Vet World Vol.12 February-2019 Article-18
Research Article
Veterinary World, 12(2): 305-308
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2019.305-308
Reproductive performance of pigs raised by intensive management system in Abuja, Nigeria
2. Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Federal University Kashere, Gombe State, Nigeria.
Background and Aim: This study was carried out to determine the reproductive performance of pigs raised by the intensive management system in Abuja, Nigeria, with a view to assist farmers in ensuring improved productivity and profitability.
Materials and Methods: Using an interview-based questionnaire, data from 121 sows and 649 preweaning piglets were collected in 12 herds, from September 2017 to March 2018. Measures of reproductive and production performance assessed in this study were interfarrowing interval (IFI), number of liveborn piglets (NLB), preweaning piglet mortality (PPM), age at weaning (AAW), weaning to service interval (WSI), age at first farrowing (AFF), number of piglets weaned per litter (NPWL), and number of piglets weaned per sow per year (NPWPY).
Results: The results obtained in this study were IFI 6.2±0.84 months, NLB 7.2±1.11, PPM 31%, AAW 40.2±3.12 days, NPWL 5.3±0.73, WSI 39.4±4.59 days, AFF 9.1±0.60 months, and NPWPY 8.1±1.21. The identified causes of PPM were maternal overlay 31.34%, splay leg/hypoglycemia 22.39%, cannibalism 20.40%, starvation 14.93%, and unknown cause 10.94%.
Conclusion: The result showed that the reproductive performance of the sow (especially, NPWPY and PPM) needs to be improved on. There is a need to promote extension and herd health services by veterinarians and livestock personnel to potential and existing farmers in the area. This is more so because organized pig production in the studied area is relatively new and more people are establishing pig farms in the studied area. Keywords: Abuja, intensive management system, reproductive performance, swine production.
Keywords: Abuja, intensive management system, reproductive performance, swine production.
How to cite this article: Abah KO, Itodo JI, Ubah SA, Shettima I (2019) Reproductive performance of pigs raised by intensive management system in Abuja, Nigeria, Veterinary World, 12(2): 305-308.
Received: 01-09-2018 Accepted: 12-12-2018 Published online: 22-02-2019
Corresponding author: Kenneth Owoicho Abah E-mail: kennethabah34@yahoo.com
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.305-308
Copyright: Abah, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.