Relationships between backfat thickness and reproductive efficiency of sows: A two-year trial involving two commercial herds fixing backfat thickness at breeding

Abstract

. 2010. Relationships between backfat thickness and reproductive efficiency of sows: A two-year trial involving two commercial herds fixing backfat thickness at breeding. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 90: 429Á436. In this study, we established whether controlling backfat thickness at breeding over a long time period can result in optimized reproductive performance in sows. Two commercial herds were used: herd A (322 purebred Landrace sows) and herd B (337 cross-bred Yorkshire-Landrace sows). Backfat thickness at breeding and farrowing, along with reproductive data [live Born (LB), stillborn, mummified, piglets alive at 48 h (LB48) and the weaning-to-estrus interval (WEI)] were collected over nine parities. The herd B producer was more successful in maintaining a steady backfat thickness at breeding than was the herd A producer. At breeding, the backfat thickness of sows from herd A showed a marked decrease between parities 2 and 5. During their first parity, these sows gained the least backfat during gestation and lost the most backfat during lactation. Sows from herd B had more LB and LB48 than sows from herd A. In herd A, a longer WEI was found in first and second parity sows. Our results demonstrate that maintaining backfat thickness throughout the reproductive cycle is more important than fixing this parameter at breeding alone. This is particularly true for gilts, which are prone to mobilize fat tissue reserves, a condition associated with declining reproductive performance.

An overview of hourly rhythm of demand-feeding pattern by a controlled feeding system on productive performance of lactating sows during summer

“…Reduced subsequent reproductive performance occurs because of either an insufficient amount of body reserves at farrowing or restricted feed intake during lactation. These points collectively show the importance of mobilisable body reserves that can be used during lactation without influencing reproductive performance, such as the weaning-to-oestrus interval (Houde et al 2010). As shown in this study, the higher body reserves at farrowing reduce voluntary feed intake and increase weight loss during lactation.…”

“…In the present study, both body weight change and backfat change were decreased in sows in the FFT group and in sows with lower backfat thickness in hot weather. It is widely recognised that the backfat thickness and body conditions of sows affect the subsequent reproductive performance of sows (Houde et al 2010;Strathe et al 2017). Higher variation in feed intake feeding pattern and milk production increases the variation in backfat thickness and losses of backfat levels at weaning (Maes et al 2004;Strathe et al 2017).…”

“…The exposure of sows to heat stress reduces their voluntary consumption (Silva et al 2009). Inadequate feed intake will lead to the increased depletion of maternal reserves, resulting in reduced performance due to ongoing lactation and reproductive failures (Houde et al 2010). Hence, with regard to these considerations, the negative effects of limited nutrient intake due to feed fermentation in heat stress conditions may be more pronounced in sows with lower backfat thickness.…”

Increased Consumption of Sulfur Amino Acids by Both Sows and Piglets Enhances the Ability of the Progeny to Adverse Effects Induced by Lipopolysaccharide

“…A previous study also showed that dietary supplementation of DL-Met and OH-Met during lactation did not affect the body weight and backfat thickness of sows, but the loss of body weight and backfat during lactation was not calculated [15]. Because loss of body weight and backfat during lactation reduces subsequent reproductive performance [28,29], the present study offers the first evidence that dietary supplementation of OH-Met during later gestation and lactation benefits body energy metabolism and can potentially improve the reproduction of sows. Likewise, dietary supplementation of DL-Met and(or) OH-Met increased the body weight gain of piglets during day 0-7 and day 7-14.…”

Effects of ractopamine and arginine dietary supplementation for sows on growth performance and carcass quality of their progenies1

“…None of the treatments affected backfat thickness at any period of evaluation (P > 0.05). According to Houde et al (2010), fluctuations in backfat thickness during the reproductive cycle should be avoided, as it is associated with declining reproductive performance over subsequent parities. However, the tendency to be different (P = 0.060) in percentage between the evaluation at d 53 and 25 indicates that sows receiving Rac could have greater lipid catabolism or a lower lipogenesis than the sows of the other treatments, as the nutritional management of the farm provided less nutrients than recommended by Rostagno et al (2011) during gestation phase.…”