Intestinal rupture in sows fed whey

A problem of sudden deaths was investigated on a 600 sow piggery after 35 (8%) mature sows died during 10 months. Thirty four (90%) of the sows which died in the following 20 months were all fed whey and had acute severe peritonitis associated with rupture of the large or lower small intestine. No similar deaths occurred in sows, gilts or boars receiving only formulated feed pellets. It is suggested that ruptures resulted from overdistention with gas produced from whey and that the likelihood of their occurrence was directly related to the volume of whey ingested.