The Course of Parturition Affects Piglet Condition at Birth and Survival and Growth through the Nursery Phase

In this study, data were collected on the condition in which piglets were born, and this was related to their position in the birth order, and to the progress of parturition. The objective of the study was to find out if these observations were related to performance in early life, up to 10 weeks. It appeared that the later the piglets were born in a litter, the higher the risk of being stillborn, and this was aggravated in sows that took a relatively long time to give birth to their litter. In the first few piglets in a litter, risk of stillbirth was only 2%, whereas this increased to 17% in piglets born 13th in the litter or later. Similarly, birth order affected the condition of the liveborn piglets, with blood values such as pH being evident of suboptimal oxygenation in piglets born later. These blood values were predictive of neonatal behaviour such as colostrum intake, but also for neonatal survival and growth during suckling and even to 10 weeks of life. These data are the first in piglets to emphasise the impact of condition at birth on survival and growth until the end of the nursery phase