Just Say No to Drug Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide concern since bacteria or viruses are evolving to be immune to antibiotic treatments. Using antibiotics needs to be significantly reduced, with livestock animals having more restricted access to them. In Canada, they can no longer...
African Swine Fever: The Heat is On
African Swine Fever poses a huge risk to the global pork sector, with it currently spreading throughout China and Europe. It will most likely arrive in North America as well so producers need to be prepared. Symptoms to look for...
African Swine Fever a Hot Topic in Banff
African Swine Fever is a contagious hemorrhagic disease that affects all ages of pigs with a very high mortality rate. It is currently spreading through Europe and China and is largely spread through human activity. This disease is an increasing...
Brachyspira 2.0: Novel Disease Needs Novel Approach
A novel species of Brachyspira was discovered that causes severe illness in pigs. Testing is being completed on different strains and how to treat them as some may be resistant to certain antibiotics. This testing has many benefits like the correct...
Better Disease Detection is Nothing to Sneeze At
Pig diseases are costly, reduce performance, lower production and can lead to losses. Serologic testing the antibodies that the animals produce when fighting off an infection can detect which diseases are present. Currently, the serologic test used can only detect...
Addressing Influenza a Shot in the Arm for Industry
Influenza has a large impact on the Canadian swine industry as it mutates quickly resulting in multiple strains. A genomic analysis was completed on 16 strains that were causing outbreaks in Canada. Once one of the viruses was being dealt...
New Tools for Improving Biosecurity
Main sources of contamination that increase biosecurity risks were identified along with practices that may increase the risk of contamination. Packing plant loading docks and farms had the highest level of contamination with trucks increasing microbial transfer risk between areas....
Building Better Bacon: Genomics Tools for Pork Quality
New genomic tools may be able to measure traits like pork quality and other heritable traits. Classical genetic evaluation has previously been used which involves breeding the best of the herd. Genomics is more accurate and can be used in...
Better Pork April 2020
Articles in the April 2020 Better Pork Include: Beyond the Barn: The Pork Sector’s Beef With Protein Labelling, Gut Check: How to Improve Pig Health, Ontario Team Wins Innovation Award Impossible Foods’ created a new Impossible Pork product that is...
Compounding Iron Dextran with NSAIDs for Use in Piglets at Time of Processing
NSAIDs are often given at processing along with iron dextran and it is tempting to given them together to reduce the number of injections to the piglet. Mixing these products is not allowed under the Canadian Assurance program, though it...
Enhancement of Litter Size in Commercial Swine
A large concern in the North American Pork Industry is prenatal mortality. Between gestation days 15-0, 20-30% of coceptuses are lost, with another 10-15% loses between gestation days 50-70. Different techniques to improve litter size have been used such as...
Identifying the Cause of Death of Hogs that Perish In-Transit: A Pilot Project at Two Ontario Packing Plants
The cause of death and associated risk factors for in-transit losses are needed in order to reduce mortalities. It is often assumed that deaths are due to stress or heat exhaustion but the actual cause is not usually identified. Hogs...
