• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1089-1096
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• 2003

We investigated postpartum behaviors of sows and their litters. The aim of this study was to determine the behavioral recovery of sows and the behavioral development of their piglets postpartum. Five multiparous sows(Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire) and their litters were studied over a period of 5 days postpartum. The litter size varied from 8 to 13 with a mean of 11.2 piglets. The behaviors of sows and their piglets were recorded using five CCD cameras, a multiplexer and a time lapsed VCR. The videotapes were scanned every 2 min to obtain an instantaneous behavioral sample. In the behaviors of sows, ‘Lying ventrally’ increased from 1 h postpartum to 26 h postpartum, then decreased gradually, and stabilized after 80 h postpartum. ‘Lying laterally’ decreased from 1 h postpartum to 26 h postpartum and stabilized after 80 h postpartum. ‘Standing, drinking and feeding’ increased from 1 h postpartum to 23 h postpartum, then decreased gradually, and increased again from 60 h postpartum. ‘Sitting’ increased from 1 h postpartum to 46 h postpartum and then decreased. In the behaviors of piglets, ‘Lying’ increased rapidly from 1h postpartum to 45h postpartum, and then was maintained at an almost constant level. ‘Massaging and Suckling’ decreased rapidly from 1 h postpartum to 36 h postpartum, and then was maintained at an almost constant level. ‘Walking’ increased from 1 h postpartum to 21 h postpartum, then decreased gradually. These results suggest that the behavioral recovery of the sow is almost completed at 80h postpartum and that the behavioral development of the piglet is almost completed at 45h postpartum.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2011

An investigation was done to evaluate the effects of adding green tea probiotics, Alisma canaliculatum probiotics and fermented Kelp meal on the growth performance and immune response in sows and piglets. A total of 32 pregnant sows were assigned to 4 treatments in 8 replications with 1 sow as a replicate in this experiment from 2 months before parturition to 28 days after parturition. Three hundred nineteen (319) piglets were produced from experimental sows after parturition. The dietary treatments were CON group (without antibiotics), GTP (basal+green tea probiotics, 0.5% of the diet), ACP group (basal + Alisma canaliculatum probiotics, 0.5% of the diet) and FKM group (basal+fermented Kelp meal, 0.5% of the diet). Litter size and body weight at birth and weaning size and body weight at weanling in piglets were greater in additives group compared to CON group but no statistical differences were found (P>0.05). Diarrhea score showed a decreasing tendency with three additives groups compared to CON group. The lymphocytes in blood of sows fed ACP and FKM group were significantly higher compared to CON group (P<0.05), and the MID of GTP and FKM group were significantly lower compared to CON group (P<0.05). The serum IgG concentration in sows tended to increase with additives groups compared to CON group and the serum IgA and IgM concentration in GTP and FKM group were significantly higher compared to ACP group (P<0.05). The cortisol levels showed a decreasing tendency in additives groups without statistical differences among the groups (P>0.05). Based on these observations, it can be inferred that the GTP and FKM may have such efficacy as antibiotics in growing pigs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.399-406
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary ginger and Scutellaria on antioxidant capacity and IgG concentration in plasma and colostrum of sows. Twenty-four sows (Landrace $\times$ Yorkshire) in parity 2 were assigned to 3 treatment groups (8 sows per treatment) from 30 day before farrowing up to weaning on day 21 after farrowing. The treatment diets included 1) CON (Basal diet), 2) GDP (0.3% ginger dry powder was used as the replacement of wheat in basal diet) and 3) SDP (0.3% Scutellaria dry powder was used as the replacement of wheat in basal diet). No differences were found in antioxidant capacity and IgG concentration in plasma of sows among all the three treatments. Antioxidant capacity in colostrum was not affected by replacement of ginger and Scutellaria dry powder. IgG and protein concentration in colostrum was significantly higher (P<0.05) in GDP than that in CON and SDP. However, fat and lactose concentration were not affected by treatments. The total amino acid concentration in colostrum was significantly higher (P<0.05) in GDP than that in CON and SDP. Plasma antioxidant capacity was not affected by treatments in piglet on 0 day and 21 day, but tended to increase by supplementation of ginger. On 0 day, plasma IgG in piglet was not detected by replacement of ginger and Scutellaria dry powder. However, plasma IgG concentration in piglets on 21 day was significantly higher (P<0.05) in GDP than that in CON and SDP. These results indicate that colostrum IgG concentration in sows and plasma IgG concentration in piglets were improved by feeding ginger dry powder 30 days before farrowing in comparison to basal diet.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.145-154
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• 2011

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding fermented diet including whole crop barley silage on the odor reduction and microbial population change in feces, and the constipation prevention of pregnant sows. The concentration of phenol was not detected in tapioca, beet pulp, wheat bran and lupin seeds, while that of p-cresol was ranged between 9.62 and 52.11 mg/L showing that lupin was highest and tapioca was lowest. It was determined that tapioca and beet pulp were useful feed ingredients to reduce odor due to their lower contents of phenol and indole compounds. Ten pregnant sows were allocated to control group and fermented diet group in 5 sows in each group. They were fed 3.0 kg DM/d of diets for 28 days. Feces was examined and showed that the feces from the fermented diet group was observed with the higher moisture content and the lower hardness than that of the control diet group and the population of E. coli was decreased and the population of lactobacilus was higher than that of the control diet group. The concentrations of p-cresol and skatole were lower than the detection levels at 33% and 67% among the samples of feces of the control group and at 67% and 100% among the samples of the feces of fermented diet group respectively. Thus it is expected that the odor from the feces of pregnant sows fed the fermented diet could be reduced compared with that of control group. Therefore, it is suggested that feeding fermented whole barley diet to pregnant sows improve the function of intestine and reduce the rate of occurrences of constipation and odor levels.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.171-182
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• 2009

Conventionally, many pig producers have utilized a continual sow managements system that the matings, farrowings and weanings are done weekly basis. But this transitional method is not able to cut the cycle of diseases and fully apply all-in/all-out system because of the continuous flow of sows and pigs. Conventional weekly management system is currently limiting in small farm to work efficiently both for workers and pigs. Therefore, pig producers have found novel management methods for applying all-in/all-out system, improving pig health, leading to better growth, lowering mortality and reducing medication costs nowadays. Moreover, all-in/all-out pig management system has known as a strategy for improving productivity in swine farm. The batch system is one of the best management methods to adopt all-in/all-out pig management system that prevent spreading diseases in pig and remove cycle of diseases. Batch farrowing system is a concept for providing a group of sows that delivery within a specific farrowing interval and inducing a large enough scale of piglets to fill the weaner facilities. There are different types of batch farrowing system with batch size and interval of farrowing when several factors at the swine farm are considered such as total number of sows, available facilities in the farm, and the efficiency of workforce. Sow managements such as farrowing, weaning and breeding, every 3 weeks rather than weekly, 2 or 5-week interval have advantages for workers and reproductive cycle of sows as well as pig flow. Because there are several pros and cons both in weekly and batch management system, various factors should be considered to apply the most suitable management system in each individual farm. To improve poor swine productivity in Korea compared to ED, batch system for sows will be an alternative choice which is able to prevent high incidence of diseases in swine farm such as PMWS, PRRS, PRDC and PED because all-in/all-out pig management can be also applied automatically by using this management system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.428-434
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• 2019

Many countries have interested animal welfare. Similarly, domestic people have concern for the welfare from companion animals to livestock. Environmental enrichments (EE) are tool to enforce the welfare, however, research with sows is limited. Therefore, this study was investigate to effects of environmental enrichments on performance and behavior properties of gestating sows. A total of 30 pregnant sows (Landrace) were assigned into three treatments that control, T1 (plastic device) and T2 (Rice straw). Period of trial was from Mar. 03. 18. to Mary 19. 18. The EE were allotted to center of experimental pen ($11.6{\times}6.0m$). Body weight (BW), backfat thickness (BF) and cortisol were identified at experimental initial or end date. Behavior was recorded during 24 hours on days 91 of gestation, and then analyzed the patterns. BF was reduced (15.73 vs. 16.56 mm; p>0.05) in T1 than control, but Ending BW, total litter size and alive piglets did not differ. Born dead piglets showed lower tendency (1.00 and 0.63 vs. 1.50 heads; p>0.05) in T1 and T2 than control. Similarly, the enrichments declined farrowing mortality (C, 8.68%; T1, 6.86%; T2, 3.40%; p>0.05). Cortisol was not differed among treatments. In the behavior characteristics, eating showed lower (1.81 vs. 9.68 and 6.99%; p<0.05) in T2 than control and T1. Furthermore, playing or digging were only observed (0.33 and 2.10%; p<0.05) in T1 and T2, respectively, whereas rubbing (0.91%, p<0.05) only showed in the control. These results suggest that the provision of EE would be not negatively affected the performance of the gestating sows and could be led to improvement of the livestock welfare.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.607-613
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to predict the exact time of parturition from analysis and classification of preliminary behavior based on parturition signals in sows. This study was conducted with 12 crossbred sows (with an average of 3.5 parities). Behavioral characteristics were analyzed for duration and the frequency of different behaviors on a checklist, which includes the duration of the basic behaviors (feeding, standing, lying down, and sitting). The frequency of specific behaviors (investigatory behavior, shame-chewing, scratching, and bar-biting) was also recorded. Image information was collected every two minutes for 24 hours before the first piglets were born. As a result, the basic behavior of a sows' standing time (22.6% of the time after 24 h, 24.9% after 12 h) and time lying down (55.9% after 24 h, 66.3% after 12 h) increased over the 12 h period before parturition, compared with the 24 h period before parturition (p<0.01). Feeding (13.42% after 24 h, 4.38% after 12 h) and sitting (8.2% after 24 h, 4.5% after 12 h) tended to decrease during the 12 h before parturition (p>0.05). The sows' investigatory behavior ($11.44{\pm}1.80$ after 24 h, $55.97{\pm}6.13$ after 12 h), scratching ($3.75{\pm}1.92$ after 24 h, $20.99{\pm}5.81$ after 12 h), and bar-biting ($0.69{\pm}0.15$ after 24 h, $3.71{\pm}1.53$ after 12 h) increased in the 12-hour period before parturition, compared with the 24-hour period before parturition (p<0.01). On the other hand, shame-chewing ($2.20{\pm}1.67$ after 24 h, $0.07{\pm}0.01$ after 12 h) decreased compared to the 12-hour period before parturition (p>0.05). Thus, standing, investigatory behavior, scratching, and bar-biting could be used as behaviors indicative of parturition in sows.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.612-622
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of sex, birth year, birth season, and parity of sows on their progeny using the following on-farm test records: Backfat Thickness (BF), Fresh Meat Percent (FMP), Loin depth (LD), Age at 90kg (90D), and Average Daily Gain (ADG). Statistical analysis was performed using data collected from 1,178 Yorkshire and 13,395 Landrace progenies, which were born from 119 Yorkshire and 1,191 Landrace sows, respectively between 2011 and 2015. All results of the analysis were statistically significant (P < 0.05) except the birth season effect on LD. For Landrace, the highest ratings were found to be at the $5^{th}$ parity (BF), at the $3^{rd}$ parity (FMP and LD), at the $2^{nd}$ parity (90D and ADG). For Yorkshire, the highest ratings were at the $2^{nd}$ parity (BF and FMP), at the $3^{rd}$ parity (LD), and at the $4^{th}$ parity (90D and ADG). Although the ratings of carcass traits of progeny appear to be higher between the maternal sow's $2^{nd}$ and $4^{th}$ progenitor, no significant relations to parity were found. Based on these results, we concluded that maternal parity is not significantly affect carcass traits of progeny and thus that the best slaughtering age of sows should not be determined solely based on maternal parity but also in consideration of other factors such as unit costs of production. The results of this study would provide fundamental information to future studies on the effect of economical parity on sows and swine breeding.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.627-632
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• 2003

Piglets communicate with their sow by using special sounds and synchronize their suckling behavior with their mother’s grunting. This study sought to find an effective sound for controlling the nursing/suckling behavior of pigs. Eighteen crossbred Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire sows and their piglets were studied on days 1, 7, and 14 post-partum. The parity of the sows was three or four. The litter size ranged from 9 to 11, with a mean of 10.4 piglets. Thirty minutes after the end of the last suckling, either the nursing-suckling sound (NSS) or the nursing-suckling sound + click sound (NSSCS) was played for 90 s randomly, and this experiment was repeated three times. The behavior of the sows and their piglets was recorded using camcorders and observed each second. When comparing NSS and NSSCS, there was less lying and sleeping and more sitting, standing, walking, and massaging when NSSCS was played than when NSS was played. These results suggest that NSSCS may induce more nursing and suckling in pigs than NSS.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 1984

The present study was carried out to investigate the behaviour of parturition, nursing and sleep with a total of 40 sows and 420 piglets during 28 days from July 6 to August 3, 1984. The results obtained in this study were as follows: 1. About half number of sows employed were recumbent and lay on their right or left side throughout the process of delivery, but the rest changed their lying sides during the delivery, about 65% of piglets born were presented anteriorly. During nursing 51.3% of sows were recumbent and lay on their left side. 2. The entire farrowing process normally lasted 4 hr. Piglets were expelled at an average rate of one for every 19.3mim. 3. The first suckling attempt was observed at about 24.3min after birth. "Teat order" were established within 32hr after birth. 4. The duration and time of nursing were 35.8 second and 24.6 times/day, respectively, in the first day of piglet life. However, they tended to shorten with the advance of lactation. The intervals between nursings were 58.5 min. in the first day of piglet life, but it tended to lengthen with the advance of lactation. 5. The sows were awake for 31.7%. drowsy for 16.7%, and asleep for 51.6% of the 24hr period a day.