Just What We Didn't Need

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments

Adding insult to injury, the outbreak of HlNl Influenza A virus has left the U.S. pork industry reeling from yet another exaggerated media frenzy. The good news about the bad news is that the staffs at the National Pork
Producers Council (NPPC) and the National Pork Board reacted quickly and effectively the minute news of swine-tagged flu symptoms hit the airwaves, newspaper and website headlines around the globe. While we are being grateful, we
would do well to glance over our shoulders and try to imagine another, even more serious scenario — one in
which we were facing the discovery of a foreign animal disease, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), within
our borders rather than dealing with a novel influenza virus. In that context, perhaps the past few weeks provided a dress rehearsal for something much, much bigger.

Advanced swine manure treatment and utilization in Braz

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The aim of this paper is to present some recent advances in
swine manure management research and practices in Brazil, and
assessing their technical and economic performances. It was found that because of environmental concerns for the disposal of large
amounts of swine manure generated under animal confinement,
Brazilian swine producers have several technological challenges.
These challenges depend on several factors, like soil/plant support
capacity, land availability, and producers investment capacity for
adoption of advanced manure treatment technologies. The development
of new advanced manure treatment technologies that
can solve several environmental problems linked to manure disposal,
are compatible with the new reality of Brazilian’s industrial
swine production, which has emerged as a major competitor in the
international market. With the adoption of advanced technologies
like enhancement of solid–liquid separation using flocculants and
treatment processes (SMTS), economical considerations need to
be done, particularly in Brazil and other developing countries that
do not have government subsidies like the Europe Union or United
States.

Performance of a Pilot-Scale Air Sparged Continuous Flow Reactor and Hydrocyclone For Struvite Precipitation abd Removal From Liquid Swine Manure

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The objective of this research was to test a pilot‐scale air sparged tank reactor (ASTR) and the ASTR in
combination with a hydrocyclone (called the pilot‐scale ASTR‐hydrocyclone system) on two swine manure slurries for
struvite‐based (MgNH4PO4‐6H2O) phosphorus removal and recovery. It was found that in a typical Iowa deep-pit swine production facility (10,000 head/year) the annual cost of struvite‐based phosphorus removal using the struvite-based phosphorus removal system would be approximately $8.88/finished pig or $0.035/L manure slurry treated ($0.134/gal). This cost often exceeds producer’s profit margins and is not currently economically viable.

For more information the full article can be found at http://asae.frymulti.com/toc.asp

Validation of the QTL on SSC4 for meat and carcass quality traits in a commercial crossbred pig population

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The objective of this study was to validate several QTL on porcine chromosome 4 responsible for meat and carcass quality traits. Regression analysis resulted in the validation of three QTL within the interval: Minolta a* loin, back fat thickness and the weight of trimmed ham. The results were additionally confirmed by factor analysis. Candidate genes were proposed for meat colour, which was the most evident QTL validated in this study.

For more information the full article can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1439-0388/issues

Response to dietary digestible energy concentration in growing pigs fed cereal grain-based diets

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The objective of these experiments was to determine how changes in dietary DE concentration, achieved through graded changes in diet composition, would affect the performance and carcass composition of growing pigs. It was found that the value per pig was unaffected by increasing dietary energy content and returns above feed costs were reduced. Increasing the energy density of the diet for growing pigs through incremental changes in dietary composition had a variable impact on overall growth performance and carcass quality. Also increasing the dietary DE was found to have no effect on variations in BW at the time of marketing.

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

Biofuel policies and the environment: the effects of biofuel feedstock production on climate, water quality and biodiversity

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In this paper we examine the multiple environmental effects of policies promoting biofuel production from agricultural crops. We develop theoretical and empirical frameworks and provide an integrated economic and ecological modelling approach: an economic model of farmers’ decision making is combined with a biophysical model predicting the effects of farming practices on crop yields and multiple environmental effects. The analysed environmental effects include GHG emissions over the life cycle, nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, herbicide runoff and the quality of wildlife habitats. Model is applied to crop production in Finland. We found that the overall environmental performance of alternative land use types is mainly driven by the value of CO2-eq emissions and nutrient runoff damage. Herbicide use intensity and resulting herbicide runoff damage have only a marginal effect on the environmental performance of alternative land use types. Incorporation of biodiversity benefits favour rape and reed canary grass over cereals. Social welfare ranking of alternative land use types is mainly driven by profitability of land use rather than the social valuation of environmental effects.

Risk Classification in Animal Disease Prevention: Who Benefits from Differentiated Policy?

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Our goal is to analyze how differently pig farms may contribute to societal costs of an animal disease outbreak, how valuable this information is to different stakeholders, and how it can be used to target risk management measures. For clarity, we focus on a single disease, FMD, but limit our analysis solely on the pig sector. The effects are simulated
conditional on the first infected farm by using numerical dynamic epidemiological and economic models. This approach allows us to study how a certain farm contributes to disease losses, including consequential effects due to disease spread and export distortions, when it is the first farm which becomes infected in the country. It was found that outbreak costs depend heavily on market effects of the disease. Market effects further depend on export distortions and their duration, price elasticity of demand and volume of production affected by restrictive measures. Results also suggest that it can be rational to consider the targeting of surveillance systems and other risk management measures according to the risk category. If risk management is stratified according to the risk posed by a farm, a high-risk farm could be required to ensure higher than average effort for disease costs, because society could benefit from the
reduction of risk class. Low-risk farms, consumers and society can be able to accrue further benefits over time when differentiated liability decreases outbreak costs and re-allocates production to farms with reduced costs. If the elevated liability cost would be imposed on high-risk farms, it could reduce their profits and production. However, farms do not belong to the most risky class only because of their own actions but also because of actions taken by other stakeholders, including their slaughterhouse, animal trading partners and other farms located in the vicinity. The rationale behind differentiating liability is to motivate high-risk farms and other stakeholders which influence their risk to take measures which would reduce their risk exposure. In conclusion, further research based on risk classification offers opportunities to design more cost-efficient preventive measures to combat contagious animal diseases. In particular, it can increase stakeholder engagement in disease prevention by providing more detailed economic criteria to stratify preventive efforts and economic bonuses or fees according to the risk exposure factors.

A tryptophan-enriched diet improves feed intake and growth performance of susceptible weanling pigs orally challenged with Escherichia coli K88

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We tested the effect of Trp addition to a standard weaning diet and oral challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 (ETEC) on growth and health of piglets susceptible or nonsusceptible to the intestinal adhesion of ETEC. It was concluded that the need to consider the phenotype for the adhesion of the ETEC in studies with different supply of Trp was clearly evident. When compared with practical weaning standard diets, Trp supplementation allowed susceptible pigs to partially compensate for the effects of ETEC challenge by increasing feed intake and maintaining an adequate BW
growth. This is of practical importance for the formulation of diets for pigs selected for lean growth because of the presence of an association between this trait and the susceptibility to the intestinal adhesion of ETEC.

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

Characterization of Streptococcus suis isolates from the diseased pigs in China between 2003 and 2007

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The aim of this study was to illustrate the characteristics of 407 strains of Streptococcus suis (S. suis) isolated from diseased pigs in China. The results revealed that S. suis, with 56.6% of the Streptococci isolates, had replaced Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus as the predominant agent.

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

The effect of continuous grouping of pigs in large groups on stress response and haematological parameters

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The aim of this experiment was to study the consequences of an ‘all in-all out’ static group of uniform age vs. a continuously dynamic group with litter introduction and exit every third week for the stress response and aematological (blood) parameters of pigs housed in large groups (60 pigs). The results showed limited differences in stress and haematological parameters between pigs in dynamic groups with a uniform space allowance compared with pigs in the static ‘all in-all-out’ groups. The cortisol response to the stress test was increasing with the duration of the stress test in pigs from the dynamic group while it was decreasing in the static group.

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