Delaying farrowing using intravaginal devices impregnated with progestagen does not affect the proportion of piglets born alive

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effi ciency of progestagen intravaginal devices (IVDs) in preventing parturition in sows by determining the effect of delaying parturition on the alive/total born piglets ratio. Evaluations of

Prepartum progestagen supplementation in swine: a strategy to facilitate piglet care and prevent early parturition

“…Thus, IVDs containing 800mg MPA were used to investigate the effect of progestagen supplementation on piglet viability. There was no significant difference in the proportion of viable piglets in sows that underwent spontaneous (89±1.6%), induced (90.1±1.2%) or MPA-manipulated (90.1±1.2%) parturitions (FRELING et al, 2013). Average birth weight and parturition length were also unaffected by treatment (FRELING et al, 2013).…”

“…However, IVDs impregnated with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 (FRELING et al, 2013) or even 2g of progesterone (unpublished data) were not effective in preventing farrowing after PGF treatment. Lower MPA doses (100, 200 and 400mg) also failed to prevent parturition in some sows (FRELING et al, 2013). Thus, IVDs containing 800mg MPA were used to investigate the effect of progestagen supplementation on piglet viability.…”

“…However, delaying farrowing is also possible, and should be considered as a management strategy to avoid early parturitions (before the average gestation length of each unit) through maintenance of high progesterone levels during the end of gestation (FOISNET et al, 2010;VANDERHAEGHE et al, 2011;FRELING et al, 2013); although, this practice is unusual. The combination of the two approaches, avoiding early parturition and farrowing induction with progesterone and PGF, respectively, could provide a more precise control of parturition in comparison to the adoption of a single technique (GOONERATNE et al, 1979;GUTHRIE et al, 1987;KRAELING & WEBEL, 2015).…”

“…However, more recently, with the industry facing increasing labor costs, shortage of workers and intensive use of farrowing unit (transferring sows from gestation to farrowing unit very close to expected time of farrowing), the technique to narrow the parturition interval has gained new attention (VANDERHAEGHE et al, 2011;FRELING et al, 2013;GAGGINI et al, 2013).…”

“…More recently, it was demonstrated that intravaginal devices (IVDs) impregnated with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) can also efficiently maintain gestation (GASPERIN et al, 2011;FRELING et al, 2013). However, some aspects regarding delaying farrowing still need to be addressed, particularly those related to the interval from IVD withdrawal to farrowing, piglets' viability and sow´s subsequent fertility.…”