title: Impact of litter size on sow stayability in Swedish commercial piglet producing herds.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sows' ability to produce an excessive amount of piglets has shaped modern piglet production and there has been a steady increase in litter size during the last decades. This development has caused some negative side-effects, such as an increase in the proportion of stillborn piglets, a decrease in the proportion of weaned piglets and a larger variation in quality of piglets. Swedish commercial piglet producing herds have, like other countries with high production levels, high piglet mortality and high annual removal rate of gilts and sow. These problems seem to have increased during the same period that litter sizes have increased. Therefore present study aim to investigate whether there is an association between litter sizes and sow stayability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The probability to produce ≥4 litters during a lifetime was significantly lower for sows giving birth to ≤8, 15 and ≥17 piglets in total in their first parity litter compared to sows giving birth to 13 piglets. Except for the group of sows having a small (≤11 piglets born in total) first parity litter size in combination with a medium (12-14 piglets born in total) second parity litter size, all other groups were significantly associated with an impaired ability to stay ≥4 litters compared to sows having a medium both first and second parity litter size. There were differences in removal reason between sows having small, medium or large first parities litter sizes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Associations between litter sizes in low parities and sow stayability were found. Our results indicate that aiming for keeping sows giving birth to a medium-sized litter, with approximately 12-14 piglets born in total may improve sows stayability and decrease the risk of unplanned removal. This should be considered when planning breeding strategy and annual removal in Swedish commercial piglets producing herds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO-Box 234, SE-532 23, Skara, Sweden. emma.andersson@slu.se.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-0132
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO-Box 234, SE-532 23, Skara, Sweden.|Department of Disease Control and Epidemiology, National Veterinary Institute, SE-751 89, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frössling
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO-Box 7023, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Engblom
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO-Box 234, SE-532 23, Skara, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Algers
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO-Box 234, SE-532 23, Skara, Sweden.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gunnarsson
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008098:Litter Size / Q000502:physiology*; D010298:Parity / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D013548:Sweden; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Health; Mortality; Performance; Productivity; Removal reason; Welfare