Zinpro Corporation launched the Zinpro Sow Excellence Index on Nov. 11. Designed to prove a correlation between claw lesions and sow productivity, the index is based on a data-driven benchmarking system that allows producers to catch issues early before they impact pig performance, Zinpro says.
“Claw lesions are a silent problem with loud consequences,” Lucas Rodrigues, Zinpro discovery researcher, said in a release. “Our multivariate analysis revealed that sows with poor claw health such as heel overgrowth and white line lesions consistently underperform in farrowing metrics. The Zinpro Sow Excellence Index empowers producers to act earlier, not later.”
How does it work?
Zinpro developed the Sow Excellence Index utilizing data from more than 30,000 individual sow assessments across multiple countries and continents.
“Using the Lesion Index (L-Index), a standardized way to measure lesion severity and frequency, the Zinpro Sow Excellence Index establishes benchmarks that can be used to evaluate herd health and longevity,” the company said. “Swine producers worldwide can now benchmark their farms against a global dataset and receive customized L-Index reports through a Zinpro Feet First evaluation. The Zinpro Sow Excellence Index then reveals how claw health directly correlates with productivity, longevity and welfare, turning lesion scores into actionable insights for herd performance.”
It doesn’t take long to check for claw lesions. Zinpro said it takes less than a minute per sow and can be built into a routine check to assess sows during lactation. If lesions are identified, producers can quickly adjust nutrition, housing or management to limit lost performance.
When it comes to nutrition, physiologically the most important function is keeping an animal alive and nutrients are first portioned to the main organs, said Ton Kramer, Zinpro South America business manager.
“When we think about ligaments, skin, mucosa and the claws, they are not the most important organs to keep an animal alive, so in situations of stress, they will not receive the amount of nutrients needed to make them better quality,” he explained.
If the animal has good quality of claws, the animal is likely to be in good health. Not only will the animal will be able to walk well, get food and water easier and maintain life better. Reproduction will be better, too.
“If you consider the inflammation, pain and stress related with the claw lesions, the animal will not perform as well because the inflammation that is related with the lesions will change other hormones that affect reproduction,” Kramer says.
Act Early
The Zinpro Sow Excellence Index transforms claw lesion scoring from a diagnostic tool into a strategic production indicator, Kramer explained.
“It empowers producers and technicians to act early to benchmark production, allowing them to improve sow longevity and performance,” he said.
According to the company, the Zinpro Sow Excellence Index offers producers the following benefits:
- Provides early warning before lameness hits to bolster herd health
- Quantifies monitoring through advanced data analysis and supports better decision-making for swine production systems
- Links predictive insights to lifetime productivity, enabling systems to quantify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most
- Strengthens welfare credibility and reinforces the Zinpro commitment to sustainability
“Now the global swine industry has a tool to help demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between claw health and reproductive performance under real world conditions,” Zinpro said. “Producers can benchmark against top-performing herds, prioritize claw health interventions and improve sow longevity and lifetime productivity.”
Read more:
From the Ground Up: How Claw Lesions Impact Sow Longevity
