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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Back to the Future: Using Production and Financial Records to Plan, Project and Manage Forward
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 6, 2011 | No Comments
There is a growing demand for pork producers to be able to track and trace pig movement, and to project future movements. With the increased use of technology, a large database of movements and mortalities already exists. However, current software does not allow for movements that are not suppose to happen – for example, immediate sale of weanlings from a nursery. Movements v2.0 was designed to allow customized movements to be input, thus allowing a more accurate movement tracking software. Metafarm is a software designed to be a foundation for multiple livestock types, and i-Production is a pork management software. These three software programs provide information and a database large enough that an accurate pig flow production models should be possible.
Differentiation through Quality: What are the Perceptions and Attitude about Pork Quality in Canada’s Priority Markets?
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 5, 2011 | No Comments
The Pork Quality Perception Audit was developed to study and improve the perception of the quality of Canadian pork on the international market. Surveys were conducted with members of the retail outlet trade, retail head office trade, food service trade, and additional processors/transformers participating in eight countries. Overall, on the international market Canadian and USA pork suppliers are often in competition, and the USA has a strong brand recognition internationally. Quality pork is desirable, with traits including a reddish pink colour, firm texture, flavour and juiciness being important. Consistent quality is wanted by consumers, and could be sold at a premium which benefits suppliers. Other factors that are important are food safety, and traceability. PQPA provides insight to develop three areas: market access, product differentiation, and added value to exports.
PRRSV Control and Elimination in Canada
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Area Regional Control and Elimination of the PRRS virus are being undertaken, and focus on several different issues. Biosecurity projects include work on the Production Animal Disease Risk Assessment Program, the Disease Control and Elimination Tool Kit, a pilot project for regional control and elimination in Ontario, and analyzing the transport of hogs through/to/from high density hog areas. Other biosecurity projects are the prioritizing of biosecurity upgrades, prioritizing off-farm biosecurity measures, developing a guide for a multidisciplinary approach to health and biosecurity, develop an air filter guide, a veterinarian biosecurity workshop, and an Alberta biosecurity training and audit program. The research project is to make recommendations for control and elimination. Long term disease risk management projects involve mortality insurance, protocol to determine negative herd status, and a disease surveillance and outbreak detection model.
Control and Elimination of PRRS Virus
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PRRSv causes significant profit loss when a herd is infected, so it is important to have strategies to avoid infection, or eliminate the virus from a herd. Infected pigs are the main cause of introducing the virus to a herd, but contaminated gear or items, water supply, or even airborne methods are possible. Air filters for the intake air are effective at keeping the airborne virus out, but other biosecurity methods are necessary as well. Once the virus is in a herd, controlling it is important, especially to avoid infecting sows with contaminated boar semen. The McRebel concept can be used to control the spread in suckling pigs, and various gilt acclimation methods can provide immunity before introduction to the sow herd. Live virus vaccines can reduce mortalities; although, the effectiveness of inactive vaccines is not confirmed. Elimination of the virus from a herd can be done by test and elimination, depopulation/repopulation, or herd closure. The Stevens County program has shown that regional control is possible, and has resulted in other regional studies being conducted. If enough sparse regions are controlled, dense hog areas may be better able control or eliminate the virus spread as well.
Canadian Swine Health Board: Initiatives in Biosecurity and Herd Health
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After the Circovirus outbreak in 2007, the Canadian Swine Health Board was created to research and develop solutions to swine health issues. The four areas of activity are biosecurity, research, long-term disease risk management, and sustainability. CSHB conducted a biosecurity benchmark study, and from there developed a voluntary biosecurity standard. CSHB researched the Circovirus outbreak, and continues research on other matters. The long-term risk management identifies new disease threats and mitigation strategies, and sustainability focuses on how to keep CSHB functioning in the future.
Impact of immune system stimulation on nutrient utilization and response to dietary methionine plus cysteine intake in growing pigs
Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 4, 2011 | No Comments
In commercial pigs barns pigs often have their immune systems stimulated (ISS) as they are expose to all sorts of air born pathegons and other challenging environmental factors. This has negitive impacts on productive growth, nutrient utilization and profitability. This study attempts to find a way that nutrition can reduce the negitive impacts of immune system stimulation on growth performance. The focus was on important amino acids that are involved with the immune system: methionine, cysteine and tryptophan. ISS was acheived by injecting pigs with a challenger, various indicators of ISS, including body temperature, were monitored to confirm effectiveness of ISS. The research showed that ISS does not influence nutrient digestibility, but reduces the pig’s growth performance potential. All three of the amino acids had increased dietary requirements when the immune system was stimulated. This research can allow for recommendations about adjusting intake of the three key amino acids to optimize the pig’s response to poor environmental factors that increase the chance of disease.
Delivering Quality Pork to Export Markets
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 2, 2011 | No Comments
The way the quality of a product is viewed goes beyond just the product itself, and it also includes animal health, the food system, and safety. Competitive market access is needed to export to another country, and once that is achieved it is necessary to differentiate a product from its competitors. For pork, this is done by providing a superior quality. It is important to provide what the consumer would like: whether this is a specific cut, packaging option, or shipping. Product quality involves all aspects of the industry including feed, genetics, farm operations, plant operations, logistics, and of course the product itself.
EU Export Certification
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Current exports to Europe are fairly small, but the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement currently being negotiated may open up more export opportunities for the Canadian pork industry. There are several large challenges for export to Europe. One being the high tariffs on Europe’s imported pork, the range being from $0.36 to $0.63/kg. Also, the European market tends to take only specific cuts, resulting in wasted meat. Finally, the use of hormones in feed is banned in Europe, which is problematic since the use of Paylean product in feed is common in Canada. Despite these challenges, the opportunities are huge because pork can sell for twice as much as in Canada. The small amount imported means Canada should try to distinguish itself from US imports in Europe. Ways to do this would be to cater to the specific finishing and processing wishes of the customers, work directly with processors in Europe, and provide a consistently high-quality product.
Achieving Export Quality Pork
Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on | No Comments
Over 60% of Canadian pork is exported, and to maintain or increase the consumer demand in other countries Canadian producers need to provide a high quality product. However, quality is a somewhat subjective quality when described by consumers. Food safety is considered a minimum requirement, and quality is more often described by the meat colour, fat cover, marbling, and drip before purchase. After purchase, meat taste and tenderness are used to gauge quality. Understanding the market is important because there is a variety in preference on whether marbling is wanted, what fat content, and how dark the meat is. Most often light red, low fat, tender, and tasty pork is desirable. By enhancing these traits Canadian exports can maintain demand, but it could be beneficial for both exports and domestic sales to develop a product that is uniquely Canadian.
Pigs, Food and Technology: the Next 40 Years
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The pork industry may face many challenges in the next 40 years, especially from negative public perception, but new technologies may be able to counteract them. Webb predicts there will continue to be large developments in genetics with technologies like genetic marking, genetic modification, and cloning in the forefront. Genetics will also be able to contribute to medicine developed for a specific genome, designer bacteria, and synthetic meat. Automation will be able to increase food safety by lowering the chance of contamination, and the possible applications of nanotechnology are still being theorized. Finally, quantum biology may develop allowing a genome to be mapped easily and quickly. The key to using the full potential of new technologies lies in understanding consumer demand, communicate clearly with consumers, innovation in all aspects of the industry, a strong scientific support, and research funding.