A novel strategy to select Bifidobacterium strains and prebiotics as natural growth promoters in newly weaned pigs

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The main objective of this work has been to design a new strategy for identifying suitable, orally administered, natural treatments that will promote growth in weaning piglets. An in vivo screening of putative probiotic and prebiotic candidates was carried out to identify those candidates with the best ability to positively modify the piglet gut ecosystem. The diet of the weaning piglets was then supplemented with the identified probiotics and/or synbiotics, and the dose– response effects on microflora composition and intestinal tolerance were assessed. It was found that the in vivo screening procedure could be a helpful tool to identify bifidobacteria strains as putative probiotic candidates for the weaning piglet. The data show that the two different strains of bifidobacteria (R18 and Su 891), which have similar ability in improving the count of hindgut bifidobacteria, do not influence piglet growth performance in the same way. The variation in the effects of the strains underlines the advantage of using probiotic combinations as a synergistic mixture, providing a complementary effect on animal health and increasing the possibility of the probiotics to colonize the gut, albeit transiently.

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

Correlating blood immune parameters and a CCT7 genetic variant with the shedding of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in swine

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In this study, 40 crossbred pigs were intranasally inoculated with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Salmonella Typhimurium) and monitored for Salmonella fecal shedding and blood immune parameters at 2, 7, 14 and 20 days post-inoculation (dpi). It was found that linking specific genes and genetic polymorphisms with the porcine immune response to Salmonella infection and shedding may identify potential markers for carrier pigs as well as targets for disease diagnosis, intervention and prevention.

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

The effect of sampling strategy on the estimated prevalence of welfare outcome measures on finishing pig farms

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The effect of sampling strategy on the estimates of prevalence of some welfare outcome measures was investigated as part of a larger project examining the feasibility and benefits of incorporating some on-farm welfare outcome assessments into UK Pig Farm Assurance Schemes. All finishing pigs (>40 kg) on 6 farms that had pens of 25 pigs or less were assessed for dirtiness, body lesions, tail lesions, bursae, lameness, oral behaviour and pigs requiring hospitalisation. A statistical sampling methodology was applied to the data to generate 10,000 random samples for each measure, on each farm and for every possible number of sampled pens on that farm. The 95% confidence interval range, the proportion of samples outside a ‘tolerance’ range and the proportion of samples that would wrongly classify the farm with respect to a ‘threshold’ were calculated for each measure on each farm for every possible sample size. It was found that even large sample sizes were unable to accurately reflect the whole farm for measures with very low prevalences (lameness and pigs requiring hospitalisation). For the other measures, as the number of pens sampled increased, the confidence interval range and the proportion of samples outside the ‘tolerance’ range reduced. The differing inter-pen variation in prevalence on a farm gave rise to differences in accuracy of prevalence estimates between the farms. Those farms with a true farm prevalence close to the threshold required more pens to be sampled to achieve the same level of accuracy of classification as other farms with similar confidence intervals but a more extreme prevalence. The effect of sampling on the estimate of prevalence should be considered when an accurate prevalence of the whole population is
required.

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

Systematic Review of Swine Euthanasia Methods and Welfare Measures Reported

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This topic reviews the process used to gather, screen for relevance, and assess the quality of current literature regarding published methods of swine euthanasia as well as the summary of the results of the data analysis, including a description of the welfare measures included in papers describing euthanasia. More than 4,500 citations have been collected using terms for “euthanasia,” “slaughter methods,” and “swine”; preliminary screening removed articles that were either not relevant to the topic of swine or euthanasia/slaughter methods or not in English. The second level of screening segregates primary research articles from editorials/opinions, surveys, or other narrative reviews. Only primary research is used for the final quality assessment review and analysis, but review papers are used to check the thoroughness of the reference list. The final set of literature evaluates and compares measurements of pain and aversion, the achievement of death, and other physiologic parameters described in the euthanasia paper. The intent of this research is to provide this scientific body of literature to swine veterinarians and the swine industry as well as identify areas of opportunity where more research is needed. Further, the intent is to highlight areas where reporting is deficient or incomplete and improve the quality of reporting of papers describing euthanasia.

Effects of low-phytic acid corn, low-phytic acid soybean meal, and phytase on nutrient digestibility and excretion in growing pigs

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This study evaluated the effects of feeding low phytic acid (LPA) corn, LPA soybean meal, normal corn (NC), normal soybean meal (NSBM), and phytase on nutrient digestibility and excretion. It is concluded that feeding any combination of LPA corn, LPA soybean meal, and the phytase additive would improve phosphorus digestibility and would dramatically decrease phosphorus excretion thereby reducing the potential impact of phosphorus from pig manure on the environment.

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

Commercial Transportation of Equines to Slaughter in the U.S.

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Powerpoint presentation. Presented at the Livestock Transport Conference 2009.

Early deposition of n-3 fatty acids from tuna oil in lean and adipose tissue of fattening pigs is mainly permanent

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The objective of this study was to test for different tuna oil feeding regimens, focusing mainly on the efficiency to enrich lean and adipose tissue with n-3 fatty acids and the expression of the adverse side-effects on performance, carcass, and pork quality. It was concluded that tuna oil feeding resulted in a lighter, less red and less yellow backfat and was found to increase the proportion of n-3 fatty acids to total fatty acids in treatments. The results show that, particularly under the condition of a continuous supply, much of the n-3 fatty acids ingested in early fattening can be recovered in pork.

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

Torque teno virus infection in the pig and its potential role as a model of human infection

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Torque teno viruses (TTVs), of the genus Anellovirus, are single-stranded circular DNA viruses that infect many vertebrate species. Although viruses of this type have quite a stable genome, they exhibit low nucleotide homology. Torque teno virus infection has not been consistently linked to specific diseases, although there is epidemiological evidence of an association with disease in humans. The recent recognition of naturally occurring TTV infection in swine and its epidemiological resemblance to human TTV raises the possibility of using the pig as a model to study human TTV infection. Such an approach will require the development of novel investigative tools to study the epidemiology, transmission, immune responses and potential pathogenesis of TTV infection. The present review summarises
research on animal TTV infection, focussing in particular on TTV infection in the pig, and considers how a porcine experimental infection model might assist in the study of human TTV infection.

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

Acanthopanax senticosus extract as a dietary additive enhances the apparent ileal digestibility of amino acids in weaned piglets

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Our previous study indicated that Acanthopanax senticosus (AS) extract modified the cellular and humoral immune responses of weaned piglets by modulating the production of immunocytes, cytokines and antibodies (Kong et al., 2007a). Based on these results, we hypothesized that dietary supplementation with AS extract enhanced the digestibility of AA inweaned piglets. In the present study, this hypothesiswas tested by determining the serum contents and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of AA in weaned piglets on days 7, 14 and 28 after the initiation of treatment. It was found that AS extract is a promising alternative to antimicrobial agents, and could effectively enhance the digestibility and absorption of amino acids in weaned piglets.

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

Foraging of Iberian fattening pigs grazing natural pasture in the dehesa

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The purpose of the present study is to determine the daily grazing time, the components of diet, the voluntary
intake and the nutrient balance obtained by finishing Iberian pigs grazing in the dehesa pastures during the montanera period without any supplementary feed. It was found that the proportion of grass and acorns influences nutritional balance and fatty acid profile, which is the present official system (MAPA, 2007) to assess the absence of any supplementary feed during the montanera fattening of Iberian pigs. However, it has shown an individual and year variability in diet composition and these results can contribute to explain final fattening performance differences and meat quality. Considering that acorn production has been quantified in 8–14 kg per tree an Iberian pig should eat approximately the acorn production of 0.5–1 tree per day during montanera fattening. These results are useful to determine set stocking in order to guarantee the traditional finishing system without concentrates or any supplementary feed.

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