Sow mortality is an area of increasing concern as production records indicate a significant increase in spontaneous death losses over the past 10-20 years. This project gathered information on sow mortality in Canadian herds through a literature review, a producer survey, visits to 13 farms for live sow measurements, and will analyze historical sow culling and mortality records from 34 farms.
Survey results from 104 herds across Canada found that the average sow replacement per year was 44%, with average sow mortality of 5.7%, and average parity of the sow herd was 3.5. The most common reasons for early sow removal (i.e. excluding old age) were poor reproductive performance and lameness.
Both the survey and on-farm visits showed that larger herds had a higher average sow mortality per year, higher annual sow replacement, and lower average parity. Reasons for these effects are unclear; one theory is that larger farms experience greater staff shortages, with limited time for identification and follow-up treatment of compromised sows. Farms using group housing in gestation also showed a higher average sow mortality per year when compared to farms with stall-housing, and may be associated with the increased number of aggressive interactions that result in injury and increased incidence of lameness, leading to higher removal rates.
Sow mortality in Canadian Swine Herds (full article)
