Desmame de leitões: impactos de práticas de manejo sobre o numero, peso e mortalidade de desmamados

Abstract

Pig farming is essential in the production of animal protein globally. In Brazil, it stands out as one of the largest producers, influencing the agricultural economy. This study sought to increase the contingency of piglets housed per sow, improve weaning per sow and maintain zootechnical indices by introducing two more piglets. The experimental design was randomized with 6 replications and two weaning strategies. Twelve litters originating from the DB lineage, from DB90 dams, were used, and each litter was duly identified for monitoring purposes. Females were subjected to two different weaning strategies: (1) number of suckling piglets equal to the female's number of functional teats and (2) number of sucklings greater by 2 piglets than the number of functional teats. Both treatments followed the same nutritional strategy recommended by the company supplying the genetics, with synchronized feeding times, in order to guarantee the proximity of the females to each other. The results demonstrated that females subjected to treatment with piglet housing greater than the availability of teats revealed a notable increase in the number of weaned piglets (P<0.05), without, however, promoting weight loss of piglets at weaning or increase in the mortality rate. Weaning piglets in excess of the number of teats in the swine matrix represented a viable practice, which can contribute to significant improvements in the general operation of the farm, thus meeting the needs and challenges faced by the swine industry.