Centre for Herd-oriented Education, Research and Development (HERD), Department of Large Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Groennegaardsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
J Anim Sci. 2013 Oct;91(10):4991-5003. doi: 10.2527/jas.2012-5740.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of individual physical characteristics on preweaning survival and growth of piglets born in a noncrate system. Data were collected from 3,402 neonatal piglets from 203 Landrace × Yorkshire sows housed in noncrate pens in a commercial Danish sow herd. Piglets were categorized into groups according to their survivability: surviving to weaning (SURV), stillborn (STILL), or dead between birth and weaning (DBW), which was subdivided into dead d 0 to 1 after farrowing (DEAD1) or dead d 2 to 26 after farrowing (DEAD26). Linear models were used to determine which physical characteristics affected survivability and growth of piglets. Results showed that characteristics related to the individual piglets had a greater degree of explanatory power in relation to survival than variables related to the sow. Survival of piglets increased if piglets were females (P < 0.001), had a greater body mass index (P < 0.001), and were born to sows of parity 3 or more (P = 0.017). Piglets with a greater birth weight were more likely to survive (P < 0.001), but birth weight was inferior to body mass index in explaining differences between SURV and DBW. Piglets that died 2 to 26 d after birth had a lower birth weight (P < 0.001), were born to sows of parity 1 or 2 (P = 0.014), and were born after a shorter gestation (P = 0.011) compared with SURV. Piglets that died on d 0 to 1 after birth had a lower body mass index (P < 0.001), displayed a greater degree of growth restriction (P = 0.004), and were born in large litters (P = 0.005). The gender of the piglets affected survivability at both d 0 to 1 (P < 0.001) and d 2 to 26 (P < 0.001). Piglets in DEAD1 differed from STILL by having a shorter crown to rump length (P < 0.001), a birth weight that deviated more from the mean weight of the litter (P = 0.001), and being more likely to be born before d 116 of gestation (P = 0.008). The only physical characteristic that was important for growth performance in the suckling period was birth weight (P < 0.001), yet using only birth weight as an indicator for survivability was too simplistic. The results of this study emphasize that individual characteristics of neonatal piglets could serve as indicators of survivability of piglets born in noncrate systems; however, the results suggest that the importance of characteristics differed in different periods of the preweaning period.
本研究旨在探讨个体生理特征对非笼养系统中分娩仔猪的早期存活和生长的影响。本研究的数据来自于 203 头长白×约克夏母猪所产的 3402 头新生仔猪，这些仔猪被安置在丹麦一个商业化母猪场的非笼养产床上。根据仔猪的存活率，将其分为存活至断奶（SURV）、死产（STILL）或分娩至断奶期间死亡（DBW）三个组，其中 DBW 又分为产后 0-1 天死亡（DEAD1）和产后 2-26 天死亡（DEAD26）。采用线性模型来确定哪些生理特征会影响仔猪的存活率和生长。结果表明，与母猪相关的变量相比，与个体仔猪相关的特征对仔猪的存活率有更大的解释力。如果仔猪是雌性（P < 0.001）、具有更大的体重指数（P < 0.001）和来自产仔数为 3 胎及以上的母猪（P = 0.017），那么它们的存活率更高。出生体重较大的仔猪更有可能存活（P < 0.001），但出生体重在解释 SURV 和 DBW 之间的差异方面不如体重指数重要。产后 2-26 天死亡的仔猪出生体重较低（P < 0.001），来自产仔数为 1 胎或 2 胎的母猪（P = 0.014），并且产仔间隔较短（P = 0.011）。产后 0-1 天死亡的仔猪体重指数较低（P < 0.001），表现出更大程度的生长受限（P = 0.004），并且来自较大的窝产仔数（P = 0.005）。仔猪的性别会影响产后 0-1 天（P < 0.001）和产后 2-26 天（P < 0.001）的存活率。与 STILL 相比，DEAD1 仔猪的头臀长更短（P < 0.001），出生体重与窝重平均值的偏差更大（P = 0.001），并且更有可能在妊娠第 116 天之前出生（P = 0.008）。在哺乳期，对生长性能最重要的生理特征是出生体重（P < 0.001），然而，仅将出生体重作为仔猪存活率的指标过于简单化。本研究的结果强调了新生仔猪的个体特征可以作为非笼养系统中分娩仔猪存活率的指标；然而，结果表明，在仔猪早期断奶期间，不同特征的重要性存在差异。
