Effect of proportion of female piglet born alive on pre-weaning growth traits in Pietrain

Abstract

Piglets production data of 1,252 Pietrain sows (3,583 records), which farrowed from 2004 through 2007 and raised under Thai environmental condition, were used to study the effect of proportion of female piglets born alive (FPB) on number of piglets born alive (NBA), average birth weight of the piglets per litter (BW), average weaning weight of the piglets per litter (WW), and average daily gain of the piglets per litter (ADG). In this study, FPB was defined as the proportion of female to all piglets in a litter, and they were categorized into 5 groups: group 1 (0 < FPB < 20 %), group 2 (20 < FPB < 40 %), group 3 (40 < FPB < 60 %), group 4 (60 < FPB < 80 %) and group 5 (80 < FPB < 100 %). The statistical model composed of year x season interaction, parity, and FPB as fixed effects, and random effects were boar and residual. The results revealed that the average of all traits was lower in the first parity than the following parities (P < 0.05). Sows with group 3 had the highest NBA (8.41+0.07 piglets; P < 0.05), while sows with group 1 (6.61+0.13 piglets; P < 0.05) and group 5 (6.42+0.17 piglets; P < 0.05) had lowest NBA. However, those two groups of sows (group 1 and group 5) were similar with the highest BW (1.77+0.01 and 1.75+0.02 kg/piglet) when compared to the other groups. Furthermore, sows with higher FPB had lower WW and ADG. These results implied the association between FPB and pre-weaning growth traits that could be used for increasing efficiency of pig production.