The influence of canine teeth clipping on nursing and nursery pig performance

Clipping canine or needle teeth of newborn piglets has been a long time standard practice in pork production, in an attempt to reduce piglet injury and infection from fighting among litter mates for access to a functional nipple, and to reduce injury to the udder of the sow.1 Even though sow milking ability has improved, routine canine teeth clipping has remained a suggested management practice.2 However, it has been reported that clipping canine teeth, as well as other piglet processing procedures, does cause distress and may influence performance.3 One study reported that allowing low birth weight piglets to maintain their canine teeth improved their growth performance and decreased mortality rate.4 Another study suggested that in large litters, pigs with intact teeth had improved weight gain compared to litters that had clipped canine teeth.5