J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1952. 11:118-133.
© 1952 American Society of Animal Science
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Temperature Adaptation in the Baby Pig1

H. W. Newland, W. N. McMillen, E. P. Reineke, F. Thorp, Jr. and Sylvia Laine2

Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station

Abstract

Body temperature development of baby pigs was studied under various conditions of environmental temperature. The effects of chilling on body temperature and blood changes in pigs ranging in age from birth to three weeks old were studied.

  1. The body temperature regulating mechanism in the new-born pig is not fully developed. There was a body temperature droy of 3° to 13° F. in baby pigs during the first 30 minutes after birth, the amount of drop being related to the size of the pig and the environmental temperature. The initial drop was followed by a gradual return toward normal, which in environments of 60°–75° F. was reached in about two days, and in environments approaching freezing temperatures was reached in about ten days.
  2. Pigs 24 hours old withstood a temperature of 34° F. with less drop in body temperature than pigs under 4 hours old.
  3. There was a significant correlation between the weight of a pig and its ability to adapt itself to its environment. Small pigs in a fasting state passed into a coma sooner when chilled than pigs of comparable size having access to sow's milk.
  4. Chilling of two-day-old pigs caused the blood hematocrit to decrease, which is a reversed reaction for the normally functioning temperature regulating mechanism.
  5. There was an increase in blood sugar when one-day-old pigs were chilled at 34° F. Pigs fasted eight hours before chilling showed less glucose increase than those fasted three and five hours.

Footnotes

1 Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 1280.

2 Departments of Animal Husbandry, Physiology and Animal Pathology, Michigan State College, East Lansing.






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Copyright © 1952 by the American Society of Animal Science.