Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22

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Applied Animal Behaviour Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim

The effect of ketoprofen on post-partum behaviour in sows

Elina Viitasaari a,c,∗ , Marja Raekallio b,c , Mari Heinonen d , Anna Valros a,c ,
Olli Peltoniemi d , Laura Hänninen a,c
a
Department of Production Animal Medicine, Koetilantie 7, P.O. Box 57, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
b
Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Koetilantie 7, P.O. Box 57, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
c
Research Centre for Animal Welfare, Koetilantie 7, P.O. Box 57, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
d
Department of Production Animal Medicine, Paroninkuja 20, 04920 Saarentaus, Finland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled trial was conducted in order to estimate
Accepted 13 June 2014 pain-related behavioural changes of sows in early lactation. Ketoprofen (KET) was used
Available online 20 June 2014 (3 mg/kg BW) intramuscularly for three consecutive days post-partum (p.p.) on 19 sows.
Nineteen sows were used as a control group and they received sodium chloride as placebo
Keywords: (PLAC). All 38 sows were videotaped for 3 days p.p., in total of 6 h a day for behavioural analy-
Behaviour sis. Percentages, bout lengths and numbers of occasions were calculated from four different
Farrowing
body postures (standing, lateral and sternal lying and lying udder towards piglet area, UTP)
Pain
and active head movements. Numbers of all nursings and percentages of unsuccessful and
Sow
Ketoprofen sow terminated nursings were calculated. Feeding and drinking were observed as numbers
of occasions. Differences between treatments (KET and PLAC) and parities (young, parity
2–3 and old, parity 4–9) were analyzed with repeated measures mixed models. No treat-
ment effect was detected on any measured parameter. Interactions between treatment
and parity were found for position changes, standing, feeding, drinking and UTP (P < 0.05
for all). Young KET sows presented more position changes than young PLAC sows (29.3 ± 3.0
vs. 20.1 ± 3.0, P = 0.04) and more standing bouts than old KET ones (2.6 ± 0.4 vs. 0.9 ± 0.4,
P = 0.03). Young KET sows had more UTP bouts than PLAC peers (4.1 ± 0.4 vs. 2.3 ± 0.4,
P = 0.05). Old KET sows drunk less often than PLAC peers (0.6 ± 0.3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.3, P < 0.01)
but young KET sows ate more often than old KET sows (2.3 ± 0.4 vs. 1.0 ± 0.3, P = 0.01).
Young sows in general appeared more active and they were changing position more fre-
quently than old KET sows. In conclusion, lying passively may be one of the signs of pain
after farrowing in young sows and when treated with ketoprofen, they exhibit increase of
movement.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Farrowing is intrinsically a painful process, but very

∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Production Animal
Medicine, Koetilantie 7, P.O. Box 57, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
Tel.: +358 50 4156657.
E-mail address: elina.viitasaari@helsinki.fi (E. Viitasaari).
little is known about pain that sows might experience post-
farrowing. Before farrowing sow behaviour is characterized
by increased activity (Jarvis et al., 2001) and the onset of
lactation turns her rapidly into lateral lying that appears
as passive behaviour (Oliviero et al., 2008; Wallenbeck
et al., 2008; Malmkvist et al., 2012). Post-partum (p.p.) sows

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2014.06.005
0168-1591/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 E. Viitasaari et al. / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22
are at high risk for painful conditions. Increased lying p.p.
predisposes sows to skin lesions due to roughness of the
flooring material (Norring et al., 2007). In our previous
study, we found that sows treated with ketoprofen devel-
oped skin ulcers later during lactation than the control
sows (Viitasaari et al., 2013) which may be due to reduced
lying. A decrease in lateral lying behaviour reduces the
possibilities for piglets to manipulate the udder. Injuries
and pain in the udder caused by piglets during nursing
are common (Gallois et al., 2005) and may cause inter-
rupted sucklings leading to insufficient emptying of udder
(Rutherford et al., 2011). However, the association between
pain and problems in lactation are not well understood
in sows. In addition, especially old sows may suffer from
chronic pain due to multifactorial conditions (Baer and
Bilkei, 2005).
Lying behaviour and position changes have been related
to be part of a pain response in sows. Administration of the
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) meloxicam
p.p. has been shown to reduce sows’ total lying duration
(Mainau et al., 2012). Endogenous opioids increase pain
threshold during farrowing in sows and thus act as anal-
gesics even for up to 7 days of lactation (Jarvis et al., 1997).
Sows receiving naloxone (an opioid antagonist) spent less
time lying laterally and more time lying sternally than
controls. Naloxone also triggered more frequent posture
changes after farrowing which decreased after a few days
to the level of controls (Jarvis et al., 1999). Frequent postural
changes are also linked to high maternal defensiveness
(Baxter et al., 2011): savaging gilts, for example, change
postures more often during the puerperium than non-
savaging gilts, and this has been suggested to be part of
a more complex behaviour relating to pain (Chen et al.,
2008). Parity is an important factor when assessing post-
partum pain as parity seem to affect the maternal behaviour
of sows (Vangen et al., 2005).
Another typical behavioural change in relation to
painful conditions, is a change in feeding behaviour. A
reduction in feeding behaviour has been shown to be a
response to malaise (Weary et al., 2008) and does not occur
during treatment with ketoprofen p.p. in sows (Viitasaari
et al., 2013). Appetite and thus eating maintains gut
movement and therefore sows also had shorter period of
constipation during p.p. ketoprofen treatment (Viitasaari
et al., 2013). Constipation is common in p.p sows, and can
cause pain and reduced production performance (Oliviero
et al., 2009).
Our objective was to analyze changes in the behaviour of
p.p. sows of different parity after the administration of the
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug, ketopro-
fen. We hypothesized that sows receiving pain alleviation
respond to the treatment by changes in general activity and
improving nursing behaviour.
2. Materials and methods
The experimental procedures were approved by
the National Animal Experiment Board (ESAVI-2010-
09747/Ym-23, PH22A) and the Finnish Medicines Agency
(FIMEA, Vetkl-nro 03/10).
17
2.1. Animals and housing
We performed a double blinded, placebo-controlled
field trial with a total of 38 clinically healthy Norwegian
landrace-Yorkshire hybrid sows with parity ranging from
2 to 9 in a commercial piglet producing farm in West-
ern Finland. The sows were moved from group-housing
to farrowing crates (225 cm × 72 cm) approximately 7 days
prior to expected farrowing. The crates had fully slatted
floors with a heat plate and a heat lamp for the piglets on
either side of the sow. Each sow received a handful of fresh
straw every day. Lactating sows were given commercial liq-
uid feed five times daily, with an initial energy content of
17.6 MJ on day 1, and increasing up to 128.0 MJ by the day
18 of lactation. Water was available ad libitum from a water
nipple.
Progress of farrowing of the sows were monitored dur-
ing piggery working hours (from 06:00 to 15:00) and
assisted if necessary. After all piglets of each sow were
considered to be born and placenta expulsed, piglets were
isolated from their mother with a low fence for approxi-
mately 1.5 h and the sow received an injection of 7–10 IU
of oxytocin to improve colostrum excretion. Cross foster-
ing was initiated during the first day of their life by merging
equal sized piglets into one litter. The caretakers checked
each sow for all signs of disease, especially for mammary
oedema, vulvar discharge and leg problems, daily from far-
rowing to weaning.
2.2. Medication
Sows were randomly allocated into two treatment
groups in blocks of 8 within farrowing room. Nine-
teen sows received ketoprofen (KET) (Ketovet 100 mg/mL,
Richter Pharma AGFeldgasse 19A-4600 Wels) intramus-
cularly 3 mg/kg and nineteen received equal volume of
isotonic saline as placebo (PLAC). Treatments took place
during the first 1.5 h after farrowing or latest at 6 am and
thereafter once a day for two consecutive days. Recordings
started each day after treatment.
2.3. Behaviour observations
A videocamera (Foscam FI8904W, Foscam Electronics,
HK) was installed above each pen one to 2 days before the
expected farrowing. Data were recorded with two frames
a second and was stored to a hard drive (Blue Iris v.2.64,
Perspective Software Corp.). Videos were analyzed using
CowLog software (Hänninen and Pastell, 2009). Videos
were observed daily from day one until day 3 p.p. Video
observations lasted for 6 h per day in two 3-h observation
windows starting 12 h after first piglet was born (Fig. 1).
Head and body postures, eating and nursing behaviours
of the sows were recorded continuously from the videos.
Detailed behavioural definitions are explained in Table 1.
3. Statistics
The sows were divided into parity 2–3 (young, n = 17)
or 4–9 (old, n = 21). From the behaviour data frequencies
for all observed behaviours were calculated. Lying udder
18 E. Viitasaari et al. / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22

Camera installaon Time between 8:00 – 24:00

in 3 consecuve days

12 h of no recording

3h 3h
recording recording
Farrowing

Medicaon
at 6:00-
7:00each
day

Fig. 1. The beginning of behaviour recordings of sows receiving either ketoprofen (n = 19) or placebo (n = 19) for 3 days after farrowing. Recordings and
pauses took place at the same time of day for three consecutive days.

towards piglet area (UTP) was reviewed from the videos as seconds and percentages from total observation dura-
and calculated separately as an entity of its own from all lat- tion were calculated. Successful and unsuccessful nursings,
eral lying. Any change of position was calculated from the including piglet and sow terminated ones were aggregated.
video data. For the head and body postures bout durations From these, percentage of sow terminated and unsuccess-
ful nursings were calculated. For head movements only
Table 1 active ones were analyzed. For UTP, frequencies, bout
The ethogram used in observations of sows during the first 3 days of lengths and percentages of all behaviours were calculated
lactation. separately regardless if it was on the left or right flank.
Behavioural class Behaviour Description Linear mixed models for repeated measurements were
used for analysing the differences between treatments,
Body posture Standing All 4 limbs touching
the ground days and parities in all observed behaviours. In the initial
Lateral lying One shoulder and hip models, treatment (KET or PLAC), day (1–3), parity (young
touching floor and old) and their interactions were added as fixed factors,
Sternal lying Lying sternum and sow was added as a random factor. Litter size was used
touching the ground
as a covariate for all models. Only significant interactions
Head posture Active head Moving head and/or were used for the final models and reported.
nosing around while
Litter sizes, live and dead born and piglet mortality
standing, lying or
sitting between treatment groups were tested with T-tests. The
Passive head Head still, no nosing. normality and homogeneity assumptions of the models
Sow can be standing, were checked with a normal probability plot of residu-
sitting or lying als and scatter plot with residuals against fitted values.
Eating behaviour Number of feedings Head in the trough, Mixed model results are presented as model estimates and
masticating (if visible) standard errors of means (mean ± SEM). The upper limit
Number of Snout in contact with
for the significant effect was set to P < 0.05. P-value between
drinkings the water nipple
0.05 and 0.1 was considered a tendency. All statistical anal-
Nursing Number of ≥50% of piglets yses were conducted using PASW Statistics 18.0.1 (IBM
behaviour successful nursings massaging teat
Acquires SPSS Inc., 2009).
followed by silent 15 s
of suckling and end
massage. Nursing end
when 50% of piglets 4. Results
leave the teat or end
massaging Mean litter size across all sows was 15.1 ± 0.7. An aver-
Number of ≥50% of piglets
age of 12.9 ± 0.8 piglets were born alive and 2.2 ± 0.4 born
unsuccessful massaging teat
nursings continuously without dead, while 1.2 ± 0.5 died after birth during the observing
15 s silent suckling period. No differences between treatment groups in litter
time size and piglet mortality were detected (P > 0.05). In total,
Number of sow Sow turns away from three sows needed manual assistance during farrowing,
terminated piglets and terminates
nursings nursing while ≥ 50% of
one from the placebo group and two from the ketoprofen
piglets at the teat group. No signs of disease were observed in the animals
Number of piglet Piglets terminate during the study and therefore no treatments were needed.
terminated nursing after 4 min and Handling of animals was minimal; only necessary proce-
nursings sow is lying still
dures such as cleaning the pen were performed.
 E. Viitasaari et al. / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22 19

Table 2
Overall mean (±SE) of observed behaviours in farrowed sows (n = 38) over
3 days post-partum. Observations were made for 6 h per day. Proportions
are presented as daily percentages from 6 h observation period.

Behaviour Overall value

Number Bout length Proportion

(min) (%)

Position change 20.8 ± 1.4 – –

Active head 4.0 ± 0.4 2.9 ± 0.2 3.2 ± 0.4
movements
Lateral lying 5.4 ± 0.3 58.7 ± 3.7 69.5 ± 2.6
Lying udder towards 2.8 ± 0.2 64.0 ± 7.0 37.7 ± 2.7
piglet area
Sternal lying 4.4 ± 0.4 6.2 ± 0.7 8.4 ± 0.9
Standing 1.7 ± 0.2 4.3 ± 0.5 2.3 ± 0.4 Fig. 2. The proportion of sternal lying of sows given ketoprofen (solid line)
Feeding 1.4 ± 0.2 – – or placebo (dotted line) as percentage (y-axis) of all behaviour observed
Drinking 1.3 ± 0.1 – – for 3 days postpartum (x-axis), 6 h per day *P < 0.05.
All nursings 3.2 ± 0.2 – –
Unsuccessful nursings – – 55.6 ± 2.8
Sow terminated – – 16.4 ± 2.6 higher in young KET sows than young PLAC ones. No dif-
nursings ferences between treatments were found in old sows in
these behaviours. Only number of drinking bouts was less
(P < 0.05) in old KET sows than old PLAC ones. Young sows
The overall behaviour results are presented in Table 2. showed no difference between treatments in frequency of
KET tended to increase the frequency of sternal lying bouts drinkings.
(KET 5.1 ± 0.6 vs. PLAC 3.7 ± 0.7) and the frequency of UTP
bouts (KET 3.1 ± 0.3 vs. PLAC 2.5 ± 0.3), P < 0.1 for both. 5. Discussion
Ketoprofen had no effect on duration of lateral lying bouts
(KET 63.40 ± 5.60 min vs. PLAC 54.05 ± 4.9 min, P = 0.2) No In general, behaviour of multiparous (parity 2–9) p.p.
significant treatment effects were found in lying parame- sows changed very little after treatment with the non-
ters. steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen. However,
Time affected nursing behaviour. Number of all nursings young and old sows showed different behavioural changes
during the 6-h daily observation period decreased from after treatment. In young (parity 2–3) sows ketoprofen
day 1 to day 3 (D1: 3.9 ± 0.4, D2: 3.3 ± 0.4, D3: 2.5 ± 0.3, increased activity as compared to placebo treated ones.
P < 0.05 between D1 and D3) and the percentage of unsuc- Increased activity was seen in young KET sows as
cessful nursings decreased over the 3-day observing period increased total number of position changes but it was not
(D1: 77.7 ± 3.5 vs. D2: 51.7 ± 3.7 vs. D3 37.3 ± 4.7, P < 0.05 observed in old KET sows. Our finding in young sows resem-
for both). Bout length of sternal lying tended to increase bled a recent one in which another NSAID, meloxicam,
over time with shorter bouts on day 1 than days 2 and 3 decreased overall lying time in farrowed sows on day 3
(D1: 4.3 ± 0.9 vs. D2: 6.7 ± 0.9 and D3: 7.7 ± 0.9, P < 0.05 for p.p. (Mainau et al., 2012). However, in contrast, ibupro-
both). No other differences between days were detected. fen (NSAID) administered orally had no effect on posture
Parity affected the measured behaviour parameters changes in sows after farrowing (Lay and Haussmann,
(Table 3). In general, young sows were more active than 1999). Sows in early p.p. stage increased activity is a
old ones. preferred behavioural feature. Frequent posture changes
Several significant interactions were detected between are linked to high maternal defensiveness (Baxter et al.,
treatment and parity (Table 4). Old KET sows had longer 2011) which is an important factor in protecting the young
active head movement bouts than did young KET sows, in the wild (Mignon-Grasteau et al., 2005). In addition,
whereas young PLAC sows had longer active head move- low activity level soon after farrowing is associated with
ment bouts than young KET sows (P < 0.05). Young KET high piglet mortality (Valros et al., 2003). On the other
sows had more position changes, standing bouts, sternal hand, Haussmann et al. (1999) found a decrease in posture
and lateral lying bouts and higher feeding frequency than changes on day 3 post-partum after administering butor-
did old KET and young PLAC sows (P < 0.05). Old KET sows phanol tartrate (an opioid analgesic) in comparison to a
had less drinking bouts than young KET and old PLAC sows placebo treatment. This contrasting result might be due to
(P < 0.05). Young KET sows had higher feeding frequency that we compared sows of a different age range and that
than did old KET and young PLAC sows (P < 0.05). the drug, butorphanol tatrate, used by Haussmann et al.
The only interaction between treatment and day was (1999) affects the central nervous system. It is possible that
detected in proportion of sternal lying (Fig. 2), which was in our study young sows experienced pain after farrow-
on day 2 higher in KET sows than PLAC ones (P < 0.05). ing and when it was alleviated, they exhibited improved
Significant differences were detected between treat- maternal characteristics. If, on the other hand, the increase
ments within parity as follows: active head movement bout in activity level is due to negative motivators, such as fear, it
length was shorter in young KET sows than young PLAC might not be positive for the maternal abilities. It has been
ones. Numbers of position changes, standing bouts, ster- shown that human presence can increase sow mobility,
nal lying bouts, lateral lying bouts, feeding and UTP were leading to crushing of piglets (Lensink et al., 2009). In our
20 E. Viitasaari et al. / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22

Table 3
Effect of parity on mean observed (±SE) behaviours over 3 days post-partum. Observations were made for 6 h per day.

Parity behaviour 2–3 (n = 17) 4–9 (n = 21) P

Number of position change 24.7 ± 2.1 16.9 ± 1.9 <0.05

Number of active head movements 5.0 ± 0.6 3.1 ± 0.5 <0.05
Number of lateral lying 6.6 ± 0.5 4.2 ± 0.5 <0.05
Duration of lateral lying bout (min) 50.5 ± 5.0 67.0 ± 5.4 <0.05
Number of lateral lying udder towards piglet area 3.2 ± 0.3 2.4 ± 0.3 <0.05
Duration of lateral lying udder towards piglet area bout (min) 43.1 ± 10.1 85.0 ± 9.6 <0.05

study, human interaction was minimal, limited mainly to
drug administration, and we did not differentiate observa-
tions with or without human interaction. Old sows had no
such reaction to ketoprofen and were in general less active
than young sows. In old sows ketoprofen might not be
able to alleviate underlying multifactorial pain and inflam-
matory stages arising from previous clinical or subclinical
mammary gland problems that can only be seen in ultra-
sonography (Baer and Bilkei, 2005). Marchant and Broom
(1996) suggested that discomfort in dry sows increases
standing and sternal lying. And it is possible that physi-
cal discomfort may influence posture changes post-partum
too.
General activity in young sows, independent of treat-
ment, was higher than in old sows. Young sows showed
more position changes and shorter and more frequent
bouts of lateral lying than old sows during the first 3 days
of lactation. This supported the finding of Mainau et al.
(2010) that activity level is higher in primiparous than
multiparous sows before and during farrowing. Our results
showed that this difference of activity was maintained also
during the first days of lactation. Age tends to decrease
general activity in sows. In addition to reduction in mater-
nal reactivity with increasing parity (Held et al., 2006), a
decrease in postural changes comparing parities 1, 3 and 5
are also found (Ostović et al., 2012). These previous find-
ings reinforce our results of general depression in maternal
behaviour with increasing age.
Young sows ate more frequently after farrowing when
receiving ketoprofen than placebo. This was in line with our
previous findings indicating that ketoprofen after farrow-
ing improved the appetite of sows (Viitasaari et al., 2013).
Hence the effect of ketoprofen was beneficial. Reduced
feeding frequency in young sows was probably a sign of
underlying pain, since ketoprofen increased number of
feedings, and feeding behaviour has been explained to
be a useful indicator to follow when suspecting painful
conditions (Weary et al., 2008). Energy demand increases
as lactation proceeds (for review, see Algers and Uvnäs-
Moberg, 2007) and thus maintaining good feeding capacity
is of great importance. Pain and sickness are at least
partly mediated by the same mediators (Bay-Richter et al.,
2011; Alexander et al., 2012) and may trigger same kind
of behaviours. Consequently feeding behaviour decreases
during sickness (Weary et al., 2008) and hence pain and
sickness are tightly linked and might be problematic to
discriminate.
In addition to increased feeding frequency, drinking
frequency was increased in KET young sows in compari-
son to young PLAC sows. Feeding and drinking have been
described to have joined actions in the pain and sickness
responses, and usually both decrease as a response to
pain (Watkins and Maier, 1999) This is further supported
by the findings by Arras et al. (2007) that NSAID treat-
ment after laparotomy increased the water intake in mice.
Even though we found no effect of ketoprofen on nurs-
ing behaviour, an increase in water intake can potentially
increase milk production. High water intake during lacta-
tion has been shown to correlate positively with weaning
weight of the piglets and relative weight loss of the sow
during lactation (Kruse et al., 2011). Since high water intake
has a positive impact on piglets and ketoprofen increased
number of drinking bouts, nutritional activities should not
have a negative impact on nursing behaviour in terms of
standing position of the sow while feeding or drinking.
Ketoprofen treated sows spent proportionally more
time lying sternal on day 2 p.p. than placebo treated ones.
This might have been due to reduced udder soreness in
ketoprofen sows. Lying sternally has been suggested as
a normal way for crated sows to limit udder stimulation

Table 4
Mean observed (±SE) behaviours over 3 days post-partum in farrowed sows of different parities (n = 38) treated either with ketoprofen or placebo. P-values
are presented as between parities within treatments. Observations were made for 6 h per day.

Parity behaviour Treatments and parities

Ketoprofen P Placebo P

2–3 (n = 9) 4–9 (n = 10) 2–3 (n = 8) 4–9 (n = 11)

Active head movement bout (min) 1.6 ± 0.5 3.5 ± 0.5 <0.05 3.7 ± 0.5 2.7 ± 0.4 NS
Number of position changes 29.3 ± 3.0 13.4 ± 2.7 <0.05 20.1 ± 3.0 20.4 ± 2.6 NS
Number of standing bouts 2.6 ± 0.4 0.9 ± 0.4 <0.05 1.3 ± 0.4 1.9 ± 0.4 NS
Number of sternal lying bouts 7.0 ± 0.9 3.1 ± 0.8 <0.05 3.1 ± 0.9 4.3 ± 0.7 NS
Number of lateral lying bouts 7.7 ± 0.7 3.5 ± 0.7 <0.05 5.5 ± 0.7 4.8 ± 0.6 NS
Number of drinking 1.6 ± 0.3 0.6 ± 0.3 <0.05 1.3 ± 0.3 1.5 ± 0.3 NS
Number of feeding 2.3 ± 0.4 1.0 ± 0.3 <0.05 1.1 ± 0.4 1.3 ± 0.3 NS
Number of lateral lying bouts udder towards piglet area 4.1 ± 0.4 2.2 ± 0.4 <0.05 2.3 ± 0.4 2.6 ± 0.4 NS
 E. Viitasaari et al. / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 158 (2014) 16–22
by piglets (Valros et al., 2002). With proceeding lactation,
sows tend to increase time spent on sternal recumbency
(Hrupka et al., 1998; Valros et al., 2002). Crated sows with
sore udder may have very limited behavioural options to
reduce compression to the udder but to lie laterally, which
decreases their possibility to reduce piglet udder stimu-
lation. To our knowledge, there are no studies on udder
soreness in sows, but cows with clinical mastitis have been
shown to be reluctant to lie on their udder (Siivonen et al.,
2011).
Ketoprofen treated young sows had more frequent lat-
eral lying bouts with udder towards piglet area than young
placebo sows which has a potential to increase nursing
opportunities for piglets. Sows tend to nurse on the same
side throughout lactation (Špinka et al., 2002; Baxter et al.,
2011). In our study lying with the udder towards piglet
area was, however, not necessarily linked to sows willing-
ness to nurse, as the piglet area could be either on the left
or on the right side of the sow. As we observed no reduc-
tion in nursing parameters, lactation was likely not affected
by the changes in lying behaviour in ketoprofen treated
sows. Moreover, nursing behaviour was not affected by
treatment or parity, but appeared to become more efficient
over the first 3 days of lactation, as the total num-
ber of nursings and proportion of unsuccessful nursings
decreased.
6. Conclusions
Ketoprofen influenced some behavioural patterns in
sows in early lactation suggesting that those patterns were
associated with pain. In order to recognize which sows may
need pain alleviation, a careful observation focusing on low
frequency of posture changes, prolonged lying behaviour
and reduced feeding patterns of the sow may be useful
especially with young sows. These behaviours appeared to
be the most affected ones by NSAID treatment of sows in
early lactation.
Conflict of interest
None of the authors has any financial or personal rela-
tionships that could inappropriately influence or bias the
content of the paper.
Acknowledgements
Fieldwork and data analyses were funded by Orion
Pharmos, the Finnish Veterinary Foundation and the Oiva
Kuusisto Foundation. Medications were donated by phar-
maceutical company Vetcare. We thank Yhteisporsas Oy
piggery for invaluable co-operation. Assistant Sini Niemelä
is thanked for help with the data collection.
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