Normally, the normal parturition time for a sow is 2-3 hours, which refers to the entire process from the birth of piglets to the complete expulsion of the afterbirth. However, in the actual delivery process, prolonged parturition of sows is often encountered, which poses significant risks to the sow. So, how can we shorten the parturition process of sows? Let's find out.
How to Shorten the Parturition Process of Sows?
Prolonged parturition in sows can have several harmful effects:
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Excessive consumption of physical energy and excessive fatigue in sows, leading to decreased postpartum appetite or even anorexia, which is unfavorable for postpartum recovery.
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Prolonged retention of piglets in the birth canal can lead to compression and hypoxia, resulting in stillbirths.
Now, let's explore some methods to shorten the parturition process of sows:
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Enhance Exercise: Sows that lack exercise do not effectively exercise muscles such as the rib muscles, abdominal muscles, diaphragm, and pelvic ligaments that assist in delivery. Therefore, sows after 30 days of pregnancy can be raised in large pens to increase their activity, which helps to shorten the parturition process.
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Control Environmental Temperature: The ideal temperature for sows is 18-20°C. Temperatures exceeding 25°C can lead to heat stress, which significantly reduces uterine contraction. Similarly, other stress factors should be controlled, such as maintaining a quiet environment during delivery.
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Improve Feed Nutrition: Increase the nutritional level of pregnancy feed, appropriately increase the calcium ion content in sow feed during late pregnancy, and provide high-energy and high-protein diets to ensure that sows have sufficient energy reserves during delivery, thus providing enough calcium ions for muscle contraction.
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Implement Disease Prevention: Implement effective disease prevention measures and develop scientific disease prevention programs to prevent the sow herd from being infected with reproductive disorders such as porcine parvovirus disease, porcine encephalomyelitis, swine fever, pseudo-rabies, blue ear disease, and circovirus disease.
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Other Measures: In the late stage of parturition, sows can be intravenously injected with 5% glucose to ensure the strength of sow labor. After piglets are born, they should be immediately placed next to the sow's teats to stimulate the release of oxytocin from the sow's hypothalamus, thus shortening the parturition process. In cases of oversized fetuses, abnormal fetal positions, or narrow birth canals, assistance should be provided promptly to shorten the parturition process.
In summary, prolonged parturition in sows not only increases the burden on the sow but also poses a threat to the lives of the piglets. Therefore, during the sow's delivery period, various management measures should be implemented to improve environmental conditions, thereby shortening the parturition process and enhancing reproductive efficiency.
