THE EFFECTS OF FEEDING REGIMES IN THE LAS T MONTH OF GESTATION ON THEBODY CONDITION AND REPRODUCTIVE-PERFORMANCE OF SOWS

The population of a commercial herd of breeding sows was divided into two groups of 600. The sows in each group were evaluated on the 80th d ay of pregnancy. They were classified into three sub-groups based on t heir body condition in terms of normal condition, moderately fat and o bese. One group of sows received food regardless of their body conditi on and those in the other group were fed, for 4 weeks, according to th eir body condition. At parturition the following parameters were recor ded the duration of farrowing, number of liveborn piglets, number of s tillborn piglets, number of early postnatal deaths and the proportion of sows suffering from the metritis-mastitis-agalactia syndrome. All o f these parameters were significantly better for sows fed restrictivel y. Sows with a higher parity were fatter and the reproductive performa nce of older obese sows was inferior to that of younger lean sows.