Eureka! Institutional Repository

The domestication of wild pigs is dated back to the 7th century B.C. In contrast to what has happened to the rest of the domesticated productive species, the first big step was not followed by a continuous improvement of breeding methods and evolvement of the genotype of the wild pigs. In the passing time the pig farms were improved, and new pig races were made that had high quality characteristics which gave bigger litters and sows with enhanced motherly instincts. In a modern pig breeding farm, the causes of piglet’s fatality were according to the type of the breeding facilities, the conditions in the facility and the expert knowledge of the breeder in this critical period. The piglet is born with barely any fur, its size is very small, and it is extremely sensitive to the environment, either it’s the viruses or the low temperature that might exist. An important role plays the maternal instinct of the sow so that she cares for her piglets. The sow must not be stressed from various handling which might have effects on her milk supply or her behavior towards her piglets such as hostility. The main factors that affect the pig fatality are crushing by the sow, low food intake, viruses and low temperatures. Other factors are agalactia and diarrhea. In this thesis we are called to define which are the main causes of weaning piglet fatality for the Greek pig farming. The evidence was collected for a Greek pig farm, which is located in North Greece, those were studied and analyzed for the fatality factors of weaning piglets during the months from July 2018 to January 2019. The statistical analysis was done with Office Excel for Windows. The research results were that most piglets die due to crushing by the sow, agalactia and the less common factors of diarrhea, low fat reserve and sick. The surprising fact was that the sick piglets were so few that were only 4 of them. These results showed that the factors that is most common to happen is crushing. It’s the most common reason of pig fatality but which proper management and timely placement of heat sources could make a big difference.