Reducing pig mortality through supervision during the perinatal period.

A study was undertaken on a commercial swine farm to investigate methods of reducing perinatal mortality. During a 12-wk period, 251 sows and gilts were assigned randomly to one of four treatment groups in a 2 x 2 factorial design: 1) supervised/induced, 2) supervised/non-induced, 3) unsupervised/induced, and 4) unsupervised/non-induced. Supervised groups of sows and their litter were observed constantly for a minimum of 3 h before and until 3 d after farrowing. The onset of farrowing was induced with 250 micrograms of cloprostenol administered into the vulvo-vestibular mucosa. There was an increase (P = .012) in the number of pigs weaned from supervised (10.17 pigs/litter) relative to unsupervised group (9.44 pigs/litter). This increase was due to a reduction (P = .001) in both the number of stillborn pigs and the mortality of live-born pigs (P = .026). The latter resulted from fewer pigs that died (P = .003). Induction did not influence the mortality of pigs in the perinatal period in unsupervised groups. Induced sows farrowed an average of .43 d earlier than non-induced sows (P = .029). The mean interval from prostaglandin treatment to farrowing was 23.87 h (SD = 10.96). The results of this study suggest that a controlled farrowing system, coupled with good supervision, can improve pig survival. Financial analyses, based on improvements in pig survival resulting from additional labor in the farrowing house, suggested that this method of reducing preweaning mortality is a viable option for improving the profitability of commercial pig farms.