Phenomics

BDporc – SmartPorc: Smart decision tools to heighten sow longevity and piglet survival in Spaniard breeding farms

---

Abstract

BDporc (www.bdporc.irta.es/en) is a reference database of sow breeding performance in Spain. In the context of smart livestock systems, BDporc is also a strategic digital tool for collecting, analysing, and delivering technical and productive analytics, so affiliated producers can identify strengths and weaknesses in their farm's management. BDporc launched recently the SMARTporc project, aiming to create a data-driven digital decision-making tool to optimize sow longevity and piglet survival in pig breeding farms. This will be done by: 1) creating a Data Lake compatible with BDporc to integrate on-farm precision data with data on farm emissions, management or pen characteristics, already collected in official databases; 2) identifying and quantifying key factors influencing piglet survivability and sow longevity; and 3) developing a digital twin of a pig breeding farm to simulate corrective or preventive actions and assess their impact on animal survivability, longevity, and overall farm profitability. Pilot farms will provide data from electronic feeders, automatic scales, accelerometers, body temperature sensors, and environmental sensors. Preliminary studies using BDporc data analyzed 10.5 M reproductive cycle records from 2.6 M sows in 630 commercial breeding farms over a five-year period (2020-2024). Pairwise correlation analyses suggested that the number of piglets born alive was also positively correlated with piglet mortality during lactation (r=0.28) and piglet pre-weaning survival correlated positively (r=0.16) with sows' removal age (dead loss and culling). Sow survival analyses, using a Cox model for assessing survival, showed that overall survival probability of commercial sows decreased linearly over time reaching 50% in cycle five and less than 5% in cycle nine. Cox model also identified that the average number of piglets born alive and weaned per litter were key drivers of sow longevity: sows that weaned on average 10-19 piglets had 7.7 greater odds of surviving to next breeding cycle than those with the smallest ( 25 piglets weaned). Bayesian regression mixed models assessed factors influencing piglet mortality across reproductive cycles. Higher piglet mortality was associated with longer lactation length and higher number of piglets born alive and weaned in the preceding cycle with stronger effects in early to mid-cycles (e.g., 95% highest density interval of 0.42-0.52, 0.59-0.69 and 0.24-0.34 in cycle 3, respectively) compared to late cycles (e.g., 0.34-0.49, 0.65-0.80 and 0.16-0.31 in cycle 6, respectively). Piglet mortality in the previous lactation was also associated with piglet mortality and this effect peaked at cycle four followed by a gradual decline thereafter. Year, season, herd size and farm were also determinant factors of piglet mortality. Altogether, these initial results suggest that advanced analytics of sow performance can provide new insights to improve sow longevity and pre-weaning piglet survival.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Alà²s, N., Arrazola, A., Pascual, M., Piles, M., Quintanilla, R., Rani, S., Tarres Font, J., Tusell, L. & Visa, M., (2026) “BDporc – SmartPorc: Smart decision tools to heighten sow longevity and piglet survival in Spaniard breeding farms”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286997. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24191

Rights: 1