How nutrition during gestation affects sow welfare, piglet viability and long-term herd health.
Sow gestation nutrition is a welfare intervention with compounding effects - it shapes not only the welfare of the sow during pregnancy but the welfare of her piglets through birth weight, vigour and access to colostrum. A sow in poor body condition at farrowing cannot adequately nourish a large litter; the welfare consequence is extended hunger, low birth weight piglets with compromised immunity and higher pre-weaning mortality. Getting gestation nutrition right is therefore a welfare intervention for the sow, her current litter, and through improved immune transfer, for the lifetime health of the piglets. High-fibre diets that reduce hunger expression are an additional welfare benefit of appropriate nutritional management during gestation.