Growth performances of suckling Sarda breed piglets

Postnatal growth performance has an important economic relevance in pigs breeding. A lot of different factors affect piglets growth rate: prenatal condition, maternal nutritional and hormonal status, breed, litter size; birth weight. Heavier piglets will have more appetite, will react better when turned away from their mother, will grow more and better and will have less health problems and better feed conversion index. The Sarda swine breed has been officially recognized in June 2006, when it has been inserted among the Italian local pig breeds.Our study has focused on various aspects of growth performance of suckling Sarda piglets: how litter size and farm can affect birth weight and growth rate and how sows diet can affect offspring performance. We have also investigated different mathematical models in order to identify which best describe the growth Sarda breed suckling piglets. Piglets ADG was significantly affected by litter size. Contrariwise the effect of and sex was not significant. Furthermore supplemental energy during lactation improved suckling piglets growth rates and consequently reduced the time to reach the slaughter or weaning weight. The Logistic model appears to be a good device to design Sarda purebreed. Due to the dimension of the sample more research must be carried out to evaluate the effect of genetics and environmental conditions on piglets growth. Particular attention must be used to farm system considering peculiarity of the breed, in order to make the farming of Sarda breed economically sustainable.