Setting up an Effective On-Farm Trial

Posted in: Economics by admin on December 3, 2010 | No Comments

The pork industry is blessed with a number of innovators.  All pig farms participate to a greater or lesser extent in experimenting to improve productivity, reduce costs, or make management easier. Sometimes the results of such experimentation are as expected. Often however, the time, effort and money required to innovate and experiment results in more questions than answers and does not lead to an innovation being adopted on the farm as part of a new long-term management strategy. This paper will help to explain why results are not always what we expect and how to improve your odds of success in future on-farm trials.

To view the entire paper click here!

To view the Effective Farm Trial Checklist click here!

Monitoring of Selected Hog Farms to Assess the Impacts of Implemented BMPs Resulting From the Nutrient Management Act

Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on November 10, 2010 | No Comments

The new nutrient management act in Ontario will force producers to adopt new management practices to comply with the new laws. In order to evaluate how effective these new management activities are in reducing environmental impacts, on-farm monitoring programs will be required. This experiment involves three farms  being monitored extensively, called “reference farms”. The sites were instrumented and monitoring protocols and strategies were developed to determine the environmental and economic benefits associated with the implemented beneficial management practices  (BMPs.) The farms selected were meant to represent typical hog farms and also ones with environmental problems so that BMPs can be clearly assessed. The farms were assessed on nutrient distribution into the soil, ground water was monitored and tested as well as crop yields. The nitrogen budget was also a focus of the researchers work. Eight monitoring techniques are recommended in the paper to evaluate the effectiveness of the BMPs on the environment. It is suggested that the reference farms continue to test ground water and soil samples to be able to continually track the results of BMP.

Prophylaxis of experimentally induced ovomucoid allergy in neonatal pigs using Lactococcus lactis

Posted in: Ontario Pork, Pork Insight Articles by admin on November 5, 2010 | No Comments

Probiotic Lactococcus lactic (LL) is a drug used for the immune system and might prevent allergies by biasing from type-2 to a type-1 immune response. Researcher hypothesized that newborn pigs that are pretreated with LL are protected against allergies to ovomucoid (Ovm). The experiment consisted of two treatment groups, a control group, and a group that received oral doses of LL on days of age 1-7, 10, 12,14,21,28, and 35. The pigs were sensitized to Ovm by intraperitoneal injection together with cholera toxin. Pigs were then given egg whites on day 46 to see how their immune systems responded. Clinical signs and skin test positivity were less frequent in the LL group. Serum antibody were significantly increased on day 46 (post-sensitization) compared to day 14 (pre-sensitization). The LL-treated pigs had more related antibody activity and lower IgG1/IgG2 and IgE/IgG2 ratios indicating a type-1 bias in immune response. Oral treatment of neonatal pigs with LL reduced the frequency of of allergies to Ovm associated with reduced immune response. This supports the hygiene hypothesis and potential use of LL as a  immunoregulator for neonatal pigs.

Mycotoxins in Swine Diets

Posted in: Production by admin on November 1, 2010 | No Comments

The cool, wet weather we experienced this summer has caused many problems for the farmers in this area.  This fall there is one more – there are reports of grain that is contaminated with fusarium mould.

Intestinal Barrier Function As Indicator Of Welfare

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Research Watch by admin on | No Comments

A study suggests that the intestinal barrier function of Atlantic salmon post smolts is reduced by changing ocean conditions and can be used as an indicator of welfare. The study set out to find how changing conditions in sea caged salmon triggers stress responses.The study revealed that adverse environmental conditions that can occur in sea cages, elicits primary and secondary stress responses in Atlantic salmon post smolts. The intestinal barrier function was significantly affected by prolonged hypoxic stress even when no primary stress response was observed.

Effect of Anaerobic Digestion on Manure Characteristics for Phosphorus Precipitation from Swine Waste

Posted in: Environment by admin on September 2, 2010 | No Comments

Swine production facilities today are larger in size and are concentrated in smaller geographical areas than they were two decades ago. Additionally, there is an increasing trend to base manure land application rates on crop phosphorus requirements rather than crop nitrogen requirements alone. These factors have resulted in a need to find a feasible method for removing phosphorus from swine waste prior to land application. Economically concentrating and transporting excess phosphorus to phosphorus deficient cropping areas would benefit the current production scheme. Forced precipitation of phosphorus as struvite (MgNH ₄ PO ₄ 6H ₂ O) is an option for phosphorus concentration and removal. Economic feasibility of phosphorus precipitation improves when reactive phosphorus represents a high percentage of the total phosphorus in slurry, and when a limited amount of chemical amendment is required for the precipitation reaction. In this study, anaerobic digestion of swine slurry increased reactive phosphorus (PO ₄ ^3- ) and magnesium ion (Mg ²⁺ ) in solution by 26% and 254%, respectively. Additionally, during phosphorus precipitation experiments, PO ₄ ^3- removal and reduction efficiencies were greatest in the tests performed with anaerobically digested swine slurry.

Digestibility of dietary fiber in distillers coproducts fed

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The objective of this work was to measure the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dietary fiber in different sources of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and to calculate hindgut fermentation of dietary fiber in DDGS fed to growing pigs. Diets, ileal digesta, and fecal samples from pigs fed corn or diets containing 1 of 28 sources of distillers coproducts were analyzed for fiber. Of the 28 sources of coproducts, 24 sources were corn DDGS (C-DDGS), 1 source was sorghum DDGS (S-DDGS), 1 source was DDGS from a blend of sorghum and corn (SC-DDGS), 1 source was C-DDGS from beverage production (DDGSbeverage), and a source of corn distillers dried grain (DDG) was also included in the experiment. Total dietary fiber (TDF) and DM were analyzed in all DDGS sources, ileal digesta, and fecal samples. Hindgut fermentation was calculated by subtracting values for AID from values for ATTD. In 10 sources of DDGS and in ileal and fecal samples from pigs fed those sources, crude fiber, ADF, NDF, insoluble dietary fiber (IDF), and soluble dietary fiber (SDF) were also determined. Concentrations of CP, ether extract, and ash were also analyzed in these samples, and concentrations of organic residue (OR) were calculated by subtracting the concentration of CP, ether extract, and water from OM. The AID and the ATTD of TDF differed (P < 0.01) among sources of C-DDGS. The average AID of TDF in 10 sources of C-DDGS (21.5%) was not different (P > 0.05) from the AID of TDF in corn (16.5%), but the ATTD and the hindgut fermentation of TDF in the 10 sources of C-DDGS (44.5 and 23.0%, respectively) were greater (P < 0.05) than in corn (23.1 and 6.6%, respectively). The AID of crude fiber, NDF, IDF, SDF, and TDF  were not different between C-DDGS and S-DDGS, but the AID of ADF was greater (P < 0.01) in S-DDGS (57.4%) than in C-DDGS (36.8%). The ATTD of OR in S-DDGS (72.5%) and SC-DDGS (68.4%) were less (P < 0.05) than in C-DDGS (77.1%), but the ATTD of ADF, NDF, IDF, SDF, and TDF were not different among the 3 sources of DDGS. The AID, ATTD, and hindgut fermentation of TDF were not different between  DDGS from an ethanol plant and DDGS from a beverage plant. The average AID, ATTD, and hindgut fermentation of TDF in the 24 sources of C-DDGS were 23.0, 47.3, and 24.4%, respectively. It is concluded that the AID and ATTD of fiber differ among sources of DDGS and those differences may contribute to differences in the digestibility of energy in DDGS.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/

Dietary chlortetracycline induces differential effects on the accuracy of quantitative computed tomography and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in assessing vertebral bone mineral density in growing pigs

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The effect of dietary chlortetracycline (CTC) on the bone mineral density (BMD) of growing pigs was assessed using quantitative computed tomography (qCT) and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Pigs of 28 and 84 days old were given either drug-free (n = 48) or CTC-fortified (800 ppm) diets for 56 days. At day 28, eight control pigs were selected for qCT and DXA, and their second lumbar vertebrae were removed. Eight control and eight CTC-treated animals were selected at days 84 and 140, respectively, and six pigs from each of these groups were assessed at day 168. Several CTC-exposure variables had significant effects (P < 0.05) on the relationships between qCT-, trabecular- and vertebral body-BMD (R² increments of 0.03 and 0.01, respectively) and between DXA-, trabecular- and vertebral body-BMD (R²increments of 0.40 and 0.10, respectively). The findings of this study demonstrate that the qCT method is more reliable than the DXA technique in monitoring tetracycline-induced changes in porcine vertebral BMD. The magnitude of the effect of the drug treatment on the DXA-BMD estimation was surprisingly high, suggesting that DXA should not be used to monitor such changes in growing pigs. In contrast, the marginal influence of drug treatment on the qCT-BMD assessment suggests that this methodology is useful in this context. Furthermore, the qCT method may also have applications in the investigation of the effect of other osteotropic substances or bone metabolism modulators on BMD.

For more information the full article can be found at  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10900233

Development of rapid immunoassays for the detection of ractopamine in swine urine

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The monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against ractopamine (Rac) were prepared and their properties identified by indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay (ELISA). The IC50 of mAbs was 2.7 ng ml_1 towards Rac or 9.3 ng ml_1 towards Rac-glucuronides and no cross-reactivity (CR) towards other competitors except dobutamine (CR: 3.76%). Based on the mAbs, the Rac-kit (kit) and Rac-strip (strip) were developed to detect Rac residues in swine urine. The strip and kit assay could be performed within 5–10 min and 2 h, respectively, allowing the analysis of urine samples without the need for sample clean-up. The detection limits were 1 ngml_1 for kit and 3 ngml_1 with the unaided eye, and 0.2 ng ml_1 with the Strip Reader for strip. The correlation coefficients (R2) were 0.988 for kit in the range 0–128.0 ng ml_1, and 0.987 for strip in the range 0–10.8 ng ml_1. Comparing the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with the kit or strip in swine urine spiked with Rac standards, the differences ranged from 1.4% to 4.5% for kit and 1.0% to 4.7% for strip. However, the differences were greater than 54% for the kit and 55% for the strip test for the analysis of urine from swine treated with Rac. The results obtained from GC-MS using hydrolysed urine samples were generally in good agreement with those obtained from strip or kit using non-hydrolysed urine samples.

For more information the full article can be found at  http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tfac19

Evaluation of damaged filters as a risk factor for the penetration of aerosolized porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

Posted in: Air Filtration, Pork Insight Articles by admin on August 30, 2010 | No Comments

The virus porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has recently been proven to be transmitted by aerosols. The reaction of the industry to this problem was to increase biosecurity protocols by placing high efficiency filters that are fine enough to stop particles that carry the virus from entering the barn. This was a successful strategy for preventing the spreading of PRRS, but there has been some concern about broken filters which are unable to prevent contaminated particles from entering a susceptible herd. In reaction to this concern a study was undertaken to evaluate how broken filters play a role in PRRS infections. A one meter tube was used with a fan on one end which had a solution of the PRRS virus sprayed into it. On the other end of the tube was an air collector used to receive samples. Filters with varying degrees of damage were put in the apparatus to test if they were still capable of stopping PRRS positive particles. The degrees of damage were: Mild (finger impressions), Moderate (lacerations), Severe (Deep finger impressions) and Rodent (holes). After each test the air was sampled in the recipient chamber. After repeating the tests 10 times for each level of damage the amount of PRRS positive air samples at each level was: 20% at mild, 40% at moderate, 100% at severe and 80% for the rodent filter. Also test were done on the mild and moderately damaged filter to find if varying intensities of the PRRS virus had implications on the damaged filters. It was found that the mild filter had negative samples at all degrees of PRRS intensity. While the moderate filter had 0% at the first level of severity and then 60% and 70% at the next two levels. Taking good care of filters during installation so not damage them and quick replacement of damaged filters can help prevent area spreading of the PRRS virus.