Give all the piglets the same opportunity:
Secure colostrum-intake for all
Combine different interventions
Iron supplementation from day 3 or later
Preventative pain treatment = not only for male piglets
Apply pain-relieving/ anti-inflammatory medication with a broad spectrum of activity for docked tails or arthritis
Sucking pigs have an irrepressible desire to live. However, painful events may have a negative impact on the further development of pigs by:
Lowering milk-intake
Restricting self-preservation instinct (reflex to flee)
Early and excessive iron supplementation can negatively influence health
Piglets are born with minimal iron-reserves (40 mg). This low iron concentration is a natural defence mechanism directed at combatting bacterial infections during and after birth.
Sow milk provides piglets with about 1 mg Iron/day. With a daily need of about 7 mg there is only sufficient iron for about 4 to 5 days.
Systematics in sucking pig management:
Checklist for a good start
1. Number of functional teats checked and recorded
2. A number of pigs, to leave two fewer piglets than the number of functional teats, are fostered out of a litter
The highest level of reproductive performance will be found on farms where feed intake is adjusted to the need of each individual sow. For this reason it is necessary to have a farm-specific feeding regime where the body condition of each individual sow pre-farrowing is documented and feeding adjusted accordingly on a sow by sow basis.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s market leading Animal Health medication Metacam® (active ingredient: Meloxicam) obtained EU wide marketing authorisation as an oral suspension in a concentration of 15 mg/ml for use in pigs.
In hyperprolific sows with the potential to produce large litters, gestation length will typically last for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 to 5 days. The more foetuses present, the less room there is for adhesion of the placenta of each individual pig to the uterine wall. To facilitate maximal embryonic development, it is important that the sow is optimally nourished prior to insemination. Also it is important to recognise and minimise stress factors such as fluctuations in environmental temperature, social stress such as fighting and exposure to toxins and infections e.g. PRRS. In hyperprolific sows particularly, these factors have significant negative impact on the forthcoming gestation.
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