Factors affecting reproductive performance in the Swedish Bernese mountain dog

Table 4 Litter size at birth (LSB) in 4-year old bitches. n = number of observations

Factor	Factor level	Means ± SD	P-value
Parity	Parity 1, n = 48	4.7 ± 3.0^a	Reference
	Parity 2, n = 83	6.2 ± 2.8^b	0.0025
	Parity 3–4, n = 37	6.3 ± 2.9^b	0.0056
Season	Winter, n = 47	6.0 ± 3.0	0.41^c
	Spring, n = 64	5.6 ± 3.0	–
	Summer, n = 30	5.3 ± 2.8	–
	Autumn, n = 27	6.3 ± 2.9	–
Male age^*	Male age, n = 168	–	0.40

Means ± SDs shown in the table are from the study population
^abRows with different letters also differs significantly in Tukey’s pairwise comparisons (P < 0.05)
^*Mage age category was included as a numeric factor
^cFactors that were not significant in in the general ANOVA were not further evaluated with comparisons at factor level

ISSN: 1751-0147