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Piglet mortality in outdoor production systems varies across the year, and a reason for this variation could be fluctuations in hut climate, as ambient temperature might influence piglet survival, both directly and indirectly. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of farrowing hut climate and year variation on stillbirth and liveborn mortality. A large-scale observational study was conducted at five commercial organic pig-producing herds in Denmark from June 2015 to August 2016. Both year variation (F 3,635=4.40, P =0.004) and farrowing hut temperature (F 2,511=6.46, P =0.002) affected the rate of stillbirths. The risk of stillborn piglets was lowest in winter and during this season larger changes in hut temperature between day 1 prepartum and the day of farrowing increased the risk of stillbirths (F 1,99=6.39, P =0.013). In addition, during the warm part of the year stillbirth rate increased at temperatures ⩾27°C. Year variation also affected liveborn mortality (F 3,561=3.86, P =0.009) with a lower rate of liveborn deaths in spring. However, the hut climate did not influence liveborn deaths. Consequently, other factors than hut climate may explain the influence of year variation on liveborn mortality. These could be light differences causing seasonality in reproduction and lactation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shoulder ulcerations are common in breeding sows in production systems but the consequences for the animals in terms of pain or discomfort are not well-described. This study presents data from a histopa-thological examination of shoulders of sows, specially focusing on the peripheral nerves in the region and the behavioural responses towards palpation of animals with traumatic neuromas but without ulcers. The study included 155 sows from seven Danish herds initially screened and stratified according to absence/presence and size of shoulder ulcers 3-4 weeks post-partum, out of which 71 were free of ulcer-ations and 84 had different stages of ulceration. Before collection, sows were subjected to shoulder pal-pation and behavioural responses were registered. From the consecutive pattern of development of ulcerations it is evident that shoulder ulcerations develop from top-to-bottom. A high frequency of traumatic neuromas was found in both healed and unhealed lesions. The observa-tion of viable nerve-ends in shoulder ulcerations makes it likely that ulcerations are associated with pain. Moreover, the presence of traumatic neuromas in healed ulcerations indicates that there is discomfort even after the lesions have healed. This is further supported by the behavioural finding that rubbing behaviour in response to palpation was increased on the day of sample collection of the shoulders in sows with traumatic neuromas but without shoulder ulcers (P= 0.053). Further studies are needed for final confirmation but these results suggest that shoulder ulcers may be associated with pain even after healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decubital shoulder ulcers are lesions on the shoulders of sows kept in production systems, reported to have a relatively high prevalence, and to some extent be comparable with human pressure ulcers. In sows, the ulcers are caused by pressure inflicted by the flooring, leading to oxygen deficiency in the skin and the underlying tissue. This paper reviews existing knowledge about decubital shoulder ulcers in sows, focusing on the pathogenesis, classification and consequences in terms of pain and animal welfare. On the basis of available human as well as animal literature, we describe the primary causal factors, underlying mechanisms, suggested direction of progression as well as temporal development. We review suggested scales for the classification of decubital shoulder ulcers, and argue that none of these are useful for the classification of decubital shoulder ulcers in live sows. The knowledge of the welfare consequences of decubital shoulder ulcers is limited. On the basis of the tissue structures that are involved, we assume that the development and presence of decubital shoulder ulcers in sows are a painful and prolonged condition. It is concluded that the extent of the welfare problem related to decubital shoulder ulcers cannot be fully determined until a valid ante-mortem classification system is available, and knowledge about the duration of the condition (including the various stages), as well as the possible consequences in terms of pain or discomfort have been established. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]