Do nurse sows and foster litters have impaired animal welfare? Results from a cross-sectional study in sow herds

Sørensen, Jan Tind; Rousing, Tine; Kudahl, Anne Braad; Hansted, Helle Jensen; Pedersen, Lene Juul

doi:10.1017/s1751731115002104

Cited by 27 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Our study indicates that nurse sows that does not show postweaning estrus or had health problems during their lactation are culled without subsequent service. A previous study also reported a high risk of nurse sows having udder wounds and bursa on joint legs (Sørensen, Rousing, Kudahl, Hansted, & Pedersen, 2016), which might be caused by the occurrence of teat fights by piglets (Schmitt, Baxter, Boyle, & O'Driscoll, 2019), and by the prolonged stay in farrowing crate. Higher culling rate and lower parity at removal in nurse sows also can explain the discrepancy between the increased WMI in nurse sows but no difference between nurse and non-nurse sows in lifetime non-productive days.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The reason that only 10% of the nurse sows were repeatedly used as a nurse could be due to that approximately half of all nurse sows were parity 5 or higher sows. There are several other criteria for choosing nurse sows, such as sows having good body condition, normal or high feed intake and good nursing behavior (Bruun et al, 2016;Sørensen, Rousing, Kudahl, Hansted, & Pedersen, 2016;Schmitt, Baxter, Boyle, & O'Driscoll, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nurse Sows’ Reproductive Performance in Different Parities and Lifetime Productivity in Spain

Iida¹,

Yatabe²,

Piñeiro³

et al. 2019

JAS

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Our objective was to characterize use of nurse sows in Spanish breeding herds. We analyzed 466 111 parity records and lifetime records of 92 716 sows farrowed between 2011 and 2017 in 69 herds having nurse records. Nurse sows were defined as sows that had weaned 2 or 3 litters in the same lactation period. Mixed-effects models were applied to the data to compare reproductive performance and lifetime productivity between nurse and non-nurse sows. Of all the sows, 6 705 (7.2%) sows served as nurse sows at least once in their lifetime, with 10.2% of the nurse sows having a second nurse event in a later parity. Mean values (SE) of lactation length and number of piglets weaned were 31.0 (0.11) days and 21.9 (0.04) piglets in nurse sows, respectively. Across parities 2-6, nurse sows had 1.9-3.0% greater proportions of weaning-to-first-mating interval 7-20 days than non-nurse sows (P < 0.05). There was no difference between nurse sows and non-nurse sows in farrowing rate in any parity (P ≥ 0.13) and piglets born alive in parities 1-5 (P ≥ 0.15). Also, nurse sows had 3.7-7.4 more annualized lifetime piglets weaned than non-nurse sows (P < 0.01), because nurse sows had similar lifetime non-productive days with non-nurse sows (P ≥ 0.07), but produced 9.3-12.0 more lifetime piglets weaned than non-nurse sows (P < 0.01). Using nurse sows could be a good practice to cope with highly prolific sows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nurse Sows’ Reproductive Performance in Different Parities and Lifetime Productivity in Spain

Iida¹,

Yatabe²,

Piñeiro³

et al. 2019

JAS

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“…A low body condition score increases the risk of shoulder wounds ( 22 ) and impaired fertility ( 23 ). A cross-sectional study conducted in 57 sow herds in Denmark showed that nurse sows had significantly higher prevalence of udder wounds and swollen bursa on legs compared to conventional sows ( 6 ). There were, however, no differences in body condition or prevalence of shoulder ulcers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Older foster piglets are also more easily accepted compared to newborn by sows at weaning ( 5 ). The two-step nurse system is known to be more commonly used in Denmark where nurse sows are used to a wide extent ( 6 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal Welfare and Economic Aspects of Using Nurse Sows in Swedish Pig Production

et al. 2017

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The number of born piglets per litter has increased in Swedish pig industry, and farmers are struggling to improve piglet survival. A common practice is to make litters more equally sized by moving piglets from large litters to smaller to make sure that all piglets get an own teat to suckle. Litter equalization is not always enough, as many sows have large litters and/or damaged teats, which results in an insufficient number of available teats. One way to solve this problem is to use nurse sows. A nurse sow raises, and weans, her own piglets before receiving a foster litter. The objectives of this study were to address how the use of nurse sows affects the welfare of sows and piglets and to explore how it impacts the contribution margin of pig production in Sweden. A literature search was made to investigate welfare aspects on sows and piglets. As there were few published studies on nurse sows, an expert group meeting was organized. In order to explore the impact on the contribution margin of pig production, a partial budgeting approach with stochastic elements was used for a fictive pig farm. Standard templates for calculating costs and benefits were supplemented with figures from existing literature and the gathered expert opinions. In Sweden, the minimum suckling period is 28 days while published studies involving nurse sows, all from outside of Sweden, weaned the piglets at 21 days. A Swedish nurse sow will thus get longer lactation period which might increase the risk of poor body condition, damaged teats, and shoulder ulcers. This indicates a reduced welfare of the sow and may lead to impaired fertility and increased culling risk. On the other hand, the piglet mortality could be reduced with the use of nurse sows, but the separation and mixing of piglets could be stressful. The partial budgeting suggested that the nurse sow system is slightly more profitable (+6,838 Swedish krona) per farrowing group during one dry and one lactation period compared to the conventional system. The result is, however, highly dependent on the input values, and welfare aspects were not considered in the calculations.

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“…Even though nurse sow usage may appear an attractive option, care should be given to manage the increased piglet movement and so risk of disease. The extended lactation of nurse sows could potentially result in sow welfare breaches as it will result in an increased period of confinement within a crate and little respite from older piglets [ 97 ]. No differences in physiological indicators of stress have been detected in nurse sows delivering a 40 day lactation [ 98 ], and so perhaps this is a suitable maximal lactation length.…”

Section: Disease Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Success Factors for Piglet Fostering in Lactation

Alexopoulos¹,

Lines²,

Hallett³

et al. 2018

Animals

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Simple SummaryAn understanding of behavioural and physiological mechanisms responsible for piglet survival and growth will assist in developing the best recommendations in which to manage piglet movements in the farrowing house. This review has identified six key principles that should underpin successful piglet fostering. These fostering principles will improve productivity and welfare of sows and piglets in commercial pig production.AbstractPiglet movement from one sow to another, or fostering, is required in modern pig farming but there is little available literature on the most effective strategy. In this review, we focus on the behavioural and physiological mechanisms responsible for piglet survival and growth, and have identified six key principles. (1) Colostrum provides piglets with warmth, energy and immunity. It is most accessible during the first 12 h from the birth sow, therefore no piglet should be moved before this; (2) To ensure even intake of birth sow colostrum, techniques such as split suckling prior to piglet movement should be implemented; (3) Udder assessment for functional teats should occur at farrowing, with number of fostered piglets not exceeding teat number; (4) Primiparous sows should receive as many piglets as the udder allows to maximise mammary stimulation, although older parities should be assessed for rearing ability; (5) Piglet fostering should occur between 12 and 24 h and movement kept to a minimum to prevent transfer of disease; Litter outliers should be moved and relocated to a litter of similar size; (6) Piglet movement after 24 h should be minimised. When required, strategies such as nurse usage should be employed. These principles will result in improved farrowing house performance by increasing the litter weight weaned per sow.

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Do nurse sows and foster litters have impaired animal welfare? Results from a cross-sectional study in sow herds

Cited by 27 publications

References 15 publications

Nurse Sows’ Reproductive Performance in Different Parities and Lifetime Productivity in Spain

Nurse Sows’ Reproductive Performance in Different Parities and Lifetime Productivity in Spain

Animal Welfare and Economic Aspects of Using Nurse Sows in Swedish Pig Production

A Review of Success Factors for Piglet Fostering in Lactation

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