Table 3. Effects of the AFP on the performance (mean ± SD) of sows and litters.

Variables	Type of farrowing system		p-value
	FC	AFP
Sow
No. of sows	32	32
Parity	4.5 ± 2.53	4.4 ± 2.5	ns
Feed intake (kg/d)	6.39 ± 0.47	6.39 ± 0.86	ns
Backfat thickness (mm)
Before farrowing	15.7 ± 4.5	16.5 ± 4.7	ns
At weaning	14.2 ± 3.9	14.1 ± 4.3	ns
Backfat thickness loss	−2.1 ± 3.1	−2.5 ± 3.8	ns
Weaning to estrus interval	5.1 ± 1.0a	4.3 ± 0.5b	< 0.001
Piglet
Litter size (piglets/litter)
At d 1 postpartum1)	10.1 ± 1.2	9.8 ± 0.9	ns
At weaning	9.0 ± 1.2	8.8 ± 1.5	ns
Average birth weight (kg)	1.5 ± 0.3	1.6 ± 0.3	ns
Average weaning weight (kg)	7.6 ± 1.2	8.1 ± 1.3	ns

¹⁾After cross-fostering.

^a,bValues within treatment (rows) with different superscripts differ significantly (p < 0.05).

AFP, alternative farrowing pen; FC, farrowing crate; ns, not significant (p > 0.05).