Management of hyper-prolificacy in 2002 : what impact on technical results and sow longevity ?

Litter size and herd performance achieved in year 2002 are analysed using data from French national record system (GTTT and GTE). The impact of prolificacy on reproductive results and sow longevity is investigated among 2405 herds.Average litter size is high (13.2 ±0.8 total born/litter) and variable : 13% of herds achieve more than 14 total born/litter while 10% only reach 12 or less. Increase of prolificacy negatively impacts on stillborn and born alive survival rate, but improves weaned litter size and sow productivity. Reproduction success is high ( average conception rate at first service =90.2%), and also improves with prolificacy, with similar trends for gilts and sows. Sow longevity is not affected by high litter sizes (average parity at removal for productive sows=5.0). Gilts culling rate averages 7.6% of total culling and does not exhibit any variation in relation with prolificacy level.