Focusing on four parameters may unlock keys to piglets’ lifetime performance and help manage sow peripartal syndrome.

September 20, 2018

3 Min Read
Prenatal period in sows key to piglet performance
Jevtic/iStock/Thinkstock

Trouw Nutrition said research into how conditions occurring in the prenatal phase can affect an animal’s lifelong performance are inspiring innovations to address a complex web of maternal sow traits spanning all phases of the reproductive cycle.

First described by Dr. An Cools in 2013, sow peripartal syndrome (SPS) relates to a breadth of interrelated challenges experienced by mother sows and piglets throughout the peripartal period, Trouw said. Occurring during gestation, parturition and the post-farrowing period, dysfunctional sow mother traits can ultimately lead to SPS, compromising piglets’ lifetime performance and farmers’ profitability, the company added.

SPS encompasses diverse challenges — including, on the sow side, negative energy balance, peripartal hypophagia, early parturition, suboptimal body condition, peripartal hypogalacitia, slow parturition and peripartal constipation and, on the piglet side, reduced piglet performance, neonatal mortality and stillbirth — that can be schematically divided between sows and piglets, Trouw said.

Each of these challenges are directly or indirectly correlated and/or associated with each other. Viewed holistically, this complex web of interactions leads to SPS.

Because the challenges contributing to SPS can exist prior to farrowing, many problems are difficult to detect until a litter is farrowed, Trouw said.

The company explained that researchers have identified three sets of challenges associated with SPS occurring before, during and following the peripartal period:

1. The first set of challenges originates before the peripartal period — for example, suboptimal body condition, mummification and low birth weight.

2. The second set of challenges originates during the peripartal period — for example, low colostrum production (hypogalactia) and stillbirth.

3. The third set of challenges only becomes observable after the peripartal period — for example, low milk production (hypogalactia), low vitality and neonatal mortality.

“Throughout the sow’s reproductive cycle, multiple pathways can explain a certain outcome,” Trouw Nutrition technical manager swine Ruben Decaluwe said, referring to a 2013 paper by G.P. Martineau on postpartum dysgalactia syndrome. Irrespective of the pathway, all challenges associated with SPS present concerns for piglets’ lifetime performance and profitable rearing.

Trouw Nutrition is researching the pathways contributing to SPS to help optimize piglets’ lifetime performance and profitable rearing and said its researchers are focusing on four key parameters observable in piglets following parturition. These parameters are:

1. Being born alive. Each stillborn piglet is a loss of potential performance and profitability, requiring additional intervention and posing an animal welfare challenge.

2. Adequate birth weight. Research has shown that 25% of the variation in weaning weight can be explained by birth weight.

3. Adequate colostrum intake. Research has demonstrated a relationship between a piglet’s individual colostrum intake and weaning weight and a correlation between individual colostrum intake and slaughter weight. Currently, approximately 30% of piglets are not able to reach minimal required colostrum intake.

4. Adequate vitality. Birth vitality is essential for routing, being competitive at the udder, start suckling, maintaining body temperature and, as such, increases chances for survival.

Just as the maternal sow traits are interrelated, each of the four piglet parameters is highly affected by challenges contributing to SPS, Trouw said. Adding to the complexity, several additional factors can cause any of the piglet parameters to become suboptimal. Trouw Nutrition is conducting research to better understand and address how each of the four parameters relates to SPS.

“While pig breeders and farmers have long sought to increase litter size, productivity enhancements are resulting in challenges such as perinatal and neonatal losses, a higher number of low-birthweight piglets and reduced availability of sow milk,” Decaluwe said. “A comprehensive strategy that supports sows and piglets during the in utero, preweaning and postweaning phase can help develop interventions to address SPS and optimize a piglet’s lifetime performance.”

Trouw said it is preparing a series of reports based on SPS research.

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