Physiological traits of newborn piglets associated with colostrum intake, neonatal survival and preweaning growth

Colostrum intake, which is critical for piglet survival after birth and growth up to weaning, greatly depends on piglet weight and vitality at birth. Our aim was to identify a set of biological variables explaining individual variations in colostrum intake, preweaning growth and risk of dying. Farrowing traits, morphological traits and colostrum intake were determined for 504 piglets born alive from 37 Landrace × Large White sows. A subset of 203 of these piglets was used to measure plasma neonatal concentrations of metabolites and hormones in blood collected from the umbilical cord at birth. From univariate analyses, we established that colostrum intake was positively associated with plasma neonatal concentrations of IGF-I, albumin, thyroid hormones (P