Evolution of « abnormal » teats in gilts during growth and first lactation

The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of commercializing gilts with « abnormal » teats. The teats notation was carried out on 252 gilts at 25 kg liveweight, 70 kg liveweight, 100 kg liveweight and at first service. Among these, 166 primiparous sows were followed during their first lactation and had their teats noted at farrowing, 7 days after farrowing, 14 days after farrowing and at weaning. The stage of 25 kg liveweight appeared too much precocious to allow a right estimation of functional teats. In contrast, the repetability of good teats between 70 kg liveweight and first service was very high (more than 98%). In addition, one should be more severe with false, intercalary or small teats, which either became false during lactation or tended to dry up very early. Conversely, inverted teats always became functional and still gave milk at weaning, especially in case of partial teat inversion. In summary, it seems possible to choose future breeding animals according to the teats quality at the stage of 70 kg liveweight, if considering inverted teats as functional teats. In contrast, it was not possible to define sorting criteria for « abnormal » teats in relation with their location on the udder. In the end, it must be underlined that, in the present study, dry teats mostly came (95,3%) from normal teats and that wounded, flushed or gathered teats during first lactation solely came from normal teats.