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Received: 03 Oct., 2018 Revised: 01 Jan., 2019 Accepted: 04 Jan., 2019
ABSTRACT
Preweaning piglet mortality, mainly due to crushing is an important concern in pig production systems adversely affecting the profit from the farm and welfare of the animals. The present study compared three different systems of farrowing houses viz. conventional farrowing house with guard rail and one-third slated floor (T1), farrowing house with guard rail and floor level ventilation (T2), and farrowing houses with farrowing crates (T3) to identify the best system to minimize the farrowing house stress and mortality. There were no changes in average daily feed intake, serum cortisol levels and maternal behaviour of the sows in different groups. The litter size and litter weight at birth were more or less similar in all treatment groups, whereas litter size and litter weight at weaning was higher (P < 0.05) in T3 compared to other groups. There was significant reduction in piglet mortality in houses with farrowing crates (T3) compared to other two groups (P < 0.05). Cost of production per kilogram live weight of piglets on housing cost basis was also observed to be lower in system with farrowing crates. The payback period required to meet the housing cost for T3, T2 and T1were calculated as 1.63, 2.94 and 3.11 years, respectively. The results of present study identified that farrowing houses with farrowing crates significantly reduced piglet mortality, thereby increasing the profitability of swine husbandry without any adverse effect on the performance of sows.
Keywords: Farrowing crate, Swine husbandry, Farm economics
Swine husbandry is an important livelihood activity of small and marginal farmers in many developing countries of the world. Though the demand for quality piglets is ever increasing, farmers are reluctant to maintain breeding stock due to requirement of individual housing system for farrowing. The profitability from pig farms dependents mainly on controlling preweaning piglet mortality, which accounts for 75 per cent of the total mortality in pig farms. Crushing of piglets by dam is the single major cause (47.9%) of pre-weaning mortality during the first three days of piglet's life (Andersen et al., 2008; RangstrupChristensen, 2018). Improvements in swine production can therefore be made by adopting appropriate housing management to reduce the mortality of young piglets.
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