A preliminary survey examining the effect of oral health on feeding behaviourand efficiency in culled sows

摘要

Although the effect of oral disease in growing pigs on weight gain has been recognised and the incidence of dental disease has been observed to be high in sows (Knauer et al. 2007), the relationship between oral disease and feeding efficiency in pigshas not been examined. As the rate of sow culling has been linked to inadequate nutritional intake (Hughes et al. 2010), the role of dental disease should be considered. The high level of sow wastage has been identified as an important limitation on production. The hypothesis tested in this study was that oral disease of culled sows is related to feeding behaviour and efficiency.