Factors Affecting Physiology and Endocrinology of Farrowing

The highly prolific sow, defined as one giving birth to 16 or more liveborn piglets, presents a challenge to reproductive management of a sow herd (Boulot et al., 2008). From the point of view of reproductive management of the sow, feeding plays a key role. Therefore, recent findings related to feeding and how it affects farrowing, lactation and oestrus management are given the highest priority in the present paper. We report on recent findings related to feeding sows a high fiber diet during the period preceding parturition and its beneficial effect on gut function and duration of farrowing (Oliviero et al., 2009). In addition to feeding, arrangement of the farrowing pen (crate vs. pen; barren vs. enriched) appears as a critical factor determining the course of parturition. Our latest findings suggest that prohibiting the sow to exhibit nest building behaviour (Algers and Uvnäs – Moberg, 2007) prolongs parturition by an average of 90 minutes (Oliviero et al., 2008; 2010). In addition, feeding sows with a high fiber diet during pregnancy, apart from being a beneficial feeding strategy from the welfare point of view, appears to increase the ad libitum feed intake during lactation. This effect seems to be carried over to the average daily gain of piglets, especially during the neonatal period (Quesnel et al., 2009, Peltoniemi et al., 2009). Amount of feed eaten by sows during lactation, on the other hand, appears as a key in enhancing gonadotrophin secretion and follicle development throughout lactation, however these effects of feeding become more evident towards the end of lactation (Kauffold et al., 2008). Follicles grow after weaning, as triggered by gonadotrophins FSH and LH, occurs the faster the better the stimulation by gonadotrophins has been prior to weaning (Prunier and Quesnel, 2000; Kauffold et al., 2008).