effect of azaperone in newly calved sows over the progenies’ health and performance in maternity and nursery phases

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of azaperone administered to sows at the end of farrowing over the health and zootechnical parameters of progenies in the maternity and nursery phases. The experiment was conducted with 120 females, with 1st, 3rd and 5th parities, and 1,564 born alive piglets. The females of the group treated with azaperone (TG n = 60) and control group (CG, n = 60) received a deep intramuscular injection, immediately after the placenta elimination, of 8 mL azaperone (320 mg) and 8 mL of sterile saline solution, respectively. During the maternity phase (? 21 days old) the percentage of piglets with diarrhea of CG (2.58%) was significantly different (P ? 0.01) compared to the GT (0.75%). At the maternity phase there were no significant differences between the treatments to the mortality rate, total and piglets weight with <1 kg, transfers, crushed, medicated, arthritis and starvation. In the nursery phase, there weren’t also significant differences between the treatments. The administration of azaperone had a positive effect over the diarrhea control of piglets until the weaned.