Increasing litter size has long been a goal of pig breeders and producers in many countries. Whilst this has\u00a0economic and environmental benefits for the pig industry, there are also implications for pig welfare. Certain management interventions
\nare used when litter size routinely exceeds the ability of individual sows to successfully rear all the piglets (ie viable piglets
\noutnumber functional teats). Such interventions include: tooth reduction; split suckling; cross-fostering; use of nurse sow systems and\u00a0early weaning, including split weaning; and use of artificial rearing systems. These practices raise welfare questions for both the piglets\u00a0and sow and are described and discussed in this review. In addition, possible management approaches which might mitigate health\u00a0and welfare issues associated with large litters are identified. These include early intervention to provide increased care for vulnerable\u00a0neonates and improvements to farrowing accommodation to mitigate negative effects, particularly for nurse sows. An important\u00a0concept is that management at all stages of the reproductive cycle, not simply in the farrowing accommodation, can impact on piglet\u00a0outcomes. For example, poor stockhandling at earlier stages of the reproductive cycle can create fearful animals with increased likelihood\u00a0of showing poor maternal behaviour. Benefits of good sow and litter management, including positive human-animal relationships,\u00a0are discussed. Such practices apply to all production situations, not just those involving large litters. However, given that\u00a0interventions for large litters involve increased handling of piglets and increased interaction with sows, there are likely to be even\u00a0greater benefits for management of hyper-prolific herds.<\/p>\n
Sandra Edwards<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Increasing litter size has long been a goal of pig breeders and producers in many countries. Whilst this has\u00a0economic and environmental benefits for the pig industry, there are also implications for pig welfare. Certain management interventions are used when litter size routinely exceeds the ability of individual sows to successfully rear all the piglets (ie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,928],"tags":[640,26096,103,2771,14,26341,26222,15473,27281],"class_list":["post-15158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pork-insight-articles","category-welfare","tag-animal","tag-edwards","tag-farrowing","tag-iron","tag-pig","tag-sandra-edw","tag-sandra-edwards","tag-split-suckling","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15161,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158\/revisions\/15161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}