Clostridium perfringens beta-toxin targets endothelial cells in necrotizing enteritis in piglets

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To investigate localization of CPB in naturally occurring necrotizing enteritis, we evaluated 52 piglets with spontaneously acquired C. perfringens type C enteritis and 14 control animals by immunohistochemistry. It was concluded that the pathogenesis of C. perfringens type C induced necrotizing enteritis involves binding of CPB to endothelial cells in the small intestine during the early phase of the disease.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135

β-defensins gene expression in tissues of the crossbred and Tibetan pigs

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Chinese Tibetan pigs are a special Chinese indigenous pig breed, which are distributed in high-altitude areas of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with cold climate. They are raised on pasture all year round (Cheng, 1984). Their immunity and disease resistance are very strong; however the mechanism is not yet studied until now. It was hypothesized that these characteristics may be related to the higher expression of β-defensin genes. It was determined that gene expression for BD-1, 2 and 3 of Tibetan pigs and crossbred pigs and found characteristic expression patterns for three β-defensins, and compared three β-defensins gene expression in tissues between the two breeds. It was found that pBD-1 and 3 had higher expression level in Tibetan pigs than those in crossbred pigs. But pBD-2 had lower expression level in Tibetan pigs than that in crossbred pigs. This could reflect a potential for upregulation of pBD-2 upon bacterial infection. The higher expression of pBD-1 and 3 might be a direct mechanism by which the Tibetan pigs have higher immunity and disease resistance than crossbred pigs. Therefore, pBD-2 may contribute to Tibetan pig’s immunity and disease resistance by other mechanism, which needs further research.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci

Influence of differing carbohydrate sources on L-tryptophan metabolism by porcine fecal microbiota studied in vitro

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It was the aim of this study to evaluate the effects of different types of carbohydrates on the metabolism of L-tryptophan to skatole and possible microbial mechanism involved using an in vitro system with pig fecal bacteria. The substrates investigated were selected according to their fermentability: sugar beet pulp (SBP) belonged to the potentially easily fermentative carbohydrates, while rye grass hay (RYE) and alfalfa hay (ALF) were chosen as fermentable fibre as grass fibre and legume family respectively. Besides, fructooligosaccharides (FOS) was used as positive contrast because of its known lowering effect on skatole production in vitro. It was found that Skatole production could be changed by the shifted microbial composition, which was closely related to different sources of carbohydrate. The SBP could be used as pig feed ingredient to inhibit microbial production of skatole. The results from this study provide a useful implication that bacteria C. disporicum DSM 5521 might play a role in the production of skatole.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/livsci

Managing the manure professionally

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As one of the major pork producers in the US, Christensen
Family Farms has a lot of farms to over see and a lot of manure to
manage, which the company’s agronomy department does with a
high degree of professionalism. Regardless of the size and location, Schmitz and the four
other agronomists at Christensen are engaged in managing
manure and getting the most out of it—financially and land-wise.
“We market the manure and line up the custom applicator to
deliver the product,” Schmitz explains. “We basically manage the
manure all the way to the field. We work with what we call our
co-operators (farmers) on how to best manage the manure for
their cropping situation.”

Practical Control of Sow Feed Costs

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Feed efficiency is the sum of a many variables that include but are not
exhausted by such areas as feed ingredients used, formulation of ingredients,
genetics and management practices. It is beyond the scope of this short paper
to discuss all and every aspect of the management/feed cost interaction
therefore, the purpose of this paper is to look at the practical management of
the gilt and sow on farm and specifically those management practices that can
and do have an impact on feed efficiency. The information contained herein is
a collection both of experiences, and public and PIC in-house research. The five main aspects to the management/feed cost interaction is watch body condition closely, avoid fat and thin sows, calibrate feed boxes, maximize feed intake in lactation and don’t forget about the environment.

Protein turnover in non-pregnant sows at inadequate and more than adequate feed intake

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Protein turnover is a balance between protein synthesis and breakdown and is
affected by both energy and protein intake. Energy and protein metabolism
was studied in non-pregnant sows at two feed intakes to determine the effect
of energy intake on use of dietary amino acids for protein deposition. It was found that sows fed adequate energy and protein reduced body protein
breakdown and incorporated dietary amino acids more efficiently into body
protein. Sows fed the lower energy intake had increased body protein
breakdown and amino acids were oxidized for energy, demonstrating the
significant impact that dietary energy intake has on amino acid requirements
of sows.

The effect of PG600 at weaning on sow performance

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Maintaining a consistent flow of good quality weaned pigs should be the
principal goal of a commercial swine operation, and to achieve this, producers
must consistently meet weekly breeding targets. PG600 (400 IU eCG and
200 IU hCG; Intervet, USA, De Soto, KS) has been proven to induce a
synchronized estrus in weaned sows. The primary objective of this study was
to determine effects of PG600 treatment at weaning on the percentage of
sows bred and subsequent litter sizes.
Primiparous crossbred (PIC C22 and C29) sows from a 5,000 sow commercial
farrow-to-wean facility were initially allocated to experiment by farrow weight
and genetics to 1 of 2 treatments: 1) PG: PG600 (n = 189) administered
intramuscularly in the sow’s neck on the morning of weaning or 2) CON (n =
218): no treatment at weaning. Sows were bred according to herd protocol,
depending on the day estrous was first detected. It was found that although the performance of PG and CON were similar in the
current study, the advantage PG600 at weaning was realized in a tighter and
more synchronous breeding “week” of 2-3 days, which in turn, focuses heat
stimulation, heat detection and breeding into a narrower time window resulting
in a decrease in the spread of time at farrowing of the subsequent litter and
thus age at weaning.

Effect of storage time on swine manure solid separation efficiency by screening

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This study has the goal to study the manure solid–liquid separation efficiency by screening, under different screen opening sizes and pit disposal time. In addition, the objective includes to establish and recommend an optimum period of storage, under tropical climate conditions that may maintain both manure without significant physical–chemical changes and high solid–liquid separation efficiency. It was found that to avoid the extensive degradation of swine manure and excessive solubilization of mineral and organic species under tropical climate, the solid–liquid separation process must be performed as soon as possible. Preferably, this separation should be performed in a time period shorter than eight days. As soon as this process is performed, with the efficiency of solid removal, it will decrease the ammonification and the overload of a subsequent advanced biological treatment. The storage time under the studied conditions showed an increase in the soluble COD that can cause problems in the efficiency of solid–liquid separation
and difficulties for screening.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09608524

Amino acid digestibility and concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy in soybean meal produced from conventional, high-protein, or low-oligosaccharide varieties of soybeans and fed to growing pigs

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The objective of the present work was to test the hypothesis that soybean meal (SBM) produced from high-protein or low-oligosaccharide soybeans have different digestibilities of amino acids (AA) and energy than SBM produced from conventional soybeans. This study found that soybean meal produced from high-protein varieties of soybeans has a similar digestibility of AA as SBM produced from conventional soybeans, which results in greater concentrations of digestible AA in SBM produced from high-protein soybeans than in SBM produced from conventional SBM. This is true for extracted SBM as well as for extruded-expelled SBM.

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

Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic Fact or Fiction?

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A pandemic does not necessarily mean what you think it does, it is NOT black-plague carts being hauled through the streets piled high with dead bodies. Nor does it mean flesh eating zombies wandering the streets feeding on the living. All a pandemic means is that a new infectious disease is spreading throughout the world. I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media’s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot – preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations. Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease, caused by a type-A influenza virus that affects pigs. The current strain, A(HINI), is a new variation of an HINI virus, which causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans, that also contains genetic material of bird and pig versions of the flu. Interestingly enough, this version has never before been
seen in neither human nor animal, which I will discuss a bit later. This does sound bad. But not so fast. There are a few reasons to not rush to conclusions that this is the deadly pandemic we’ve been told would occur in the near future
(as if anyone could predict it without having some sort of inside knowledge). As of May 16, 2009, 34 countries have officially reported 8,451 eases of influenza A(HINI) infection and only 65 deaths in the ENTIRE world from this illness. At this time 70 of the deaths are from people born in Mexico. Why Mexico? Well overcrowding, poor nutrition and overall poor immunity, all of which are indigenous to Mexico will radically increase your risk of death from
almost any infection. It is important to note that nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild. Preliminary scientific evidence is also pointing out that this virus is NOT as potent as initially thought. Personally, I am highly skeptical. It simply doesn’t add up to a real pandemic. But it does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu – and which, so far, only
seems to respond to Tamiflu. Please realize that Tamiflu is NOT a safe drug. Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatrie problems and brain infections. Japan actually banned Tamiflu for children in 2007. When Tamiflu is used as directed (twice daily for 5
days) it can ONLY reduce the duration of your influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 Vi days, according to the official data.
Why on earth would anyone want to take a drug that has a chance of killing you, was banned in Japan, is loaded with side effects that mimic the flu itself, costs over $100, and AT BEST can only provide 36 hours of SYMPTOM relief Just doesn’t make any sense. Please recognize that there is serious revenue in Tamiflu. The Financial Times reports that governments around the world have previously stockpiled 220 million doses in preparation for a pandemic that has yet to appear. The cost of this preparation is $7 billion dollars. But let me tell you, getting vaccinated now would not
only offer no protection and potentially cause great harm, it would most likely be loaded with toxic mercury which is used as a preservative in most flu vaccines.