Effects of Transport Duration on the Stress Response and Pork Quality of Pigs
Transporting pigs in Canada has many challenges. These include extremes of temperature and long transport durations that can cause stress in pigs, affecting welfare, transit losses and meat quality. Transport times of 6, 12 and 18 hours were studied on...
Loading Facilities for Market Hogs: Saskatchewan’s Top 10
Loading facilities can result in longer loading times, increased incidence of rough handling and prod use if poorly designed. Stress associated with this can affect meat quality, carcass and also increase the amount of downer pigs and losses. Ten Saskatchewan...
Assessment of Lameness, Productivity and Longevity in Group and Individually Housed Gestating Sows
There may be several major welfare issues in facility design and sow management for group sow housing. One of the most important welfare issues is lameness. It is the second major cause of culling after reproductive failure. visual scores can...
Impact of Repeated Applications of Liquid Swine Manure and Biogas Production By-Products on Soils and Crops
Different methods of swine manure use are of interest Crop response to swine manure biodigestate produced by biogas production compared to the conventional liquid swine manure and urea fertilizer was looked at. Applying long and short-term fresh and processed liquid...
Evaluation of Heat Exchanger, Ground Source Heat Pump, and Conventional Heating Systems
A production cost that can be further reduced is energy cost. This can be done by reducing overall energy consumption or using energy more efficiently. Space heating is an area of interest for energy reduction. The performance of a heat...
Using Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles to Control Emissions – Pig Performance, Manure Properties, and Production Cost
Filtration and mixing methods using zinc oxide nanoparticles were effective in controlling odour, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide emissions from swine facilities. This is important to the health and safety of the workers and the environment as well. The feasibility of...
Development of Diets for Low Birth-Weight Piglets to Improve Post-Weaning Growth Performance and Optimize Net Returns to the Producer
A cost to the commercial pork production is variability in growth. Birth weights have a large variance from 0.40 kg to 2.5 kg. The smaller pigs rarely demonstrate compensatory growth and have a lagging rate of gain throughout all growth...
Weaning at 28 Days. Is Creep Feeding Beneficial?
Creep feeding in the farrowing room is often practiced to ensure the transition to solid feed at weaning goes smoothly. This is important as weight loss and increased disease risk are often noted post-weaning due to the stressful transition. Even...
Do Peas and Canola Meal have Synergistic Effects when Included in Diets for Growing Pigs?
Canola meal may mask the taste of a field pea diet that has been hypothesized to impact palatability. These two ingredients are often used in diets together as they are produced in Western Canada and have complementary amino acid profiles...
Effects of Altering the Omega-6 to Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio in Sow Diets on the Immune Responses of their Offspring Post-Weaning
Feed intakes are reduced and immune responses are generated at weaning as it is the most stressful time in a piglet’s life. Since omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, they could improve performance post-weaning by altering their immune status. The...
Dietary Omega-6 to Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratios Affect Sow Reproduction and Piglet Performance
Maximizing the reproductive performance of sows is crucial to optimize pig flow and improve the economics of the production of pork. Many nutritional strategies have been used and there is growing interest in using dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids like the...
Dietary Omega-6 to Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratios Affect Colostrum, Sow and Piglet Plasma Fatty Acid Profiles
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have proven health benefits, such as anti-inflammatory properties. Omega-6 PUFA’s have the opposite biological activity and since direct competition occurs between them, the ratio is important to maximize the benefits of including omega-3 fatty acids...
