Heat Stress, Indoor Microclimate, and Lactation Feed Intake in Commercial Mediterranean Sows: Parity Effects and a Daily Resolution Predictive Model

Abstract

Heat stress (HS) suppresses voluntary feed intake in lactating sows, yet individual-level characterization of indoor and outdoor Temperature–Humidity Index (THI) linked to feed intake is rare in Mediterranean commercial settings. This prospective observational study enrolled 272 F1-crossbred sows (parities 1–7) farrowing from May–October 2025 at a commercial Greek farm. Outdoor THI was computed from 8760 hourly records and indoor THI from calibrated dataloggers; individual daily lactation feed intake (days 1–30) was recorded via RFID transponder-feeders. Building cooling (ΔTHI = 3.7–14.3) attenuated but did not eliminate mild-to-moderate indoor stress from June–September. Only parity and stillbirth count were Bonferroni-significant correlates of feed intake (parity: β = +0.142, p = 0.002). A sow-day Gradient Boosting model, evaluated by grouped cross-validation to prevent within-sow leakage, achieved CV-R2 = 0.406 ± 0.045, providing a validated, herd-tested framework for parity-stratified feeding management, pending external validation across farms, genetics, and climates.