Table 4.

Effects of farrowing assistance on blood criteria at birth¹

	Unassisted	Assisted	SEM	P-value
N	543	113
pH	7.44	7.37	0.01	<0.001
pCO2, mmHg	36.2	37.0	— 2	0.938
pO2, mmHg	44.7	36.9	— 3	<0.001
HCO3, mmol/L	26.4	24.3	0.42	<0.001
BE, mmol/L	2.3	–0.9	0.53	<0.001
sO2, mmol/L	73.5	62.1	1.28	0.010
TCO2, mmol/L	27.6	25.5	0.42	<0.001
Na, mmol/L	125.0	121.9	0.63	0.001
K, mmol/L	6.9	6.9	0.16	0.83
iCa, mmol/L	1.6	1.7	0.03	<0.001
Glucose, mg/dL	40.8	55.3	— 4	<0.001
Hematocrit, %PCV	22.5	21.4	0.41	0.021
Hemoglobin, g/dL	7.6	7.3	0.13	0.036
Birth weight, g	1,269	1,311	32.3	0.215
Birth-order ranking5	0.48	0.58	0.01	0.002
CumBI6	99	133	7.2	<0.001

¹Umbilical cord blood was collected from a total of 656 piglets (623 live-born and 33 stillborn pigs) from 43 sows (Fast Large White × PIC Landrace) immediately after birth and analyzed in a handheld iStat portable clinical analyzer (iStat Alinity, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Princeton, NJ).

²Log transformation used for analysis. Log transformed means were 3.61 and 3.59 for unassisted and assisted, respectively. SEM was 0.02.

³Log transformation used for analysis. Log transformed means were 3.80 and 3.60 for unassisted and assisted, respectively. SEM was 0.04.

⁴Log transformation used for analysis. Log transformed means were 3.61 and 3.81 for unassisted and assisted, respectively. SEM was 0.03.

⁵Birth-order ranking was calculated for each pig as: [(pig birth order – 1)/(total born – 1)].

⁶Cumulative birth interval for each pig born was calculated as the time (min) elapsed from the birth of first pig until birth time of the current pig.