The effect of fostering status and nurse sow parity on pre-weaning survival

Abstract

Application Optimising fostering procedures to maximise piglet survival in commercial farrowing houses. Introduction Fostering is a process by which nursingpiglets are moved from one sow to another and is generally performed to even out litter size, matching the number of piglets to be suckled with the number of sow teats available (APL,2017), typically before two days of age. Other reasons for fostering include when piglets appear to be losing condition, the sow is savaging piglets or is unable to care for the litter,or sow death (Heim et al., 2012) which generally occurs after two days of age. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of nurse sow parity on the survival of piglets either not fostered or fostered up toor after two days of age