Does floor heating around parturition affect the vitality of piglets born to loose housed sows?

The most critical period for the survival of piglets is during the first 2 days of life. Causes of early piglet mortality include reduced vitality due to hypoxia during parturition, hypothermia and lack of adequate colostrum intake. Besides, low vitality piglets may run a larger risk of being crushed by the sow. In the light of the thermoregulatory challenges facing newborn piglets and the possible sowpiglet interactions under loose housing, we investigated whether floor heating around parturition affected early piglet vitality and behaviour related to survival. Twenty-three Landrace Yorkshire sows of 2nd parity were housed individually in 7.5 m pens in a climate controlled facility. HEAT sows (n = 12) were exposed to pen floor heating (33.5 8C) from 12 h after onset of nest building and until 48 h after birth of 1st piglet, whereas CONT sows (n = 11) received no floor heating (21.2 8C). The concentration of lactate in umbilical cord blood at birth—an indicator of hypoxia—increased with the birth duration (P < 0.001) and with declining piglet weight (P < 0.001), with no significant effect of floor heating. After the initial drop in body temperature at birth, floor heating resulted in an earlier recovery of piglet temperatures (P < 0.001), i.e. the piglet’s period for experiencing hypothermia after birth was reduced. HEAT piglets also suckled sooner than CONT piglets after the 1st hour post partum (with ratios between HEAT/CONT hazard functions being 2.9–6.4 for latency to suckle in the period 1–3 h after birth). Moreover, fewer live-born piglets died during the first 3 days (P = 0.047), as well as during the first week in the floor heated litters www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim Applied Animal Behaviour Science 99 (2006) 88–105 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 89991314; fax: +45 89991500. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Malmkvist). 0168-1591/$ – see front matter # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2005.10.007 (mean (S.E.) HEAT 8.7 (2.8)% versus CONT 15.5 (5.2)%, P = 0.014). We did not find any effect of floor heating on duration of parturition, inter-birth intervals, litter size, early piglet weight gains, blood glucose and lactate concentrations at birth, heart rate at birth, piglet activity from birth to first suckling or amount of parvovirus antibodies transferred from sow to piglets. In conclusion, floor heating around parturition had no evident effect on the innate piglet vitality, but it had favourable effects on the early recovery of piglet body temperature, latency to first suckle and survival of piglets in the loose house system. # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.