Characterization of and risk factors for mortality in grow finish pigs 10 to 20 weeks post weaning

摘要

Losses in growing pigs represent a significant cost to a production system due to both reduced revenue and increased costs. Little is understood about causes and risk factors for mortality in most commercial systems and current published data has beenbased on retrospective analysis (Maes, 2001, Xue et al 2000). In addition it has been demonstrated that there is no association between early and late mortality during the growing period (Xue et al, 2000). A large production system in the Midwest that utilizes wean to finish buildings has historically had 6.12% (4.2- 8.2; 95% confidence interval) mortality from wean to market with greater than 50% occurring after 10 weeks post placement. The mortality after 10 weeks is unexpected and represents an opportunity cost of over $3 million to the system annually. In order to develop management strategies to capture a portion of this opportunity a multi-site longitudinal study was designed to 1) characterize the causes of mortality between 10 and 20 weeks post weaning and 2) identify management risk factors for that mortality. The causes of mortality have been reported previously (Payne, 2004). This abstract will focus on measurement of risk factors for that mortality.