Swine Morsels

Swine Morsels IX (Swine Heat Stress Swine)

Swine Heat Stress Swine
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By Monte W. Fuhrman - DVM, BSc
Published: Jul. 14, 2006

Heat and the swine breeding herd: Boar critical temperatures need to remain below 81 degrees F. Heat stress over that level will compromise fertility for up to 75 days! The best barns are those that have provided a separate boar environment that can be maintained below that critical temperature. We have three breeding barns (excluding boar studs) now that have air conditioned boar rooms within the breeding barn. Emergency manual wetting of the boars, particularly in the testicle area, is indicated if boars are over critical temperature. Keep ‘those things’ cool! Sow condition needs to be just a bit on the chubby side to best keep heat stress down. A little bit of fat helps insulate against the heat and provides energy for the sows when they are consuming less feed. It was once thought that sows should be allowed to lose a bit of weight in the summer. That is not the case. They actually need to be kept at a higher condition level in the summer time. We know lactation feed intake will suffer in high heat. Chubby sows have something to draw on and breed back is much better if there is an energy store to draw on. Very skinny and very fat sows do worse in high heat situations. Night time cool down is paramount. Sows need a period of time that they can cool so temps need to be down to around 70 degrees during the night. If temps remain over 80 during the night and early morning, much more heat stress occurs. That night time cool period greatly helps heat stress conditions. Critical time of day for heat stress is 2 pm to about 11 pm. If panting is occurring in the females, they are heat stressed. In addition to conventional cooling mechanisms there are two other nice tricks you can use if emergency measures must be taken (i.e. all cooling methods are being used and still panting is occurring)

  • Manually wet down sows during the critical time of the day. Keep them wet until panting ceases in the evening. Adding an extra person to the work force just for this purpose has been indicated and has been effective in the past. Do not be hesitant to do this! Find a high school kid that doesn’t have a job yet and use him/her during the heat.
  • Use 2 gallons of cold water in an enema for heavily panting sows. This provides a fairly rapid total body temperature drop. Yippee!
  • Banamine at 1cc/100 lbs. administered IM seems to help a lot in heat stressed sows. Heat and the finishing herd Maintain maximum summer time ventilation and make sure all aspects are functional. Insure ALL water lines are fully functional. Pigs are extremely sensitive to salt toxicity. Water deprivation/salt toxicity deaths can occur within 8 hours after water has been unavailable when temperatures are this high. Check water availability at least three times daily. Allow pigs to choose rather or not they want to be wetted. Dripper/mister design needs to allow this option. Respiratory disease inevitably occurs if pigs are wetted when they are already cold. Manual wetting of pigs in some environments can be indicated. Provide ‘piggy puddles’. Let them go swimming if your building allows it. The new large pen technologies should easily allow for an area that water is available for a swimming pool. Enjoy the warm! Winter’s comin’.