Sinais de estro durante a lactação de fêmeas suínas na Região Centro-Sul do estado de Mato Grosso

Abstract

The modern swine market is the fourth largest in world production in a complex, high value-added chain, with production estimates of 4.436 million tons in 2020. Maintaining this level depends on several production factors. Aspects such as qualified labor and sophisticated management controls must be observed. The maintenance of low production costs and high efficiency, force to optimize the reproductive zootechnical indices within the herd. Eventually, the occurrence of estrus during the lactational period can provide an increase in the weaning interval (IDC), and consequently an increase in the non-productive days (NPD) of the sow, harming several indices such as: number of weaned piglets / farrowing, number of farrowings /sow/year, number of finished/sow/year, causing losses to the swine farmer. Thus, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of morphophysiological and behavioral signs of estrus in sows during the lactational period. For this, in loco visits were carried out in six technified swine farms involving three different biomes in the state of Mato Grosso, with temperature variation related to different climatic conditions. The properties had a different level of technification: they had differences in technological standards, but all within the perspective of high productivity. There were properties with high investment costs in equipment and that followed the specifications of the technological package dictated by the agro-industries; animals from specialized breeds, specific for production; balanced and controlled feeding according to technical criteria specified by the technical assistance. An evaluation of the reproductive indices was carried out, according to the oestrus of the observed sows, litter size, weaning time and number of piglets per sow observed. The analyzed data allowed the verification of correlations between climate, biome, temperature, management and productivity of the farms, possible economic impacts related to productivity losses from the observation of lactational oestrus.