Variation of piglets birth weight and consequences on subsequent performance

Data collected from 965 litters from the start of the Pig Research Station of ITP in July 1998 until October 2000 (12,041 piglets born) were used to evaluate the variation of piglets' birth weight and its consequences on post-weaning performance. All piglets were individually weighed at birth and at 27 days of age (weaning) but only some of them were studied after weaning. Increasing litter size from less than or equal to11 to greater than or equal to16 piglets results in a reduced mean birth weight from 1.59 to 1.26 kg, which corresponds to a mean decrease of 35 g per each additional piglet born. Concomitantly, the proportion of small piglets, i.e. weighing less than 1 kg, increases from 7 to 23% of total born in these litters. Below 1.0 kg BW, mote than 11% of piglets are stillbirths and thereafter more than 17% die within the first 24 h. The corresponding values above 1.0 kg average 4 and 3%, respectively. Despite a low number of small animals still alive at weaning, our data indicate that the higher is the birth weight the higher is the average daily gain both over the sucking, the post-weaning and the growing-finishing periods. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.