Hypothermia in neonatal piglets: Interactions and causes of individual differences

Kammersgaard, T. S.; Pedersen, Lene Juul; Jørgensen, Erik

doi:10.2527/jas.2010-3022

Cited by 72 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Birth is associated with several distinct and coordinated physiological events in both piglets and sows. For piglets, birth marks a sudden decrease in body temperature (Kammersgaard et al, 2011) and the abrupt transition from parenteral (via placenta) to enteral supply of nutrients (Siggers et al, 2011). Consequently, thermoregulation becomes extremely important and it must be met by oxidation of nutrients (Noblet et al, 1997).…”

Section: Energy: Crucial For Neonatal Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neonatal piglet survival: impact of sow nutrition around parturition on fetal glycogen deposition and production and composition of colostrum and transient milk

Theil

Lauridsen

Quesnel

2014

animal

182

161

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Piglet survival is a major problem, especially during the first 3 days after birth. Piglets are born deficient of energy, but at the same time they have a very high energy requirement because of high physical activity, high need for thermoregulation (because of their lean body with low insulation) and high heat production in muscle tissues. To be able to survive, newborn piglets may rely upon three different sources of energy, namely, glycogen, colostrum and transient milk, which orchestrate to cover their energy requirements. Piglets are born with limited amounts of energy in glycogen depots in the liver and muscle tissues and these depots are sufficient for normal activity for ∼16 h. Intake and oxidation of fat and lactose from colostrum must supply sufficient amount of energy to cover at least another 18 h until transient milk becomes available in the sow udder ∼34 h after the first piglet is born. Selection for large litters during the last two decades has challenged piglets even further during the critical neonatal phase because the selection programs indirectly decreased birth weight of piglets and because increased litter size has increased the competition between littermates. Different attempts have been made to increase the short-term survival of piglets, that is, survival until day 3 of lactation, by focusing on improving transfer of vital maternal energy to the offspring, either in utero or via mammary secretions. Thus, the present review addresses how sow nutrition in late gestation may favor survival of newborn piglets by increasing glycogen depots, improving colostrum yield or colostrum composition, or by increasing production of transient milk.

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Section: Energy: Crucial For Neonatal Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neonatal piglet survival: impact of sow nutrition around parturition on fetal glycogen deposition and production and composition of colostrum and transient milk

Theil

Lauridsen

Quesnel

2014

animal

182

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Assessing pigs' thermal status is commonly done by rectal thermometry, which in most cases requires each pig to be handled by an experimenter. This method is laborious and might influence pig behaviour, which in turn affects pig thermoregulation (Kammersgaard et al, 2011). A non-invasive method to assess the thermal status of pigs with good accuracy, without manual handling of individual pigs, would therefore have great potential both in research and in monitoring farrowing facilities on farms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared thermography – a non-invasive tool to evaluate thermal status of neonatal pigs based on surface temperature

Kammersgaard

Malmkvist

Pedersen

2013

Animal

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Hypothermia is a major cause of mortality in neonatal pigs. Infrared (IR) thermography is a promising non-invasive method to assess thermal status, but has not been evaluated for use on neonatal pigs from birth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the application of IR thermography as a non-invasive tool to estimate body temperature and assess the thermal status in newborn pigs by (1) estimating the relationship between surface temperature and rectal temperature (RT) in neonatal pigs; and (2) estimating the influence of air temperature (AT), birth weight and the time from birth on the relationship between surface temperature and RT. The method was evaluated on the basis of 1695 thermograms and 915 RTs on 91 neonatal pigs born in loose farrowing pens with floor heating at 34°C, and three different ATs (15°C, 20°C and 25°C). Full-body thermograms of the back and the side of the pigs and RT were acquired at 11 sampling times between birth and 48 h after birth. The maximum (IR max ), minimum, average of the full body and ear minimum IR surface temperatures were derived from the thermograms. IR max had the highest correlation with RT (0.82) and was therefore used in the statistical analysis. The relation of RT by IR max depended on time at: 0 h (slope: 0.20°C, P < 0.001), 0.25 h (slope: 0.42°C, P < 0.01), and 0.5 and 1 h after birth (slope: 0.68°C, P < 0.001). After the 1st hour (1.5 to 48 h) the relation of RT by IR max was no longer affected by time (slope: 0.63°C, P < 0.001). The agreement between RT and IR max was improved (P < 0.001) after the 1st hour (RT − IR max 0 to 1 h: 2.02 (1.44)°C; 1.5 to 48 h: 0.95 (0.85)°C). IR max below 30°C was indicative of piglets having RT < 32°C (91.3%). The location of IR max was identified predominantly at the base of the ears (27/50), other sites in the region of the head (12/50) and the axilla area (8/50). There was a small but significant effect of the angle as IR max _side-IR max _back: mean 0.20°C (P < 0.001). On the basis of the low difference between IR max from back and side view thermograms, and the location of IR max , the angle seems less important and thus the method has the potential to be used without the need for manual restraint of the pigs. On the basis of the results of this study, we propose that IR max temperature from full-body thermograms has implication as a valid tool to assess the thermal status in neonatal piglets but not as an identical substitute for RT.

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“…Furthermore, starvation is often secondary to or interactive with perinatal hypothermia (Edwards, 2002). Birth weight is the most important factor in successful recovery from postnatal hypothermia (Kammersgaard et al, 2011), as piglets with a low birth weight have a greater surface to body mass ratio, which results in greater heat loss (Herpin et al, 2002). Lighter piglets also have a smaller maximal heat production capacity than heavier littermates (Herpin et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of birth weight and maternal dietary fat source on the fatty acid profile of piglet tissue

Tanghe

Millet²,

Missotten

et al. 2014

Animal

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This study aimed to investigate the effects and possible interactions of birth weight and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation of the maternal diet on the fatty acid status of different tissues of newborn piglets. These effects are of interest as both parameters have been associated with pre-weaning mortality. Sows were fed a palm oil diet or a diet containing 1% linseed, echium or fish oil from day 73 of gestation. As fish oil becomes a scarce resource, linseed and echium oil were supplemented as sustainable alternatives, adding precursor fatty acids for DHA to the diet. At birth, the lightest and heaviest male piglet per litter were killed and samples from liver, brain and muscle were taken for fatty acid analysis. Piglets that died pre-weaning had lower birth weights than piglets surviving lactation (1.27 ± 0.04 v. 1.55 ± 0.02 kg; P < 0.001), but no effect of diet on mortality was found. Lower DHA concentrations were observed in the brain of the lighter piglets compared with their heavier littermates (9.46 ± 0.05 v. 9.63 ± 0.04 g DHA/100 g fatty acids; P = 0.008), suggesting that the higher incidence of pre-weaning mortality in low birth weight piglets may be related to their lower brain DHA status. Adding n-3 PUFA to the sow diet could not significantly reduce this difference in DHA status, although numerically the difference in the brain DHA concentration between the piglet weight groups was smaller when fish oil was included in the sow diet. Independent of birth weight, echium or linseed oil in the sow diet increased the DHA concentration of the piglet tissues to the same extent, but the concentrations were not as high as when fish oil was fed.

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Hypothermia in neonatal piglets: Interactions and causes of individual differences

Cited by 72 publications

References 25 publications

Neonatal piglet survival: impact of sow nutrition around parturition on fetal glycogen deposition and production and composition of colostrum and transient milk

Neonatal piglet survival: impact of sow nutrition around parturition on fetal glycogen deposition and production and composition of colostrum and transient milk

Infrared thermography – a non-invasive tool to evaluate thermal status of neonatal pigs based on surface temperature

Effects of birth weight and maternal dietary fat source on the fatty acid profile of piglet tissue

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