Effect of gender, birthweight and environment temperature on neonatal piglet body temperature

ABSTRACT

Neonatal piglets encounter survival challenges owing to immature thermoregulation. Assessing sex, birth weight and environmental temperature of neonatal piglets enables the farmers in adapting crucial management strategies to improve welfare and prevent hypothermia. Therefore, present study was initiated to investigate the effect of gender, birthweight and environment temperature on neonatal piglet body temperature. For this purpose, a total of 91 piglets were examined. Rectal temperature (RT) and ambient temperature were recorded six times daily for three days (2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th day of birth). Results revealed that gender exerts minimal impact (p > 0.01) on piglet body temperature, whilst birth weight influences initial thermoregulation, particularly on the second day (p < 0.05) of birth. Environmental temperature emerges as a pivotal factor, with piglets born in temperatures exceeding 25°C exhibiting higher body temperatures (p < 0.05). The findings provide practical insights for swine management, emphasizing the need for interventions based on birth weight and environmental conditions to enhance piglet welfare.

KEYWORDS:

• Rectal temperature
• hypothermia
• sex
• core temperature
• neonatal mortality
• piglet

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director of ICAR-National Research Centre on Pig, Rani for providing facilities for carrying out the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contribution

De: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation and Writing – review and editing

M. Attupuram: Data curation, Formal analysis

Souvik Paul: Methodology, Writing – review & editing

V.K. Gupta: Funding acquisition, Project administration and Supervision