Sow mortality in commercial pig units is a significant welfare indicator; high mortality rates reflect systemic health, management, and housing problems that require investigation.
Sow mortality is a welfare indicator that reflects the cumulative health burden placed on productive animals by housing, management, and genetics. A sow that dies prematurely from lameness complications, cardiovascular failure, or infection has typically experienced a period of deteriorating health before death. The animals that die are those whose welfare has been most severely compromised; for every sow that dies, many more are experiencing subclinical versions of the same conditions. Systematic mortality recording and investigation, combined with veterinary review, is the most direct route to identifying and addressing the management factors driving excess mortality.