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causes of piglet death were determined for 569 piglets that died between birth and
weaning out ofa total of2388 born over the second to fourth parity in 124 yorkshire
and 109 Yorkshire x Lacombe sow litters. Eight specific causes ofdeath were identi-
fied. starvation, crushing by the sow and stillbirths were the three main causes. uniden-
tified causes and piglets euthanized largely because of sow death or injury were of
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Piglet death during parturition and lactation litter loss and unidentified causes. In addition
is one of the more easily identified causes of to the loss of live-born piglets, 4-8% of all
reduced production efficiency in swine herds. piglets die prior to or at the time of parturi-
Two recent reviews (English and Wilkinson tion (English and Morrison 1984). These
1982; English and Morrison 1984) have deaths (stillbirths) occur either late in gesta-
effectively described the timing and causes of tion (antipartum) or during parturition
piglet death. Among live-born piglets, over (intrapartum) (Bille et al. 1974).
50% ofthe deaths occur during the first 3 d Along with the primary cause of death there
after birth, with starvation and crushing by are several secondary factors that contribute
the sow accounting for 70-80% of the deaths. to the death of piglets. Pomeroy (1960) and
Additional causes of death include conseni- Bille et al. (1974) observed that mortalify of
tal abnormalities (5%), disease (6%), ihote piglets decreased as birth weight increased.
However, among litters more deaths occurred
Can. J. Anim. Sci. 672 543-547 (June 198n when there was greater variation in birth
543
544 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE
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DYCK AND SWIERSTRA CAUSES OF PIGLET DEATH 545
-
weight within the litter (English and Smith analysis to determine the relationship between
1975). Other conditions contributing to piglet litter size and the percent death loss.
death include weakness at birth, restless or The cause ofdeath, age at death and weight
clumsy sows and agalactia (English and Smith at birth and death were determined for the 569
1975). While causes of death are adequately piglets that died prior to weaning (Table l).
identihed, there appears to be no information The three leading causes of death were still-
available on the weight change from birth to births (22.3%), crushing by the sow (23.9%)
death. and starvation (26.9%). Euthanasia (11.4%)
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The present paper provides information on and other unidentifred causes of death
the weight change from birth to death and fur- (lI .4%) were of secondary importance while
ther information on the effect of birth weight exposure (piglets found dead away from the
and litter size on survival to weaning. sow or heated creep area) (2.3%), congenital
The piglets in this study comprise 569 abnormalities (0.9%) and disease (0.9%)
piglets that died prior to weaning and 1819 were of minor importance.
piglets weaned from an experiment to evalu- Stillbirth deaths comprised 5.3% of the
ate the effect of gestation housing environ- piglets born. Antipartum deaths were equally
ment on sow reproductive performance over distributed over the entire range of litter sizes
the second to fourth parity (Dyck et al. 1985). (3-18) while intrapartum deaths were lower
There were 124 litters from Yorkshire (Y) for litters of 14 or fewer piglets than for lit-
and 109 litters from Y xLacombe (YL) sows. ters of 15 or more piglets (3.3 vs. ll .I%,
All sows were bred to Y boars. Details of P<0.01). The higher incidence of intrapar-
the management of the sows and the effects tum stillbirths observed in the larger litters is
For personal use only.
of housing and parity on the distribution of in agreement with previous reports (Randall
death losses has been reported (Dyck et al. and Penny 1970; Bille et al. 1974). English
1985). The sows were placed in 0.6 x 2.3-m and Morrison (1984) in their review attrib-
farrowing crates, with 0.9 x 2.3-m and 0.6 ute the intrapartum stillbirths to asphyxiation
x 2.3-m creep areas on either side, on day during parturition as a result of reduced
110 of gestation and maintained in the crates placental blood flow and premature rupture
for 35 d after farrowing when they were of the umbilical cord. In the present study,
weaned of their litters. Water was constantly the mean weight of the intrapartum stillbirths
available to the sow and piglets from a pres- was less than that of piglets born alive
surized watering bowl at the front of the far- (1.07+0.04 vs. 1.31+0.01, P<0.01), sug-
rowing crate. Piglets were identified by ear gesting that the smaller body size may also
notching and weighed within 24 h of birth. contribute to the effect of a reduced oxygen
When piglets died, the age, weight and cause supply on the piglet.
of death were recorded. Eight primary causes For the piglets that died after parturition the
of death were identified majority (61.5%) of deaths occurred over the
- stillbirth, crushed
by the sow, starvation, euthanasia, exposure, f,rrst 4 d (Table 1). The pattern of death losses
congenital abnormalities, disease and uniden- over time for all causes of death except for
tified causes. Stillbirth deaths were subdivided starvation and euthanasia is in agreement with
into antipartum (death late in gestation with other reports as reviewed by English and
obvious tissue degeneration) and intrapartum Morrison (1984). Deaths due to starvation
(death during parturition as determined by the were greatest on days 4 and 5 and remained
failure of the lungs to float in water). relatively high through the second week of
Statistical analyses utilized the"t" test of lactation. suggesting that starvation is more
independent samples to determine the sig- of a gradual process. Deaths due to starva-
nificance of differences among means, chi tion occurred in 66 litters with 22 of the lit-
square to determine the significance of differ- ters having three or more deaths (l0l piglet
ences in enumeration data and resression deaths). In these 22 litters agalactia was the
546 CANADIAN JoURNAL oF ANIMAL SCIENCE
Table 2. Mean litter size, birth weight and the standard error of litter birth weight of litters from Yorkshire and
Yorkshire x Lacombe sows in relation to the number of deaths per littert
primary cause of starvation. Among the 65 death losses were not attributed to sow
euthanized piglets, 40 were euthanized be- problems (MMA, sow death or injury) the in-
cause ofsow injury, 13 because ofsow death cidence of death losses varied with litter size
and 72 because of their low growth rate. No conforming to a quadratic regression
instances of kronism (savaging) were (f:0.093 -0.01 lx * O.O0l4x2, r :0.288,
For personal use only.
es. These death losses can be minimized by weeks of age. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 51: 351-359.
cross-fostering of piglets, shortly after par- Pomeroy, R. W. 1960. Infertility and neonatal
mortality in the sow. III. Neonatal mortality and
turition, to equalize litter size and reduce
foetal development. J. Agric. Sci. (Camb.) 54:
variation in piglet weight within the cross-
3 l-56.
fostered litter, or by artificial rearing of ill- Randall, G. C. B. and Penny, R. H. C. 1970.
thriving piglets and piglets from litters where Stillbirth in the pig. An analysis of the breeding
the sow dies. English et al. (1977) have records of five herds. Br. Vet. I. 126l. 593-603.
demonstrated that cross-fostering, artificial
rearing and other management procedures G. W. DYCK and E. E. SWIERSTRA
will increase piglet survival to 95% of the Research Station, Agriculture Canada,
piglets born alive. Brandon, Manitoba, Canada R7A 527.
Received 2l May 1986, accepted 9 Dec.
Bille, N. Nielsen, N. C., Larsen, J. L. and 1986.