Best Practices: How Do You Measure Up?
An audit was completed on Canadian pork barns in 2017, with areas for improvement including farrowing systems, nursery facilities, finishing facilities and managing water intake. The optimal farrowing room environment is often achieved, with many of the barns using heat lamps, pads or both, as...
Some Audits are a Good Thing…Really!
An audit was completed in 2017 on best management practices in Canadian swine barns. Results show areas for possible improvements in biosecurity, personal protection and training, washing procedures and gestation housing systems. Many of the participating farms had biosecurity protocols like showering in and out...
Truck Wash Project Aims to End Bioinsecurity
Trailers can be hard to properly clean and are a huge biosecurity risk to the swine industry. Conditions where pathogens could be inactivated were investigated so that this information could be applied to the cleaning process of the trailers. Most pathogens can be eliminated by...
Science Taking Bite out of Feed Costs
Recent studies have been focused on reducing feed costs as they have been rising continuously. Effective feeding strategies are being developed for weaning pigs to improve pig robustness, reduce reliance on in-feed antibiotics and maximize profits. This involves investigating functional amino acids, creating biological and...
Where Does the Gut Go From Here?
Gut health is measured by how well it can assimilate nutrients and act as a barrier for pathogens. The microbiome is very diverse, containing several hundred species and around two million genes. Pigs are born sterile, with their microbiome forming over time. Diet and the...
On-Farm Demonstrations Quench Thirst for Water Knowledge
In an on-farm demonstration, nipple drinkers were replaced with water bowls in the nursery to see how water disappearance was affected. Water disappearance was reduced by 33% when the bowls were used and no negative effects on pig growth performance were noted. As water wastage...
Gut Health Issues not a Pretty Picture
Gut issues in pigs cost producers money, time and lost production. There are many common diseases that cause gut issues including Colibacillosis, Rotavirus, Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea/Transmissible Gastroenteritis, Clostridium, Coccidiosis, Post-weaning Diarrhea, other grow-finish diarrheas, Spirochaetal Colitis, porcine intestinal adenomatosis, enteric salmonella, porcine haemorrhagic enteropathy and...
Research Targets Sow Mortality
Sow loss can cause psychological harm to workers and also results in loss of profits. Sow longevity is decreasing even with the new genetic advancements and a switch to group housing. A survey is being done on reasons for culling and mortality for sows in...
When Quality Counts, Count on Technology
Pork quality may be predicted by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) on the pig's ears. This technique can provide information on meat quality traits like lean and fat content, fatty acid profile and fat depth. It can categorize each of these categories as "high" or "low"...
Gut Check: Why the Microbiome Matters
While a small portion of microbes are harmful, the majority may be beneficial to humans and animals. Antibiotic use alters the gut microbiome so that its population is decreased. If taken during pregnancy, antibiotic use can lead to the offspring having a higher chance of...