Investigation of enhanced sanitization and disinfection measures applicable for antibiotic-free pig production system
This project aims to develop enhanced biosecurity measures that can eliminate or reduce the proliferation of disease-causing pathogens in antibiotic-free pig production as well as in conventional barns for all-inclusive disease prevention. Specifically, this will investigate alternative sanitization and disinfection...
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...
Feed processing to reduce ergot toxicity
Wheat and rye screenings heavily contaminated with ergot (400 to 500 ppm) were subjected to either steam explosion (200 psi) or pelleting to evaluate the impact on toxicity. Total ergot content decreased 40 to 60% with processing, with a greater...
Evaluation of impact of antibiotic-use reduction measures on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and pathogen abundance in pig production barns
The goal of this project is to compare the effect of the adoption of a RWA (raised without antibiotics) approach with non-RWA operations on the overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and pathogen abundance in pig production facilities. We conducted...
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...
Novel antimicrobials for swine health
Dr. Chris Gray, University of Guelph Summary The main goal of the project has been to enhance the performance and reduce the toxicity of a novel synthetic AMP (HHC-36), employ machine learning (ML) methods for discovering new, more potent antimicrobial...
Establishing value/utility of soluble CD163 as a biomarker for predicting PRRS-induced disease severity in swine herds
Dr. John Harding, University of Saskatchewan Summary There is evidence to conclude that both sCD163 and the thyroid hormones are potential biomarkers of disease resilience. At present, we have stronger evidence for the thyroid hormones and supporting further investigation for...
Strategies for detoxifying vomitoxin using innovative chemical and biological approaches in post-weaning piglets
Dr. Joshua Gong, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph Research & Development Centre Summary With global warming, contamination of feed ingredients by the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), occurs more often, thus compromising swine production efficiency. Sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) is a chemical that...
Barn gas monitoring with automated ventilation control
John Van de Vegte, OMAFRA Summary Farrowing, nursery and finishing barns do require a designed ventilation system to manage air quality within the pig housing areas. Ventilation system performance is optimized through the use of a sophisticated ventilation system controller...
Development of an in vitro/in vivo correlation method to assess the efficiency of oral drug release from medicated feeds in swine
Dr. Jerome del Castillo, University of Montreal Summary For the last 70 years, feed has been used as a convenient drug administration vehicle for group medication of pigs. Once they satisfy the requirements for regulatory approval, the dietary drug premixes...
Precision feeding of gestating sows
Dr. Ira Mandell, University of Guelph Summary Using feeding programs that precisely match estimated daily energy and Lys requirements for gestating sows provides the opportunity to reduce nitrogen losses to the environment and reduce lactation feed usage, without negatively affecting...
