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Piglets are born with eight sharp teeth, which can cause facial lesions on other piglets and sow teats during suckling. During the first few days of life, tooth resection via grinding can be performed to minimize these problems. The European Union (EU) allows tooth resection only when there is evidence of injuries to other piglets or sows because it may cause pain and stress (EU Directive 2008/120/EC).
Objective and methods: Surveys of farms that had litters with intact teeth revealed contrasting results regarding lesions on piglet faces and sow teats. To justify these observations, an experiment was conducted at Crécom, the experimental station of the Chamber of Agriculture of Brittany. The study compared two treatments: piglets with intact teeth (DI) and piglets with ground teeth (DM). We assessed facial lesions of piglets, a score for sow teat lesions, litter weight gain and piglet mortality. A total of 68 sows and 884 piglets in 2 batches were included.
Results and conclusion: The results indicated that grinding teeth decreased the percentage of severe facial lesions piglets throughout lactation, and more so when the sows were in temporary confinement crating rather than confined crating. Grinding teeth decreased the teat lesion score on day 21 of lactation but did not influence the mortality rate or litter weight gain.
Claudie Guyomarc'h, Nicolas Villain, Yannick Ramonet. 57èmes Journées de la Recherche Porcine.