Abstract The objective of the study was to investigate cost-effective strategies to reduce sow farrowing duration and enhance sow health. Sows (PIC, n = 315) within a 3,600-sow commercial farm were randomly assigned within parity to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The factors consisted of two top-dressed supplements administered from day 110 of gestation until farrowing: 1) 50g of dicalcium phosphate and 2) extra vitamins (an additional ∼100% of industry levels (Faccin et al., 2023)). All sows were fed 2.27 kg daily of a pre-farrowing lactation diet containing 0.85% total calcium and 0.57% total phosphorus. Sow body condition was measured using the Knauer sow caliper. Sows that had not farrowed by day 114 of gestation were induced. Farrowing duration was defined as the time interval between the birth of the first piglet and last live-born piglet and was recorded for a subset of sows (n = 222). Farm staff assisted sows during farrowing at their discretion. Data was analyzed using PROC GLM in SAS. The models for both farrowing duration and percentage of stillborn piglets included the fixed effects of parity and treatment, as well as linear and quadratic covariates for total number born. Additionally, the model for percentage of stillborn piglets included the number of mummified piglets as a covariate. Results by treatment are presented in Table 1. The number of stillborn piglets and the percentage of stillborn piglets did not differ (P ≥ 0.20) across all treatments. However, contrasts comparing the Control group versus the combined dicalcium phosphate and extra vitamin treatment differed (P 0.05) for both the number and percentage of stillborn piglets. An increase of one mummified piglet increased (P 0.05) the percentage of stillborn piglets by 1%. Neither parity nor sow body condition were associated (P ≥ 0.17) with the percentage of stillborn piglets or farrowing duration. Farrowing duration differed (P 0.05) across treatments. Top-dressing dicalcium phosphate reduced (P 0.05) farrowing duration by 21% to 22%. Supplementing extra vitamins tended (P = 0.08) to reduce farrowing duration. Farm workers assisted 52% of the sows that farrowed. Yet farrowing assistance did not differ (P 0.05) between treatments. The results showed that pre-farrowing supplementation of dicalcium phosphate greatly reduced farrowing duration yet had little impact on piglet livability during farrowing. However, the combination of dicalcium phosphate and extra vitamins improved piglet livability at farrowing when compared to no supplementation.
Knauer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.