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第22号公告板 - Summer 2005
MiscelleanousProduction
MORROW WEM
Decision-making for the lightweight pig.
Pig Progress, 2004, Volume 20, N°10, 11-13
Are lightweight pigs worth raising? As a start this paper presents all advantages of culling the lightweights underlying the fact that small pigs at birth remain small in the following weeks. Such animals may not survive or need two additional weeks to reach a suitable slaughter weight and cause problems of organization (housing, shipping, etc.). Subsequently, the results of some studies on neonatal nutrition are reported and ways to manage and assist lightweight pigs are proposed. A way of minimizing the costs is to switch fat and carbohydrates according to the market prices since piglets can use either one or the other. By weaning piglets weighing about 1 kg and raising them in a separate swine center where a dedicated team was particularly careful to diet, feed delivery and system hygiene, palatibility and sanitary conditions allowed to lower mortality and obtain a profit compared to sow-reared pigs. The best feeding system was obtained feeding liquid milk-replacer delivered by a cup feeder with a nipple with a restricted feed intake. Then the author reports a US study which provides producers with guidelines in order to help them decide which nursery pigs to euthanize and when, considering economic and welfare costs. The protocol differentiated 4 levels of conditions in pigs at their arrival in the nursery unit and showed that euthanizing more pigs on arrival allowed to improve the welfare status of the farm and increase profit values.
