Abstract:Sow litter sizes have increased over recent decades, increasing the need for cross-fostering. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the number of source litters used to create cross-fostered litters on piglet pre-weaning mortality (PWM) and weaning weight. A RCBD was used with 26 blocks of 5 litters (total 130 litters/1820 piglets), all litters consisted of 14 piglets. Blocking factors were farrowing day, sow parity, body condition score, and functional teat number, and the average and CV … Show more
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