The purpose of B. Sc. Thesis is to show the effect of sow’s body condition on piglets, sow’s health, re-mating and next litter size. We want to present methods for body condition regulation in practice and show the importance of body condition measuring and managing. Body condition is assessed at farrowing, weaning and two times during pregnancy. Methods such as visual assessment, body condition scoring and caliper measurement, are used or replaced by body weight and backfat thickness as alternative. Some actions are purposed to regulate sow’s condition in practice. Those are changes in nutrition, especially in quantity, regulation of barn temperature, redistributing daily tasks throughout the day, and feeding system. Poor body condition has many negative effects, such as many stillbirths, less weaned piglets, less liveborn piglets at the next farrowing, prolonged weaning-to-estrus interval, lameness, shoulder wounds and thin sow syndrome. Obesity can lead to long and heavy farrowing and higher piglet mortality rate during farrowing. Fat sow has bigger lying-down behaviour problems, too.
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