Suckling piglet losses in organic pig farming: status quo and practical approaches to minimisation – Bioland Beratung GmbH

Significantly excessive piglet losses can be identified as a problem in organic pig farming. However, piglet losses and causes are as variable as the conditions on organic farms themselves. The multiple causes and risk factors for increased piglet mortality have been heavily researched and identified in the last decade. Specific recommendations for organic farming have already been derived from this. However, the research results often relate to small test groups and specific husbandry environments. There is no comprehensive, up-to-date data on piglet losses, the individual housing environments and the risk factors that actually occur in practice for organic pig farming. It is also unclear to what extent the recommendations developed have been received by farmers and whether they have been implemented. This project addresses these issues in order to be able to make direct improvements and recommendations based on practical data for existing organic farms, farms converting to organic farming and policy-makers. Based on the different causes of loss, risk factors and cause complexes can be derived accordingly. – Environmental influences and management (degree of specialisation, personnel, barn construction, husbandry methods) – Selection of breeding animals and genetics used (robustness, maternal behaviour, rearing ability, litter size, piglet size) – Keeping sows and piglets healthy (mastitis-metritis-agalactia syndrome, iron supply, vaccination