The influence of the induction of farrowing on live birth, body mass, appearance of dystocia, mortality and surviving of neonatal pigs in litter during the first ten days

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of the the day of farrowing induction on the number of newborn piglets (live born and dead born), body mass and mortality of neonatal pigs in litter by the tenth day of age. For the investigation purpose, there were chosen 167 pregnant animals, 34 gilts and 133 sows, divided into 3 groups each, according to the day of pregnancy when prostaglandin analogue, dinoprost-tromethamine, was applied (from 112th to 114th day). Fastest- induced parturition was in gilts which were administered dinoprost on the 113th day of pregnancy, (34,30 ? 6,23) h after application, that is, in sows which were administered prostaglandin on the 114th day of pregnancy, (29,57 ? 4,14) h after application of dinoprost. Most gilts (75 %) and sows (90,91%) started farrowing 24-36 h after dinoprost application, when it was given on the 113th day of pregnancy. During daily twelve-hour working time (7-19 h), 67,07% out of all the treated animals started farrowing. When farrowing was induced on the 112th day of pregnancy, 17 sows (12,78%) needed obstetric assistance for dystocia, while 47 (35,34 %) sows had troublesome farrowing. Along with the delayed induction, body mass of newborn pigs increased, and the largest recorded weight was 1,27 kg in sows, that is 1,38 kg in gilts, which were given dinoprost on the 114th day of pregnancy, with the lowest number of live born pigs of body mass less than 1 kg (23,76%). In this experiment there was determined the connection between the body mass and vitality of newborn piglets, so the lowest mortality rate of the pigs by the 10th day of age was noticed in sows and gilts which were given dinoprost on the 114th day of pregnancy (11,05%), in regard to the pigs born of sows and gilts which were given dinoprost on the 112th day of pregnancy (15,39 %).