Effects of Season, Floor Type, Air Temperature and Snout Coolers on Sow and Litter Performance1

Stansbury, Wayne F.; McGlone, John J.; Tribble, L. F.

doi:10.2527/jas1987.6561507x

Cited by 44 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The temperature zone of thermal comfort for a sow is between 128C and 228C (Black et al, 1993), and at temperatures above 228C, adult pigs are increasingly susceptible to heat stress. Heat stress affects lactational output by lowering feed intake, thus contributing to decreased piglet weight gain and increased sow lactational weight loss (Stansbury et al, 1987). In contrast, the small size and immature physiology of the newborn piglet results in a lower critical temperature of 348C (Herpin et al, 2002).…”

Section: Parturition Early Lactation and Nest-occupationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets

Baxter

Lawrence

Edwards

2011

Animal

114

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The construction of a suitable farrowing environment is a continuing dilemma: the piglet's needs must be matched with those of the sow and the farmer during the main phases that constitute farrowing: nest building, parturition and lactation. Difficulties exist in resolving the various conflicts of interest between and within these three parties (e.g. sow v. farmer: space needed for nest building v. space needed to maximise the amount of farrowing accommodation, or sow v. sow: ensuring the survival of the current litter v. maintaining condition for future litters). Thus, the challenge is to resolve these conflicts and design a system that maximises sow and piglet welfare while maintaining an economically efficient and sustainable enterprise. In order to successfully design a farrowing and lactation environment, it is necessary to consider the biological needs of both the sow and her litter. The natural behaviour of the sow has been well documented and very little variation exists between reports of peri-parturient behaviour observed in extensively kept domestic sows and their wild counterparts. The failure for domestication to significantly alter these behavioural patterns provides evidence that they are biologically significant and that the commercial farrowing environment should attempt to accommodate this behavioural repertoire. In addition, the behavioural needs of the piglets, as well as the physiological needs of both sows and their offspring should be considered. This article aims to review the considerable body of literature detailing the behavioural repertoire of sows and their offspring during the different phases of farrowing, and the accompanying physiological processes. The focus is on identifying biological needs of the animals involved in order to synthesise the appropriate design criteria for farrowing and lactation systems, which should optimise both welfare and animal production.

show abstract

Section: Parturition Early Lactation and Nest-occupationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets

Baxter

Lawrence

Edwards

2011

Animal

114

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A provision of supplemental fresh air directly over the animal can be a very efficient way to improve performance of the heat-stressed animal. Snout cooler designed to direct air on the sow's head and neck permitted a 25% to 35% improvement in the feed consumption at 308C (Stansbury et al, 1987;McGlone et al, 1988).…”

Section: Strategies To Alleviate Heat Stress In Farm Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to hot climate and strategies to alleviate heat stress in livestock production

Renaudeau¹,

Collin

Yahav

et al. 2012

Animal

789

611

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite many challenges faced by animal producers, including environmental problems, diseases, economic pressure, and feed availability, it is still predicted that animal production in developing countries will continue to sustain the future growth of the world's meat production. In these areas, livestock performance is generally lower than those obtained in Western Europe and North America. Although many factors can be involved, climatic factors are among the first and crucial limiting factors of the development of animal production in warm regions. In addition, global warming will further accentuate heat stress-related problems. The objective of this paper was to review the effective strategies to alleviate heat stress in the context of tropical livestock production systems. These strategies can be classified into three groups: those increasing feed intake or decreasing metabolic heat production, those enhancing heat-loss capacities, and those involving genetic selection for heat tolerance. Under heat stress, improved production should be possible through modifications of diet composition that either promotes a higher intake or compensates the low feed consumption. In addition, altering feeding management such as a change in feeding time and/or frequency, are efficient tools to avoid excessive heat load and improve survival rate, especially in poultry. Methods to enhance heat exchange between the environment and the animal and those changing the environment to prevent or limit heat stress can be used to improve performance under hot climatic conditions. Although differences in thermal tolerance exist between livestock species (ruminants . monogastrics), there are also large differences between breeds of a species and within each breed. Consequently, the opportunity may exist to improve thermal tolerance of the animals using genetic tools. However, further research is required to quantify the genetic antagonism between adaptation and production traits to evaluate the potential selection response. With the development of molecular biotechnologies, new opportunities are available to characterize gene expression and identify key cellular responses to heat stress. These new tools will enable scientists to improve the accuracy and the efficiency of selection for heat tolerance. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression and thermal imprinting of the genome could also be an efficient method to improve thermal tolerance. Such techniques (e.g. perinatal heat acclimation) are currently being experimented in chicken.

show abstract

“…Feed intake of lactating sows increased from 4.2 to 5.6 kg d -1 when ambient temperature was decreased from 27 to 16°C (O'Grady et al 1985). However, Stansbury et al (1987) found no effect on feed intake of sows when decreasing farrowing room temperature from 25 to 18°C. The fact that decreasing the temperature from 21 to 15°C in the present experiment had no effect on feed intake of sows or growth rate of piglets suggests that when sows are kept below the ECT and within the thermoneutral zone, there is no further advantage of decreasing the ambient temperature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…In the experiment of Stansbury et al (1987), decreasing temperature from 25 to 18°C increased the mortality rate of piglets from 12.0 to 20.4%. The authors proposed that this greater mortality rate may have been due to chilling of piglets.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental temperature is an important factor influencing voluntary feed intake and the negative impact of high ambient temperatures on feed intake (Stansbury et al 1987;Vidal et al 1991;Black et al 1993) and milk production (Schoenherr et al 1989;Vidal et al 1991) of lactating sows is well documented. The from 27 to 16°C increased feed intake (O'Grady et al 1985), while a reduction from 25 to 18°C showed no effect on feed consumption of sows (Stansbury et al 1987). A major problem in attempting to reduce farrowing room temperature is providing the adequate thermal environment for the piglets, since their lower critical temperature is about 34°C (McGinnis et al 1981).…”

Section: Mots Clésmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reducing ambient temperature in farrowing houses with a new controlled-environment system

Farmer¹,

Robert²,

Choinière³

1998

Can. J. Anim. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

. Reducing ambient temperature in farrowing houses with a new controlledenvironment system. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 78:23-28. Forty first-parity sows were randomly allocated to a standard (STD; n = 21) or controlled (CET; n = 19) environmental temperature system in the farrowing house. In all cases, heat lamps were installed on one side of the sows, 60 cm from the floor. With the CET system, electronically controlled (EC) heat lamps surrounded by a niche were used. Niches had an acrylic top and three sides of plastic strips that piglets could easily go through. Room temperature was 21°C with the STD system while it was gradually lowered with CET to attain 15°C on day 8 postpartum. Within 48 h of birth, litters were standardized to 9 ± 1 pigs. Daily feed and water consumption of sows were recorded as well as growth rate and survival of piglets. Sows' posture and piglets' activity were recorded three times daily throughout lactation. Ambient temperature did not affect (P > 0.1) feed or water intakes of sows during lactation, nor weights or survival of piglets until day 56. From day 2 until weaning (day 23), there was a mean increase of 21% in the frequency of piglets lying in the lamp zone when comparing the CET with the STD system (P < 0.001). A mean increase of 59% in the frequency of piglets being in the lamp zone with the CET system was also noticed from day 8 for active piglets (P < 0.05). Sows were, on average, 77% more active with the CET than with the STD system (P < 0.01) from days 5 to 15 of lactation and the proportion of time they spent lying on the side relative to the total lying time was greater from day 8 until the end of lactation (P < 0.05). In conclusion, gradually decreasing farrowing room temperature to 15°C has no detrimental effects on the performance of sows and piglets and increases the use of the lamp zone, provided that the environment in this area is well controlled.Key words: Sow, lactation, ambient temperature, farrowing room, behavior, creep heat lamp Farmer, C., Robert, S. et Choinière, Y. 1998. Réduire la température ambiante en maternité grâce à un nouveau système d'environnement contrôlé. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 78: 23-28. Quarante truies nullipares ont été assignées aléatoirement à deux traitements, soit, un système standard (STD; n = 21) ou un système d'environnement contrôlé (CET; n = 19) en maternité. Dans les deux cas, une lampe chauffante était installée dans chaque cage, à 60 cm de hauteur à côté de la truie. Avec le système CET, une lampe chauffante à contrôle électronique (EC) entourée d'une niche était utilisée. Les niches avaient un dessus en acrylique et 3 côtés faits de bandes plastifiées. Les porcelets pouvaient facilement entrer et sortir de la niche. La température ambiante était de 21°C avec le système STD, tandis qu'elle descendait graduellement jusqu'à 15°C au jour 8 postpartum avec le système CET. Les portées étaient uniformisées à 9 ± 1 porcelets dans les 48 h suivant la mise bas. Les consommations journalières d'eau et d'aliment par les truies durant la lactation ains...

show abstract

Effects of Season, Floor Type, Air Temperature and Snout Coolers on Sow and Litter Performance1

Cited by 44 publications

References 8 publications

Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets

Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets

Adaptation to hot climate and strategies to alleviate heat stress in livestock production

Reducing ambient temperature in farrowing houses with a new controlled-environment system

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About