A first analysis of piglet mortality identifying important factors

The number of pigs weaned per sow per year was defined as the overall goal for improving reproductive performance during a PRDC workshop in 1997 (PRDC, 1997). This criterion is influenced by two main components, number of litters per sow per year and the number of piglets weaned. Previous work at AGBU (Tholen et al., 1996) has shown that genetic improvement to increase the number of litters per sow per year should focus on weaning to conception interval between the first and second parity. The second component, number of piglets weaned depends on the number of pigs born alive, the number of stillbirths, and piglet survival until weaning. While the number of piglets born alive has been incorporated into breeding programs the number of stillbirths and piglet survival has not been considered yet.