Causes of Sow Mortality and Risks to Post-Mortem Findings in a Brazilian Intensive Swine Production System
2022
Matheus Saliba Monteiro | Débora Novais Matias | André Pegoraro Poor | Maurício Cabral Dutra | Luisa Zanolli Moreno | Beatriz Martins Parra | Ana Paula Santos Silva | Carlos Emílio Cabrera Matajira | Vasco Túlio de Moura Gomes | Mikaela Renata Funada Barbosa | Maria Inês Zanoli Sato | Andrea Micke Moreno
The present study was conducted to investigate the risk factors for post-mortem findings and causes of sow mortality. A post-mortem examination and microbiological investigation were conducted on 123 sows from a breeding herd with 15,000 dams. The mortality of spontaneous death in sows occurred mostly in the peripartum period (53%; <i>p</i> < 0.05). The spontaneous deaths were associated with heart failures, hemorrhagic and perforating gastric ulcers, and liver torsion, while in the euthanized sows, the post-mortem findings were associated with locomotor disorders. A higher body condition score (BCS ≥ 3.5) increased (<i>p</i> < 0.05) heart failure on the post-mortem examination. The excessive use of manual obstetric interventions increased sow deaths resulting from cervix/uterus ruptures and increased the odds of death (<i>p</i> < 0.05) due to metritis. Sow mortality had a multifactorial etiology. Infections were polymicrobial. The main microbial agents identified from a septic lesion in locomotor, genitourinary, and respiratory systems were <i>Trueperella pyogenes</i>, <i>Escherichia coli</i>, and <i>Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae</i>, respectively. In conclusion, sow mortality involved multiple risk factors and several bacterial agents. These results indicate that better management practices can reduce sow mortality in swine production and increase sow welfare.
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