Play behaviour and its role to enhance pig welfare and production
This project is funded by the NSERC Industrial Research Chair program, a five-year research program focusing on emerging questions in swine welfare. Goal 2 will investigate whether play can be used as a tool to support positive welfare and beneficial...
Effects of long distance transport on early-weaned pigs
While transporting weaner pigs is a common practice in swine production, there is very little published research on how this process impacts piglet health and welfare. To address this gap, Dr. Jennifer Brown and colleagues at the University of Guelph...
Enrich your pigs, enrich your profits
Enriching a sow’s environment is easy, inexpensive and offers a range of benefits. This was made clear by the project “From Innovation to Adoption: On-farm demonstration of Swine Research”, which was led by Ken Engele at Prairie Swine Centre and...
Forward facing animal welfare research drives innovation
The NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Swine Welfare is a five-year research program based at the University of Saskatchewan focusing on emerging questions in swine welfare. Led by Dr. Yolande Seddon and developed in collaboration with 14 industry partners representing...
Infrared technologies for identification of market pigs at risk during transport
Digital infrared thermography (DT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that could be a valuable instrument for producers and packaging plants to identify compromised and diseased animals for isolation and treatment, as well as to implement management practices to reduce the...
Effects of long distance transport in the health and welfare of early weaned pigs
The Canadian swine industry relies heavily on the transport of weaned pigs. Recently, the maximum acceptable transport time for pigs in Canada has been decreased from 36 to 28 hours. Weaning is a stressful period for pigs and pigs are...
Identification of risk factors for sow mortality in Canadian herds
Recent years have seen a trend towards increasing sow mortality figures around the world. In order to understand the underlying causes influencing sow mortality and culling on Canadian farms a project is under way to answer these questions using an...
Effects of long distance transport on the health and welfare of early weaned pigs
During transport, piglets can experience numerous stressors, including feed and water deprivation, handling at loading and unloading, extreme temperatures, vibrations and noise. However, it is not known whether the combined impacts of weaning and transport overlap, are additive, or synergistic....
Evaluating the impact of early life management of piglets on lifetime welfare and performance
The early life experience of piglets before and around weaning can influence their behavioural adaptation and the development of positive or negative behavioural characteristics that have significant, and likely lasting, implications for welfare, stress resilience and production performance. This research...
Centred on Swine en Français (Automne 2022 Volume 30, numéro 1)
Les sujets comprennent: Les rations de pouponnière à base de protéines animales et les acides aminés fonctionnels améliorent les performances et le statut sanitaire des porcelets sevrés L’enrichissement compatible avec les planchers lattés peut-il influencer le comportement et la réaction...
2022 Prairie Swine Centre Les resultats
Le programme de recherche du Prairie Swine Centre vise à améliorer l’efficacité (économique, environnementale et de bien-être) des producteurs de porc du Canada. Les conclusions de la recherche 2022 du Centre sont maintenant disponibles. 2022 Prairie Swine Centre Les resultats...
Group Sow Housing Seminar – June 29
Group Sow Housing Seminar Group Sow Housing Meeting Wednesday, June 29, 2022 Canadian Room Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan As the industry makes the transition to group sow housing the types of questions producers have regarding their systems...