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• 5 minutes

Give all the piglets the same opportunity:

Secure colostrum-intake for all

Combine different interventions

Iron supplementation from day 3 or later

Preventative pain treatment = not only for male piglets

Apply pain-relieving/ anti-inflammatory medication with a broad spectrum of activity for docked tails or arthritis

• 5 minutes

Sucking pigs have an irrepressible desire to live.  However, painful events may have a negative impact on the further development of pigs by:

Lowering milk-intake

Restricting self-preservation instinct (reflex to flee)

• 5 minutes

Early and excessive iron supplementation can negatively influence health

Piglets are born with minimal iron-reserves (40 mg). This low iron concentration is a natural defence mechanism directed at combatting bacterial infections during and after birth.

Sow milk provides piglets with about 1 mg Iron/day. With a daily need of about 7 mg there is only sufficient iron for about 4 to 5 days.

• 5 minutes

Systematics in sucking pig management:

 Checklist for a good start

1. Number of functional teats checked and recorded 

2. A number of  pigs, to leave two fewer piglets than the number of functional teats, are fostered out of a litter