Comparable farrowing progress in confined and loose housed hyper-prolific sows

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of confinement from day 114 of gestation and the first four lactation days on farrowing progress and piglet survival. All sows (parity 1–7) were randomly allocated to one of the four treatment groups: confined–confined (CC, n=30), confined–loose (CL, n=32), loose–confined (LC, n=28) or loose–loose (LL, n=30). Before and during farrowing sows in CC and CL were confined in crates whereas sows in LC and LL were loose housed in this period. The first four days after farrowing sows in CC and LC were confined in crates whereas sows in CL and LL were loose housed during this time. All sows were loose housed from day 4 until weaning. Compared to loose sows (LC and LL), confinement before and during farrowing (CC and CL) did not affect total born piglets (P=0.69), stillborn piglets (P=0.68), farrowing duration (P=0.26) or birth interval (P=0.25). However, birth duration for stillborn piglets tended (P=0.06) to be shorter in the loose housed sows than in confined sows. Loose housed sows with short farrowing duration (<5h) tended (P=0.06) to have fewer stillborns than confined sows with short farrowing duration. However, number of stillborn piglets increased with increasing farrowing duration for loose housed sows (P<0.05) but not for the confined sows. Loose housed sows also had more live born deaths before litter equalization when farrowing duration increased (P<0.05), an effect that was not seen in the confined sows. Piglet mortality was greater for LL sows than for CC, CL and LC sows before litter equalization. After litter equalization and until day 4, piglet mortality varied between treatments (P<0.001), with piglet mortality in LC (3.2%) being lower than in CL (9.0%) and in LL (7.5%). Similarly piglet mortality was lower in the CC-treatment (5.0%) than in the CL-treatment (9.0%). From day 4–7 after farrowing sows in CC tended (P=0.10) to have greater piglet mortality than sows in LL. In conclusion, confinement from day 114 of gestation until birth of last piglet did not affect farrowing progress compared to sows that were loose housed. However, the results suggested that confinement of sows for four days after farrowing reduced piglet mortality compared to loose housed sows.