and litter size
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Piglet mortality

• The piglets die by crushing
• - during the first days
• They are the smallest piglets
• They are the last born piglets
• They are the piglets with a low antibody intake
• Piglets going to be crushed can be predicted at
  birth
• Piglets that are going to survive can be
  predicted at birth
• Most piglets are in between!

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Effect of birth weight and birth order on
mortality
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Effect of birth weight and birth order on
mortality
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Birth weight, birth order and Ig
Birth weight lt1 kilo lt1 kilo 1 kg 1 kg
No. at birth 1-7 gt7 1-7 gt7
Piglets, no. 13 14 99 71
Deaths, no. 1 10 3 5
Low Ig, no. 0 4 1 3
Low Ig means lt 10 gram/liter. (Average 45
gram/liter)
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Hypotheses for piglets born in large litters

• The first born piglets have readily access to
  colostrum and milk
• The last born piglets must compete with the
  fortunate first born piglets
• The smallest piglets loose this competition

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Solution

• Litter size must be adjusted
• Moving piglets to small litters
• Using nurse sows
• When?
• After colostrum uptake
• Before the piglets die
• Before ranking

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Colostrum uptake

• Registration of birth order and birth weight
• Assay 12, 24 and 48 hours after birth
• Assay for non specific Igs
• Registration of mortality until weaning

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Effect of birth order
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Effect of birth weight
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What is the optimal nurse sow for 12 hours old
piglets?

• Parity
• A second to fourth litter sow have the highest
  milk production
• Stage of lactation
• Milk composition
• Increasing or decreasing production
• Empty period
• Milk pressure, motivation or forgetting her own
  piglets?
• Accept of piglets
• Relaxants
• Oxytocin

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One step nurse sow
21 day old piglets
New born piglets
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Two step nurse
7 day old piglets
21 day old piglets
New born piglets
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One or two step nurse?
One step nurse 21 day lactation Two step nurse 7 day lactation
Available Easy More work Double risk
Acceptance of new piglets ??? ???
Milk production Decreasing Increasing
Milk quality High High
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Set up of trial

• Collecting pairs of newborn piglets after
  colostrum-uptake
• All piglets were earmarked and weighed
• One piglet stayed with the mother
• One piglet went into the trial

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Nurse sows

• Piglets randomly entered a one step or a two step
  nurse sow
• All nurse sows were 1. Litter sows
• Both nurse sows had an equal profile
• Number of piglets born
• Number of piglets weaned
• Lactation length
• Video for 24 hours
• Mortality and weight at weaning was recorded

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Results
One step nurse Two step nurse
Litters 10 10
Piglets 110 110
Hours to first nursing 7 5
Mortality, 18a 6b
Weaning weight, kg 5,5a 6,4b
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Results
Control piglets One step nurse Two step nurse
Litters 201 10 10
Piglets 220 110 110
Hours to first nursing (40 minutes) 7 5
Mortality, 6b 18a 6b
Weaning weight, kg 6,3b 5,5a 6,4b
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Two step nurse
7 day old piglets
21 day old piglets
New born piglets
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The first step piglets

• Piglets earmarked and weighed at transfer at 7
  days and at weaning
• Compared with a similar litter not transferred

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Transferred two step nurse piglets
Transferred piglets Piglets not transferred
Litters 10 10
Piglets 119 116
Age at transfer/control 7,2 6,1
Weight at transfer/control 2,2 2,3
Mortality, 3,4 6
Weaning weight, kg 6,3 6,7
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Gilts or sows as nurse sows
1. Litter sows 2.-5. Litter sows
Litters 12 12
Piglets 124 126
Mortality, 12a 28b
Weaning weight, kg 6,9 7,1
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Piglet mortality at first litter or older nurse
sows.
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11 or 13 piglets per litter?

• 31 pairs of sows with 24 piglets
• Piglets were app. 24 hours old
• 11 and 13 piglets were allocated to the two sows
• No transfer of piglets after allocation
• Piglets at both sows were weaned at the same day

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11 or 13 piglets per litter?
Litter size 11 13
Litters 31 31
Mortality 8,2 10,2
Weight per piglet 7,7a 7,1b
Piglets weaned 313 363
P 0,08
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Trial Ensuring colostrum to the smallest piglets

• Control
• Adjusting litter size after 12 hours
• Small or large piglets could be transferred

• Trial
• Reducing litter size to 10 after 6 hours by
  removal of the largest piglets
• Adjusting litter size after 12 hours
• Small or large piglets could be transferred

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Ensuring milk to the smallest piglets
Control Control Trial Trial Trial
Size Weight in kilo Small 0,5 -1 Large 1,1-2,4 Small 0,5 -1 Large 1,1-2,4 Isolatedpart of large
Number 64 414 74 419 161
Mortality 28 10 34 8 7
Transferred 34 22 15 34 68
A difference of 15 per cent would be
significant.
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Ensuring milk to the smallest piglets

• No effect on the survival of the smallest
  piglets, when reducing the litter to 10, to
  ensure colostrum to the smallest piglets .
• Were there an effect of removing (collecting) the
  smallest piglets?
• Is mortality in small piglets primarily a cause
  of lack of sows milk?
• Large piglets may be removed from the mother
  after 6 hours

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Conclusions

• Crushing may be the visible cause of death, but a
  number of precursors seems to exist
• Understanding these precursors may lead into ways
  of reducing piglet mortality

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• A number of other management factors have been
  shown to reduce piglet mortality, eg. observation
  during and after birth, drying off small piglets,
  climate control, vaccinations and treatments of
  disease. Intensive daily care must be continued,
  when introducing new strategies in the farrowing
  department.

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Thank you for your attention
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Ekstra
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Underweight piglets

• Undernourished during pregnancy (IPVS)
• Heat loss after birth (Hoy, ).
• Better survival when small piglets were collected
  at a nurse sow. (Straw et al. 1998)

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Body temperature with and without drying of the
piglets. Hoy, 2003?
Rectal temperature (C) p lt 0,01
Minutes after birth
n 117 n 52
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Routes of newborn to first uddercontact (Bünger
1983)
Main routes Most frequent routes of mistakes
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A two step nurse is the nurse sow at choice
7 days old piglets
21 day old piglets
New born piglets
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Survival by litter sizeOvervejes, kun pct. levf.
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Effect of birth number
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Effekt of IGG on mortality
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Birth weight versus piglet survival
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Liveborn piglets with increasing litter size
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Colostrum intake by birth weight
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Colostrum intake by birth order
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Ig in colostrum after birth
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No. weaned piglets when increasing total born
piglets