How can farmers manage low birthweight pigs profitably?

Birthweight and the early management of pigs affect their lifetime performance

and are key to their profitability, but recent research indicates that low birthweight

pigs may have the capacity to catch up with their littermates.

What factors affect growth? Performance of pigs results from a complex interaction of factors including:

Production system.

Nutrition available to the sow before giving birth and before weaning.

Competition from siblings in the litter.

Supplementary and post weaning feed.

What does the research show? Some lightweight pigs naturally make up their deficit and new evidence shows that:

Growth performance to slaughter is not solely reliant on birthweight.

Weight at weaning is also significant and may indicate the potential for making up low weight.

Piglet body shape at birth, particularly abdominal circumference and BMI (body mass index derived from weight/body measurement ratio), may be a more reliable indicator of future performance than weight alone.

Specialist feed formulated for low birthweight pigs post weaning can boost them to normal weight.

School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU Tel 0191 208 4597

What approaches will provide producers with the best return? Some pigs grow markedly more slowly than their contemporaries in the same production systems but discrepancies may be managed:

Low birthweight pigs with low body mass index (ie disproportionately long and thin) may benefit more from supplementary specialist feed.

Grouping light birthweight pigs before weaning can be helpful as it reduces competition, but this needs to:

o Be done soon after birth – later attempts at cross-fostering will disrupt teat order.

o Involve grouping sufficient numbers of piglets together to maintain high milk demand and avoid lactational oestrus in the sow.

Targeting of additional high quality feed (high digestibility, high lactose content, inclusion of cooked cereals) to light pigs only in the starter regime can be cost effective.

This briefing was written by Professor Ilias Kyriazakis and draws on research projects carried out at Newcastle University, with financial support from AHDB Pork. Views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author. Further information:

Douglas, SL, Wellock, I, Edwards, SA and Kyriazakis I (2014) High specification starter

diets improve the performance of low birth weight pigs to 10 weeks of age

Journal of Animal Science 2014 92: 10: 4741-4750

doi:10.2527/jas.2014-7625

Douglas SL, Edwards SA, Sutcliffe E, Knap PW and Kyriazakis I (2014) Identification of

risk factors associated with poor lifetime growth performance in pigs Journal of Animal

Science 2013 91: 9: 4123-4132 doi:10.2527/jas.2012-5915

Douglas, SL, Edwards, SA and Kyriazakis I (2016) Are all piglets born lightweight alike?

Morphological measurements as predictors of postnatal performance Journal of Animal

Science 0: doi:10.2527/jas.2015-0142

Douglas, SL, Edwards, SA and Kyriazakis I (2014) Management strategies to improve

the performance of low birth weight pigs to weaning and their long-term consequences

Journal of Animal Science 2014 92: 5: 2280-2288 doi:10.2527/jas.2013-7388

Douglas, SL, Edwards SA and Kyriazakis I (2014) Too late to catch up: A high nutrient

specification diet in the grower phase does not improve the performance of low birth

weight pigs Journal of Animal Science 2014 92: 10: 4577-4584 doi:10.2527/jas.2014-

7793

Contact: Ilias Kyriazakis, email ilias.kyriazakis@ncl.ac.uk

Series editor: Anne Liddon, Science Communications Manager

School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Briefing No 4 October 2016