Sow prolapses have continued to plague pig farmers for 10-plus years. Yet few management techniques have been reported to mitigate their occurrence. New data from North Carolina State Swine Extension supports the concept that sow prolapse is a genotype × environment interaction. Maternal line genetics have progressed rapidly with the addition of genomic selection. Yet how different is the gestation diet you are feeding today from the one you fed 10 or 20 years ago?
Sows (n=569) within two 3,600-sow commercial farms (from two different production systems) were randomly assigned to one of two treatments. Treatment females were top-dressed daily with a supplement containing dicalcium phosphate and extra vitamins (equivalent to doubling the vitamin premix) from day 109 or 110 of gestation until farrowing. Control sows did not receive any extra supplementation. Results are shown in Figure 1. Fewer (P=0.03) sows receiving the top-dress prolapsed during lactation when compared to Control sows. The difference between the Treatment and the Control females was largely explained by a smaller (P<0.01) number of rectal prolapses in the sows that were top-dressed.
Nutrition has previously been implicated in the occurrence of prolapse across various species. In sheep, injections of vitamins A, D and E were reported to reduce the incidence of vaginal prolapse in breeding ewes (Allott et al., 2020). Similarly, a systematic review in humans found that pelvic organ prolapse was associated with lower serum vitamin D (25-OH-D₃) levels (Kurniawati et al., 2023). In buffalo, researchers have reported lower serum calcium and phosphorus levels in prolapsed females compared to healthy counterparts (Ahmed et al., 2005; Akhtar et al., 2008). Collectively, these studies suggest that calcium and/or phosphorus metabolism are key components of the prolapse etiology.
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