50 Influence of Farrowing Assistance Intervals on Piglet, Sows and Workers

Abstract

Abstract Farrowing assistance (FA) is a common on-farm intervention, also called sleeving on many farms. Assistance consists of reaching into the vaginal cavity of an actively farrowing sow for examination and removing any piglets or birthing tissues obstructing the birth canal. Motivations for FA focus on better care of the piglets and sows because complications are noticed and addressed faster, but too frequent of intervention could be detrimental to the sow and increase injury risk to workers. There is little published information on FA effects on the pigs or employees. The objective of this study was to systematically determine the impact of different FA intervals on the welfare of piglets, sows, and workers. Sows (330 total) in a commercial breeding farm were randomly assigned to one of three FA intervals commonly used on farms: FA every 20-min since last liveborn piglet; FA every 40-min; and FA every hour with visual evaluation every 40-min. Measures were gathered at 3 points: during farrowing, 24-h before weaning, and after giving birth to their next litter. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and GLM for normalized data and Kruskal-Wallis for non-parametric data. Results were significant for alpha< 0.05. Overall, there were few observed differences between treatments for piglets, sows, or workers. FA did not affect piglet survival for measures like mortality or weight, and did not influence the need for additional care for sows or future reproductive success. For workers, FA increases strenuous movements (p< 0.0001) of bending, kneeling, lying down and finger opposition from pulling piglets putting them at risk for injury. The results of this study did not support a benefit for the most frequent FA for piglet mortality. While there is merit to regularly observing the sows during farrowing, there does not appear to be a significant benefit to FA at every observation.