Whitepaper: Pre-weaning-diarrhoea

Diarrhoea can be defined as the occurrence of decreased faecal consistency or increased defecating frequency (Semrad, 2012). The word diarrhoea is derived from the Greek word diárrhoia, meaning ‘flowing through’ (Etymology dictionary, 2021). This paper focusses on diarrhoea in suckling piglets, which can be referred to as pre-weaning diarrhoea, suckling diarrhoea, or neonatal diarrhoea.

Pre-weaning diarrhoea can result in high economic losses due to costs of treatment and high piglet mortality. In case of 20% mortality, the costs of pre-weaning diarrhoea has been estimated at €274 per sow per year. When the mortality rate is 10%, yearly losses per sow are €127 (Sjölund et al., 2014).