RELAZIONE TRA STATO CORPOREO DELLA SCROFA E SUE PERFORMANCE: UNO STUDIO PRELIMINARE

For this study we selected 214 sows from 4 commercial herds in Po valley. For each sow, we measured back fat and back lean (Agroscan Noveko AC 037L, 3.5 MHtz) on site P2 at farrowing and at weaning. Performances data for each sow has been registered. We consider the ratio between back lean and back fat, never evaluated in literature before. This ratio at farrowing is inversely proportional to number of born alive and total born piglets. Therefore if body muscle is high in comparison with body fat, sows will farrow less piglets. The ratio at weaning is proportional to number of weaned piglets and to number of total born piglets in the next farrow. Therefore if body fat is high in comparison with body muscle, sows will wean more piglets and farrow more piglets in the next parity. In conclusion the muscular hypertrophy is a cause of negative performances.