PMWS Quebec Situation: Examples and Efforts to Control

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments

PMWS has hit the Quebec swine industry hard since 2004. Dr. Camille Moore did a study of the mortality of growing pigs for the first 8 months of 2005 in comparison to 2004. After he completed this study he created a large list of intervention strategies that producers can follow to attempt to control PMWS, in which most of them failed. In order to attempt to control this disease, Drs. MC Germain and Alain Ricard studied vaccinations. Circovac from France is to be given to sows before farrowing and partially depends on colostrums intake of the piglets. Circovac has resulted in variable reduction in mortality in the grow/finish period, but has shown a general improvement. Vaccines against PCV2 are now available as well.

Diversity and evolution of a newly emerged North American Type 1 porcine arterivirus: analysis of isolates collected between 1999 and 2004

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European-like Type 1 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) isolates, known
as North American (NA) Type 1 PRRSV, appeared in United States (U.S.) swine herds in 1999. Their
diversity and evolution were studied over a fiveyear period by constructing phylogenetic trees using
nsp2 and ORF5 sequences of 20 NAType 1 isolates, including the only known isolate from Hawaii. All
but two of the isolates possessed the same 51-nt deletion in nsp2, suggesting a clonal origin. Parsimony and distance analysis showed that viruses could be placed into two distinct sub-clades, which were similar for both nsp2 and ORF5. An incongruity between the two trees identified one isolate, 04-41, as the product of recombination. Recombination analysis using SimPlot identified a break point located downstream of the nsp2=3 junction. Results from this study suggest that NAType 1 PRRSVin the U.S. is a well-established and rapidly evolving group. However, the forces driving genetic diversity and separation are complex and remain to be elucidated.

Team tracks antibiotic resistance from swine farms to groundwater

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In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois report that some genes found in hog waste lagoons are transferred from one bacterial species to another. The researchers found that this migration across species and into new environments sometimes dilutes – and sometimes amplifies – genes conferring antibiotic resistance. Tetracycline is widely used in swine production. It is injected into the animals to treat or prevent disease and is often used as an additive in hog feed to boost the animals’ growth. Its near-continuous use in some hog farms promotes the evolution of tetracycline-resistant strains in the animals’ digestive tracts and manure. The migration of antibiotic resistance from animal feeding operations into groundwater has broad implications for human and ecological health. There are roughly 238,000 animal feeding operations in the U.S., which collectively generate about 500 million tons of manure per year. Groundwater comprises about 40 percent of the public water supply and more than 97 percent of the drinking water used in rural areas. Federal law mandates that animal facilities develop nutrient management plans to protect surface water and groundwater from fecal contamination. During the study, researchers extracted bacterial DNA from lagoons and groundwater wells at two study sites over a period of three years. They screened these samples for seven different tetracycline resistance genes. They found fluctuating levels of every one of the seven genes for which they screened in the lagoons. They also found that these genes were migrating from the lagoons to some of the groundwater wells. It should be noted that many genes that confer antibiotic resistance occur naturally in the environment. Tetracycline is itself a bacterial product, employed by Streptomyces bacteria long before humans discovered its usefulness. In order to determine the origin of the tetracycline resistance genes found in the groundwater, the researchers conducted a genetic analysis of one gene family, tet(W), in samples from the lagoons and from groundwater wells below (downgradient of) and above (upgradient to) the lagoons. They found that the variants of tet(W) genes in the upgradient, environmental control wells were distinct from those of the lagoons, while the wells downgradient of the lagoons contained genes consistent with both the background levels and those in the lagoons. The resistance genes were present at much higher levels in the lagoon than in the contaminated wells. Most were diluted as they moved away from the lagoons in the groundwater. There was one notable exception. A gene known as tet(C) was found at higher levels in some of the groundwater wells at Site A than in the lagoon. Its heightened presence was not consistent with background levels, indicating that something in the environment was amplifying this one gene, which had originated in the lagoon. Perhaps the gene had migrated to a new organism, Yannarell suggests, to find a host that was more suited to conditions in the groundwater. “What we are seeing is that the genes can travel a lot further than the bacteria,” Dr. Mackie says. “It’s a matter of getting the DNA into the right organism. It’s a relay race.”

A Guide to Application of Net Energy in Swine Feed Formulation

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Feeding pigs is the single most expensive aspect of pork production, accounting for as much as 70% of total costs. Surprisingly, at least 50% of these feed costs can be attributed to providing energy to the animal, thus making energy financially the most important nutrient. Many nutritionists have accepted and are formulating diets on the basis of standardized ileal digestible amino acids and the ideal protein concept. However, for energy, many North American nutritionists continue to formulate diets using digestible or metabolizable energy systems (DE or ME) as opposed to more advanced systems, such as net energy (NE). The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of using an NE system, and then to provide an outline for implementing NE into commercial production. The NE system was developed to provide more accurate estimates of the “true” energy in an ingredient (and subsequent diet) that is going to be available for a pig to use for maintenance and product formation (i.e. growth, gestation, lactation, etc.). The main difference between the NE system and the DE and ME systems is that the NE system considered the amount of heat lost during digestion and subsequent deposition of nutrients in protein and adipose tissue. A serious downfall of any energy system, including NE, is that most nutritionists have been and still are using the same energy values for their ingredients as they have been using for years. Of course, this may work for the NE as well, but it is certainly not the best management practice, because with every change in the crude nutrient (protein, fiber, fat, etc.) profile, there also is a change in the energy available from that ingredient. This paper focuses on providing a detailed guideline of how to proceed with implementing an NE system. As with any nutrient system, the ideal first step is to develop some sort of database that will help nutritionists better understand the ingredients and their roles in animal diets. A good place to start is by identifying the energy containing feed ingredients that would typically be used in the grow-finish diets. Grow-finish diets typically contain the least number of ingredients and these diets make up the bulk of the feed that a pig will consume over its lifetime. Furthermore, while the concepts of NE certainly apply to all phases of growth, it is conceivable that each phase of growth would require a different set of mathematical equations as the animal’s ability to extract nutrients, including energy, change as the animal grows. Once the energy containing feed ingredients have been identified, then the next step towards creating a NE database would be to collect each ingredient over a defined period of time. After analyzing the ingredients, the next step would be to incorporate the crude nutrient values into the NE equations so that a prediction of the NE content can be made. Next, the newly calculated NE values should be incorporated into the formulation software, and if not already present, add NE into each grow-finish diet matrix. Finally, once the nutritionist has become comfortable with the NE levels, then the nutritionist should make the switch. The implementation of a NE system is a major step forward from the use of the DE and ME systems. Combined with digestible amino acids and the ideal protein concept, a NE system will allow the nutritionist to formulate diets that provide the animal with the energy and amino acids that it needs for efficient and predictable growth and carcass performance. These systems promote better environmental stewardship for more sustainable pig production by improving nutrient utilization and efficiency. While NE may not be the final advancement to be made in energy evaluation systems (De Lange and Birkett, 2005), it is definitely a start in the right direction.

How Benchmark Database are Used as a Decision-Making Tool

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The use of benchmark results is not a new concept in swine production but has been minimally utilized in nursery and grow-finish pig production. Measuring nursery and growing pig performance is of paramount importance for a number of reasons. These include: identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities compared to defined targets; performing corrective diagnostics; assessing plans and progress, either technical or financial; assessing the value of a business proposal; and most importantly, to compare and benchmark. Benchmarking tools incorporating technical and financial metrics are also useful for validating the on-farm effect of new technologies and feeding strategies, including those derived from growth simulation models. This paper will highlight the power of benchmarking and describe experiences with a proprietary system, Compiporc. Closeout results for nursery and grow-finish pigs are entered into the Compiporc system according to the farm details. Wean-to-finish performances are not currently included, but will be part of future enhancements. Currently the Compiporc database contains closeout data since 2000, which includes over 8,000,000 nursery and grow-finish pigs. Various reports can be produced for nursery and grow-finish including: a general benchmark report, a technical and economical report per period, a nutrient management report and a slaughterhouse report. The use of benchmarking data to support decision-making processes has always and will continue to be of crucial importance in pork production. This paper illustrates a few examples of how it has been and could be used but there are endless other ways of mining the data to improve performance and profitability.

Selective impairment of drug-metabolizing enzymes in pig liver during subchronic dietary exposure to aflatoxin B1

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Time to take a look at alternative feed ingredients for your pigs?

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The rising cost of corn and its declining availability has resulted in increased retail pork prices and pork production costs over the past year. And further increases are expected, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
The study assesses the potential size of the U.S. biofuels sector and estimates the subsequent impact on crop markets, the livestock and poultry sectors, exports, as well as wholesale and retail food prices.
The researchers estimate that, since last August, ethanol production has boosted pork production costs by 30 per cent – about $20 million a week – with similar increases in the dairy, beef, egg and poultry sectors. Those increases translate into higher U.S. retail food prices to the tune of $14 billion annually.
The CARD study suggests that this amount could reach $20 billion in a scenario where crude oil prices range from $65 to $70 per barrel and U.S. corn prices jump to $4.42 per bushel. The study also projects that, if U.S. ethanol production reaches the estimated 30 billion gallons by 2012, it would consume more than half of U.S. corn, wheat and other coarse grain production.
As the demand for grains for the bio-fuel industry increases, the cost of feed energy will continue to increase globally. It had been previously estimated that the cost of feed energy will increase by 10 per cent, while the cost of feed protein will likely decline by more than 20 per cent between 2006 and 2012. The assumption is that feed protein will become cheaper because of increased supplies of protein-rich co-products from the bio-fuel industry, such as distillers’ grains and distillers’ solubles. So, as heavy users of feed energy, pork producers will be looking for more cost-effective alternatives.
Researchers Hans Stein of the University of Illinois and Kees de Lange of the University of Guelph recently collaborated on a presentation at the London Swine Conference, which looked into some of these alternative ingredients and their nutritional value.

Feeding Fusarium-Contaminated Grain to Livestock

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Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a fungal disease of various grasses. It is found most often in wheat but can also affect barley, oats, rye and some forage grasses. Under certain environmental conditions, the fusarium mould may produce a mycotoxin called DON (deoxynivalenol). DON is a mild toxin compared to other toxins which canform in grains and forages. Reduced feed intake, and the accompanying decrease in performance, are the only symptoms of DON toxicity livestock producers will likely encounter.
This response to DON appears to occur through the central nervous system. DON belongs to a class of mycotoxins (tricothecenes) which are strong protein inhibitors. Inhibition of protein synthesis following exposure to DON causes the brain to increase its uptake of the amino acid tryptophan and, in turn, its synthesis of serotonin. Increased levels of serotonin are believed to be responsible for the anorexic effects of DON and other tricothecenes. Irritation of the gastrointestinal tract may also play a role in reducing feed intake.
Because DON functions as a protein inhibitor, it may also reduce the production of antibodies by the immune system and increase an animal’s susceptibility to disease.
Different livestock species respond differently to DON. In pigs, DON is efficiently absorbed, poorly metabolized, widely distributed through body tissues and excreted at a comparatively slower rate than in other farm species. This makes pigs quite susceptible to the effects of DON. With ruminants and poultry though, DON has been shown to be poorly absorbed, extensively metabolized, and rapidly cleared from tissues and fluids.
The effects of DON on different livestock species and the Agriculture Canada guidelines for DON intake are discussed below.

How do we Keep PRRS out of Ontario Herds?

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Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome (PRRS) has had a huge
impact on pork producers in Ontario and around the world. This has
spurred researchers at the University of Guelph, led by Dr. Cate Dewey, to study
PRRS in Ontario in order to understand how it spreads, what strains are currently
here and why farms which were negative break with the disease. Their research project, sponsored by Ontario Pork, is taking a look backward
to see where the virus was in the past few years, as well as looking forward to try
and understand how it is changing and moving. Any positive blood tests taken
since September 2004 are of interest to the researchers.

Associations Between Feed and Water Antimicrobial Use in Farrow-to-Finish Swine Herds and Antimicrobial Resistance of Fecal Escherichia coli from Grow-Finish Pigs

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The objective of this project was to investigate the dose–response relationships between on-farm antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in E. coli from grow-finish pigs. It was found that although this study considered E. coli grow-finish pigs only, AMR was associated with antimicrobial use in all production phases. This indicates that antimicrobial use in pigs distant from market may have food safety repercussions. Five of the resistance outcomes were associated with exposure to unrelated drugs, suggesting co-selection. Although co-selection is familiar to scientists, producers and veterinarians need to understand this phenomenon before AMR can be addressed at the herd level.