Causes of sow mortality in Hungarian indoor and outdoor pig production units

Assessing the reasons for death in pig breeding units is the first step in understanding and controlling the factors influencing sow losses due to mortality. From October 1997 to October 2001 in forty-nine indoor (2876 sows died) and sixty-five outdoor breeding units (3451 sows died) sow mortality was evaluated. The average annual mortality rate during the four year evaluation period was 5.1 +/- 1.2% in indoor and 12.2 +/- 2.1% in outdoor production units. Swine urogenital disease (SUGD, 32.4%), heart failure (HF, 21.8%) and locomotor problems (LP, 33.1%) caused deaths were markedly higher in outdoor production, while periparturient diseases (mastitis-metritis-agalactia, MMA, 24.5%) and torsion or distension abdominal organs (TDA, 20.5%) revealed markedly higher losses in indoor units. The annual culling rate was 39.1% in the indoor and 45.2% in the outdoor units. In outdoor units 40.1% of all deaths occurred during the periparturient period of the reproductive cycle, in indoor units the majority of mortality happened during lactation (40.2%). Average parity at death was 3.6 in indoor and 2.5 in outdoor production.