Ontario Pork

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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan


Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.

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Author(s): Paul Luimes
Publication Date: August 16, 2012
Reference: Ontario Pork
Country: Canada

Summary:

Synchronizing sow farrowing has the potential to improve labor efficiency and improve piglet loss because attendants will be prepared for the birth. When pigs are born early they have increased chances of splay-legs, have lower birth weights and have higher mortality rates at birth and at weaning. Attempts to synchronize birth by inducing it when one sow reaches 114 days causes other sows to give birth a day or two early which results in decreased litter quality. This study tries to determine if it is possible to delay birth for a 1-2 days to synchronize birth of the farrowing herd. The two objectives of the study are: Can a high level of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) consistently delay parturition? By how many days? And can a high level of Regumate® consistently delay parturition? By how many days? 51 sows were put into three groups and given large doses of either Regumate, docosahexaenoic or neither to see how long pregnancies could be delayed for. Birth was able to be delayed in both test groups. 75% of the Regumate treated pigs gave birth after 117 days, 50% of the docosahexaenoic pigs gave birth after 117 days and the control group had 42% late births. Average gestation length for docosahexaenoic, Regumate, and the control were 117.4, 118.6 and 117.0 respectively. The study suggests that Regumate was successful in delaying birth, and docosahexaenoic was also found to extend pregnancy. Further test will need to be carreid out to determine the effects of different dosages.

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